Hi, @ianstrat...

Want Jesus without the "religion" thing?

I can't recommend strongly enough that you read the book John wrote about him. If you really "want to believe," that's about the best place I can think of to start getting it "without the filters."

Caveat: Pretty much all translations have some kind of bias. One simple example, in John's book you'll find references to "Jews" - should have been translated "Judeans," i.e. a group of people living in a particular geographic area. There are other examples. If you hit anything that seems particularly offensive or "off-base," I'd be happy to comment on it in case it happens to be "one of those" translation glitches.

But I think, by and large, anyone who reads John with an open mind will find an amazing story of Jesus and his followers. I personally believe it was written by a man who was actually there at the time and saw the entire story unfold. SPOILER ALERT: There is a very funny passage about a blind man in the ninth chapter. The story shows this guy making well-deserved asses out of the religious leaders of the day.

A final tip: You can read it for free here, but I'd recommend clicking on the "gear" symbol, unchecking all the boxes, and then clicking on the "printer" symbol to get an uncluttered page view.