A

Asparagus

Collecting cute things children say about God is popular on some faith-based websites, particularly in the United States. One of the most quoted in recent years features an (unnamed) child’s précis of the Bible. The line that raised the warmest smile – and has become the tagline for the whole text – tells how, ‘Jesus had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.’

B

Beer

Belgium is famous for its beers, many made originally by monks. Pale ales are – for reasons lost in the mists of time – produced under a variety of names linked to the bad guys of Christianity. So there are Duvel (‘Devil’) and ‘Judas’ varieties, the latter brewed by Brouwerij Alken-Maes. The Judas beer is said by connoisseurs treacherously to hide its strength when tasted by novices so as to get them drunk very quickly.