Conversations With (And About) God

I am blessed with friends. Some love music. Some hate it. Some are intellectual. Some are not. Some believe fervently in God. Others have a vague belief and some don't believe at all. Recently two of my friends wrote books that come to radically different conclusions about God.

I've blogged previously about Bill Lobdell's book Losing My Religion. I actually can't remember how Bill and I first met, but we've kept in touch over the years and I have long admired his reporting for the LA Times. The other day Bill dropped by the studio to be a guest on my show, Bully! Pulpit. We usually tape 4 10-minute segments, which I am well aware is way too long for the internet as we now know it, but maybe someday when convergence happens it will work better. Nevertheless, for those of you brave enough to watch, I've posted it here and I hope you will find it illuminating. If your faith, like Bill's, has been extinguished, you may find a soul-mate in your journey. If you are a person of faith, there are still things to learn from his struggle and his candid admission of doubt.

Another friend, actress, comedian and now author, Susan Isaacs has also written a book, Angry Conversations With God that comes to a different conclusion. Subtitled "A Snarky But Authentic Spiritual Memoir," Susan decides that she's fed up with God and takes him to couple's counseling with a therapist who goes along with the gag and mediates between her and the Almighty. Susan chronicles her life from happy Lutheran girl to angry young woman or as she puts it: "I was raised a Lutheran. But as an adult I tried everything: Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Rock 'n' Roll Slackers 4 Jesus, Actors for Yahweh. Then I said 'Screw it' and became a drunk and a slut. Well, a Lutheran slut-I only slept with two guys."

I've known Susan for years but it was only recently that I had a revelation: watching this episode of Seinfeld one day for probably the hundredth time. It suddenly hit me that the actress playing Elaine's neighbor looked a lot like Susan-- so I emailed her and yes, she confirmed that it was indeed her.

Back to her book: It is filled with zingers like these:

"'You are a stalker,' Susan screams at God. 'I broke up with you and you keep stalking me. What if you got me back? What would you do? You'd go back to treating me the same way. You'd control me or neglect me or turn me over to some abusive pastor friend. Well, it's not going to happen. I've moved on. You should too.' But I couldn't move on. How could I erase God from my memory? He was in everything I wrote. What other language did I have to describe my longing for beauty and goodness and transcendence? What other Person existed who could fulfill that longing? I could not escape him."

"I could take alcohol or leave it. After I ran out on God, I took alcohol more than I left it. And I kept taking it."

"Some GQ pretty boy declared that dating wasn't Biblical because people in the Bible didn't date. No shizzle, Spinoza. They also didn't floss or use toilets."

"Even though Jack was totally committed to me, a year into our relationship, sex outside of marriage still left me feeling exposed, like I was walking through a blizzard in a bikini."

"I tried another church that a friend called 'organic and raw.' I was suspicious of a church that sounded like a juice bar, but I went."

"I still believed God would open another door. Or a window. Or maybe a vent. ...Maybe this was the door God was opening. So it was a crappy door. At least it wasn't a sewer cover."

Well, you get the idea. I won't give away the ending, but suffice it to say that Susan comes to a different conclusion than Bill on the God question and her book is an entertaining and informative read.

Comments

[JimReed]

It now seems clear, God in the American and monotheistic traditions is the collective of believers. This collective makes up doctrines, and encourages through its common psychology confirmity to the commonly accepted traditions. The believers all participate, they encourage and strengthen each other in their religion. The group is the god. People respect it, listen to it, encourage it, recruit for it. On the down side, at times it does seem to head off in random directions.

[JGatsby]

So now we are applying the same trivial mind set that we use for dating or selecting a restaurant to the question of God. I'm an atheist but I still think questions such as the existence of God, the nature of good and evil, the origin of the universe are pretty important and deserve a little more thought than what is exhibited here.

[FabulousAt52]

It's called "humor" and it does much to open people's minds in a gentle, easy way to THINK about things outside their usual frame of reference. (Outside the box). As an atheist, you shouldn't have an issue with people thinking outside the box, right?

[Meteor]

There is a book on looking for God that I read many years ago and I still think it is one of the best. It is
Prayer can change your Life by Dr. William R. Parker and Elaine St. Johns, The copy right is 1957, probably long before you or your friends were born. Look it up on Amazon. It is about a research project of college students (University of Redlands) and those around the college community; some were believers and some were not.

It does include some zingers! "We had but to heed the ancient wisdom of a tribe of American Indians:
'Listen, or thy tongue will keep you deaf.' "

"For one soul that exclaims, ' Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,' there are ten that say, 'Hear, Lord! for thy servant speaketh,' and there is no rest for these."

[JGatsby]

"We had but to heed the ancient wisdom of a tribe of American Indians: 'Listen, or thy tongue will keep you deaf.' "

In other words don't think too much just shut up and worship big daddy (or big spirit) in the sky. No thanks.

[Meteor]

The deepest aspects of your awareness you share with God, but you will never
realize this as long as your egotistic thinking prevents you from being silent and listening. You can see it as listening to your deepest Self if you prefer.

[mommadona]

Whatever floats your boat.

But, your dogma ends at the beginning of my karma.
Head's UP!