I grew up a Christian, although not in the same denomination as is documented here, nor with quite the same extreme religious right political-church connections. But many of the scenes were familiar and made me extremely sad.

The scene where the little girl was preparing herself to hand a tract to a stranger in a bowling alley was all too familiar. While we never handed out tracts, I have countless memories of being completely torn and nervous about “sharing the gospel” with people…being riddled with guilt if I didn’t, and riddled with shame and embarrassment if I did. It wasn’t until I left Christianity that I was finally able to spend time with people…loved ones and strangers alike…without having to deal with the distraction of thoughts of their salvation and how I should help them not go to hell while also not wanting to insult them or treat them like lesser human beings or people I should somehow pity. The freedom to enjoy and love people without such maddening thoughts is something I feel thankfulness for each and every day.

What made the most upset was to see these beautiful, passionate children having their passion directed to something that we’re not sure is true. I kept wondering what lifelong joy these children could have experienced if their passion and excitement had been invested in something that could have served them their whole life long, like literature, or music, or science, or art. Anything but a religious belief system that impresses upon them the fear of eternal pain and suffering and guilt about the sin of telling ghost stories (or any of the other harmless things labeled “sin” that those children should be allowed to enjoy). Even if a child decides to set aside something like sports or art later in life, they likely will have fond memories of it.

I understand parents wanting to raise their children in their belief system, be it Christianity or atheism or what have you, but I have more respect for sects of Christianity that require their children to be 13-16 before they claim the faith. Personally, I think people should more like 25 before they claim a faith. Humans should be educated about as many different belief systems that exist as possible before making a choice. Adults taking advantage of a child’s most impressionable years to indoctrinate them is simply unfair to the child. Yes, the child can make a different choice later, but the emotional scars created by fear tactics and guilt trips will remain with them long after a possible change in belief system. I can attest to this. To indoctrinate them with the ideas that they should lessen the suffering of themselves and others as much as possible is certainly something universal we can teach our children. But to wrap it in such a complicated package doesn’t make sense to me.

This is perhaps my favorite Cole Porter musical.

I got to see the premiere of this movie at the Colony Film Fest in Marietta, Ohio. Josh Crook went to Marietta College, and so has a connection with the area. He came to Marietta from NYC to film this movie with his brother Jeff. One of the scenes (the driver’s apartment) was filmed in my boyfriend’s old apartment building. I walked up those stairs many times…weird to see it in the movie. Great flick. It’s being released through Lion’s Gate soon.

Ehrman does an excellent job of making the topic and scope of textual criticism accessible to non-scholars. While the entire book is excellent, the last chapter…specifically the last section of the last chapter…was the most important part of the book for me. Ehrman masterfully pieces together a case for the Bible as a human book, and then brings it full circle to discuss our own humanity and how it affects our reading and communication of and about any text we read. After I finished, I thought, “Every person who has read or will ever read the New Testament should read this.” It’s so essential to understanding how the NT was put together. But it also brings a new understanding to how we read ANY text. Highly recommended.

I found this book to be extremely well-organized and approachable for people on all levels of Biblical scholarship. I really appreciated his commitment to painting pictures of the world’s vast suffering, bringing it to the consciousness of an audience that doesn’t have much experience in it as compared to the rest of the world. Even if a reader doesn’t agree with his conclusions, I believe it would be difficult to dispute his presentation of the various viewpoints, and they are worth reading if you’re interested in thinking more about why people suffer.

While there were some great stories in this book, it wasn’t really presenting new information to me, although I think many people in my life would learn from this man’s experience and research. I decided to focus back on “God’s Problem,” which I had set aside for a bit to read this one.

I couldn’t believe this was released in 1960 when I saw it. The issues it tackles are the same ones we’re debating today among religious circles and between atheists and believes. It presents many different viewpoints without bias, and each character is presented multidimensionally. I loved it!

A good friend said he believes the movie is about how we raise our children in different cultures. I don’t know if that was the main thought that the writer wanted to portray or not, but it definitely brings another source of coherence to the plot besides the interconnectedness/hardship-knows-no-race themes.