The Pleasures and Perils of Talking to the Media by a gent with the Society of Biblical Literature:
"I was trying to speak with appropriate critical distance about what the historian can know about the events surrounding Jesus' birth. Then, off camera, the director asked me informally what my personal view was. I commented that as a Christian I found the birth narratives inspiring and that I loved the story of the virgin birth but that speaking as an historian I suspected that Joseph was Jesus' biological father. The director then encouraged me to say this on camera; I thought about it and decided that I was happy to do so and I attempted to encapsulate it as well as I could in a one-liner. The one-liner made it into the documentary and not only there but also into various British newspapers, including the popular right wing paper the Daily Mail. In one of those gems of bizarre timing, the minister of the church I attend in Birmingham read this on the day I was taking my two daughters in for a dress rehearsal of the church nativity play (one was an angel, one was a star). He told me about the article, which I had not read, and said that he did not believe that I had said it. Through the media, my academic life had met my church life in an unexpected way. It is not that I am secretive about my views; I would happily have talked to anyone at church about my views on the virgin birth or any other issue if the occasion had presented itself. But it is in the nature of such things that occasions to discuss the virgin birth had not presented themselves, at least not in the church I attend. I regret that views my friends found problematic came out in this way. The minister has not asked me to preach again since that day."