In this episode of This American Life, Ira Glass starts off the episode talking about two separation of church and state issues.  The first about funding a Salvation Army building in Wisconsin and the other regarding a science teacher in Georgia who was actually teaching about evolution and taking flak from colleagues and her boss.  It is sad that there are people who still act this way in America.  The first thought that comes to mind when I hear crap like this is “what a bunch of rubes”.  Why is it that in the 21st century we still need to have people either pretending like religion is a poison or take the extreme opposite stance and want to force their own personal religion down your throat?

To hear these men speak about how America needs to be a christian country really makes me laugh.  I was raised christian  and learned all the stories and lessons that go along with it.  What bothers me is that these people who claim to be so morally upstanding tend to be the least accepting and most judgemental people out there.  They preach forgiveness yet do practice.  They hate when other religious groups try to bring their beliefs into public light but can’t force their views on it enough.  We as a nation may have been founded by fathers who were christian.  But to believe that they wanted to exclude others is just ridiculous.  At the time that they lived they probably didn’t even know about half the religions of the world.

The story in act two is hilarious!  It shows just how silly some of the stories and beliefs can be.  If you stop and take an analytical look at most of the stuff that is told it really can become quite silly.  Julia Sweeney does a great job of bringing these feelings to light.  It also brings to light the inner struggle that is much more common among people than the church might want to think about.