Tuesday, June 07, 2005

This American Life..

Last weekend on my way to an errand, I happened to hear an episode of 'This American Life' on NPR hosted by Ira Glass. If you've never heard this series on NPR, you are missing something! At a time when the subject of seperation of church and state is at the core, this episode hosted two stories about people who suddenly realize they're the only ones around who value the seperation and are attacked by the local press and the politicians for their views. In act two, Julia Sweeney, tells her story of how her faith began to crack after a careful reading of the Bible. It's story is excerpted from her play, 'Letting go of God'. What came as a surprise were some excerpts from the Bible that she read on the show. For someone like me who hasn't ever read the holy book(and heard even fewer stories even from my mom who was a catholic before marraige), I had the impression it had stories that instilled love, care, devotion etc (remember phrases like 'Love Thy Neighbor like yourself' , 'When someone slaps you on one cheek, give the other etc). But I was indeed taken aback with some of them. I believe a lot has been said about the stories being symbolic and not to be interpreted literally but this incident has made me curious enoughto add it to my list of books to read at some point.

No comments: