Doug Groothuis on BBC Radio
Jul 20, 2009 by Doug Groothuis | 1 Comments
The BBC radio program, "Beyond Belief," will feature a half hour segment on religion and the Internet on its July 20 show. I am one of three panel members, which include a Rabbi and a man who found a cyber-church, St. Pixels. The latter gentleman and I had some disagreements. I recorded the program at 7:00 AM (not the Curmudgeon's favorite hour for social commentary) at the KUVO-FM studies in downtown Denver. (This is my favorite station (jazz!)), so it was fun to be there and meet Rodney Franks, a radio host. We had a satellite connection to Britain, where the host and two other fellows were talking. We recorded over forty minutes, but only about 27 will be used of that.
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Michael King Aug 6, 2009 6:08am
I regularly listen to this BBC programme as a podcast and agreed with your cautious approach to Christianity on the Internet. However, embodied (as opposed to virtual) worship can be a dry experience for many Christians in which there is little opportunity for interactive debate about faith. Although they may preach in general terms, many priests and ministers hesitate to discuss their own beliefs for fear of being misunderstood or perceived as lacking in faith. In her much neglected last novel Daniel Deronda about Jews in 19th century England, George Elliot draws a memorable portrait of Mordecai (a secondary character) who sees in Deronda (the main character) the realization of his spiritual desire, the ultimate soul mate with whom he can discuss meaning and fulfilment. I wonder whether such a yearning is more common than we suspect. Perhaps the Internet might provide us with a way to discover minds with whom we can enter into a real dialectic. I don’t want to stick to my ‘truth’ – rather I want to hear yours, so that together we can go somewhere neither of us has ever been before.
Michael King, University College London