![[illustration (link to home page): logo (dental floss box on squarish mango background)]](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/t-square.gif "link: transcendental floss home page")
![[photo (link to home page): Larrabee State Park, WA (landscape)]](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/masthead-2009_tea-garden.jpg "link: transcendental floss home page")
![[image: random tagline] title=](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/taglines-only/rotate.php)
![[button (internal link): transglobal floss]](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/transglobal-active.gif "Transcendental Floss Recommends")
Tuesday 
09 December 2008
This American Heretic
It’s not often that I find the time to listen to an entire broadcast of Ira Glass’ fantastic show This American Life, but this past Saturday I was riveted and managed to stay glued to the radio for the whole hour.
The show, normally three short pieces on a single theme, was this time dedicated to one story, the remarkable and moving tale of the Reverend Carlton Pearson, once the rising star of evangelical Christians, who experienced a revelation that there is no such thing as hell.
Listening to this piece, I was reminded of a post I did in October, in the waning days of the campaign, when the McCain-Palin camp was pulling out all the stops with their massive robocalls push. I wrote:
Listen, everything we’re seeing from the McCain-Palin campaign right now can be easily explained if you consider the influence of biblical religion on the right wing. When you cling tightly to a belief system that scares you your entire life with the threat of eternal damnation and the pangs of hell if you don’t live a certain way and believe certain things…
…well, you might not be able to maintain composure when shit starts to fall apart and your Lord doesn’t appear to be rushing to your aid. You think to yourself, “Self, you’ve done a lot of things in your life, not necessarily because you wanted to but because you were afraid of what would happen to you if you didn’t. So, this fear thing is pretty effective, isn’t it?”
I highly recommend listening to this show, and I’d be curious to see if, like me, you are deeply moved by how this man was willing to give up his revered status to eschew the religion of fear and to stand up for all people, with his Gospel of Inclusion. You don’t have to be Christian to appreciate this man, and he’d be the first to tell you so.
In fact, I hereby dedicate precious Transcendental Floss bandwidth so that you can listen to the show right here, right now:
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
permalink
I’m am totally intrigued. Thanks for bringing this guy to light. I will definitely check this out. My entire life I’ve been sick of what is considered “Christian”, realizing many Christian churches are very unChrist-like in their interaction with other humans. Fascinating.