Sublime To The Ridiculous
By Mitch Berg
On the one hand, Speaking of Faith is one of my favorite programs on Public Radio. Their current episode, discussing the relationship between Charles Darwin and faith, is particularly good – exploring a conflict between reason and faith that (to the chagrin of atheism-pimps like PZ Meyers and Richard Dawkins) needn’t exist at all. Leaving aside the overarching moral objection to government-supported media (to the extent that public radio is government-subsidized – neither total nor trifling), it is the kind of program you can not find anywhere on the commercial media, and yet is something I’d hate to do without.
That’d be “Sublime”.
On the “Ridiculous” side, we have SoF‘s online-only production, “Repossessing Virtue”, a series of podcasts ostensibly about the spiritual aspects of the current economic crisis. They don’t seem to involve Tippett, but rather other parts of the shows cossack-horde-like herd of producers, who…
…well, that’s the interesting part, isn’t it? What do they do? Mostly interview people whose contribution seems to be to wax sanctimonious about how fat ‘n happy American are. And while any good conservative would agree, the whole series seems to serve more as a catalog of Public Radio cliches than an entree to any sort of interesting discussion.
It’s also one more set of lines on my podcast list to skip past.
February 11th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
My belief is that I will stand before God one day. I also believe that if he asks me if I gave to or helped the poor, my saying “Well, I paid my taxes,” isn’t going to cut it. In truth, I believe my actions – day in and day out – are known to God and I choose to be open to give or get involved regardless of the economy or who’s in power. Helping others is a personal responsibility, not a corporate one. I can’t discharge my obligation by ceding money or control to the government, nor am I excused if the government takes more away from me in an inefficient attempt to do the same. I think this is a “Christian” attitude.
I try not wonder how much those who are always going on about what “America” and “Americans” ought to be doing are actually doing themselves. When celebrities talk about how “liberated” they now feel to get involved and help out now that Bush is gone I want to ask, “What did Mr. Bush do to keep you from giving/getting involved before, especially since you must feel the times were so dark indeed?” Did they give money to directly help those in need, or did they give money to politicians and organizations that dedicated themselves merely to putting people in office who would increase the government’s involvement while making it more difficult for others to do their personal duty?
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