BLASPHEMY!!!

I was driving to Annapolis on Saturday to visit a friend and turned on the public radio station since everyone else fell asleep. This American Life was on, but woe to me I didn't realize they were in the midst of a three-day series titled, "Godless America."

Julia Sweeney of Saturday Night Live fame was doing a small part of her new two-hour stage monologue, which is titled "Letting Go of God." Basically, the story is about how a relatively good Catholic wants to learn about the Bible and then is shocked at what she reads. She goes to a Catholic Bible study, where the group covers the entire Bible. I'm guessing it must have been a pretty quick overview. She apparently finds offense at nearly everything, not only the story of Jephthah's daughter in Judges, but even at how Jesus uses parables that are difficult to understand. (She sees Jesus as an extremely petulant person.) It doesn't help that her priest addresses her complaints by saying the Old Testament stories are mere myths and otherwise does a pretty lousy job of teaching. In the end, Sweeney finds herself believing that God does not exist.

I was really upset as I listened to the program. I mean, this woman's ignorance was just so obvious to me, but I knew there were thousands of other listeners who were thinking, "Oh, the Bible is terrible and Christians are so dumb." It reminded me of when one of my English professors at the University of Washington quoted Psalm 23 but cited the Lord's Prayer when belittling Christianity. I knew his mistake and some others may have known, but he didn't and probably neither did many of the students.

The "Letting Go of God" show only made me understand more how important it is not make presumptuous judgments about other religions. For example, I am now much more sympathetic to the Afghans who rioted after hearing a Koran was flushed down the toliet at Guantanamo. I was wrong to de-emphasize sensitivity.

Which makes me think ... the producers of This American Life wouldn't even consider airing a program similar to Sweeney's titled "Letting Go of Allah," would they? Not in a million years. But here we are in America, where "there's no blasphemy like Christian blasphemy."

...

And if any of you are thinking I'm being too harsh on Sweeney, this is what she writes in her blog about the response to the Saturday show:

And also, for the Christians who wrote about what those passages mean in the Bible. Yes, I know that the passages I site have all kinds of theories and complicated layers of meaning. I know the theories. I know the ways that people explain those passages. I looked into it. But now, it doesn't really matter because when I, after a long learning curve, really understood how the Bible was put together, which stories were kept and which weren't, what political situations were in place and what was useful to emphasise and so forth, [Apparently, Sweeney's had Bible history explained to her by Dan Brown.] then the Bible became a really interesting historical religious document to me -- inspiring but not sacred. Very much the work of ancient man and not the inspired word of God. So, you see, telling me all about the meanings behind those stories is sort of beside the point at this point.

Beside the point? Well, if the supposed outrageousness of the Bible is not the point, then what is? Ah, she explains elsewhere in the same blog entry:

I mean, in some ways, because of Bush, he has pushed this whole issue to the forefront, for good or bad, you just can't dismiss your views on religion anymore as being a small matter.

So you can't defeat Bush in the election, the next best thing is to defame his religion?