After Watching Religulous with a Friend
1 Minute Read Time
Shaken, my friend tells me she’s spent her entire life inside the church’s walls,
doesn’t know what to make of the movie that refuses to indulge a made-up god,
says she hasn’t spent much time, until now, thinking about faiths outside
her own. In the movie, rabbis bow in rapid succession, priests claim to take
on the supernatural ability to cure all ailments, and all the monotheistic religions agree: one god,
out there, watching. There are words I could use to tell her
I mostly agree—all of it a ridiculous display, wars fought, that ever since
I was a child I’ve practiced writing myself out. I’m not saying we should replace god
with art or am I? I want to find the words to say that I think there are many ways
to surrender—how we’ve spent years going to this theater, escaped
the bright lobby to go silhouette among narratives unlike our own—remember the one from
last week? The woman digging through dirt as if she’d find the piece of her life
that went missing? The ray of light that pooled for us?
How we believed it was designed for us?
Read more from Issue 17.2.
