Last month, I caught the beginning of an episode of This American Life that got me so annoyed, I turned it off. Today, while working on another project, I decided to play this one from their web archives. It bothered me just as much today, but I still listened to it.

Godless America (links to audio feed)

The first portion of the show angered me again. How dare these people represent Christianity? What do I have to do to get AWAY from this sort of believer? (Hint: move away from Colorado Springs, mecca to the religious right, perhaps?) I’m amused (yes, and frustrated) by the religious right’s claim that they’re under attack. The USAFA was in national news recently because of allegations of proselytizing from the lectern by teachers, and the RR’s response was that they were under attack. Huh? How is it that being asked to not attack someone is being persecuted? ***disdainful sniff***

Anyway, moving right along…the second “act” of the show was a portion of Julia Sweeny’s one-woman show God Said Huh? She describes how she grew up just accepting that Christianity was right, true…then as an adult actually read the Bible and walked away. I relate to her experience more than I like to admit, and really…there are times that I feel the same way. I received a copy of The Message a couple months ago, and I was delighted. Hooray! The Bible in plain text! As I started from the beginning, I just couldn’t get into it. The God of Genesis honestly…well…he pissed me off.

Funny, this started as a post to lead into my relief (and amusement) at finding someone else who’s as pedantic about grammar and spelling as I can be (and yes, I know I make errors too, but for the most part, my English is fairly decent).

According to her blog, since the airing of the TAL episode including Julia’s story, she received many emails…about 3,000 of them between the weekend of June 5 and June 13, when she said she’s talking a blogging break. She received supportive emails, many from people like me who relate. She also received threats from RR folks who are mad-as-heck at her for daring to say what she thinks. This part is funny:

Of course, I don’t want to restrict my reading to only those e-mails which are from people to feel the same way I do. But…well, I wish I could just show you some of the many frightening letters I have received. They make your spine tingle. They are SCARY. A lot of angry, scary people.

People with poor spelling and punctuation. Mostly.

Not that I’m the bastion of proper spelling & punctuation, but… I have one suggestion for the Christians out there who want to send me a long intimidating, terrorizing e-mail – at least spell your threats properly. It’s distracting to my sense of fear when your spelling is SO bad.

I know, that’s mean. But it’s hard to look past it.

While that made me giggle, the rest of her post is so poignant, and the questionning I find myself doing today is a little too heavy for me to make too much light of the bad spellers of the world.