Knowing that I’m a fan, a friend just sent me this link to an interview with Ira Glass. I’ve always been struck by Glass’s even-handed treatment of Christianity, which is somewhat surprising for two reasons: 1) he broadcasts on National Public Radio (I’m an NPR-o-holic, but I know evangelicals who refuse to listen to it on principle – sigh) and 2) he is outspoken about his own atheism. The interview is conducted by re:generation, a Christian publication that I’ve only just discovered. Looks interesting.
There’s much to admire in Glass’s attitudes toward religion, ideas, stories, and people. He’s done much to encourage a dialogue between the sacred and secular and has approached that divide with a rare and open-minded curiosity. A few choice snippets:
Irony is just boring, and it’s also played out; it’s done elsewhere and it doesn’t shed light. I feel like it’s dull. And I feel like it also prevents one from seeing, and it prevents the kind of empathy that I feel like makes for a more engaging movie, story—anything! We view our work as more of a ministry of love. (Laughs.) We feel like the thing that we’re about is empathy, and in fact, the few stories that I regret us ever doing (and there aren’t many) are ones where the writer wasn’t achieving an appropriate level of empathy with the characters in the story. . . .
As soon as you are in that territory, you have left the realm of mainstream reporting, and you have entered a realm that only Christian journalists report on. But I would meet people and they would tell me their stories, and I would talk to their friends and families, and the stories would check out. Their relationship with God had completely changed their lives in a completely undeniable and positive way.
It’s my job to report that. And to report it in a non-dismissive way: this is their experience, so take it or leave it, but this is it. Doing that made me awake to how bad most reporting on religion is. Both in the news and in the fiction we create as a culture, Christians are always portrayed as these intolerant right-wing nuts, as people who are not awake to others. That is so different from any of the Christian friends I have or the people who work here at the office that are Christians. It’s exactly the opposite. Of all the people I know, they’re the most awake, the most interested in the world. It was so crazy to me, it was exactly the opposite, and it seemed so inaccurate. So I found myself always wanting to do variations on that story again and again.