Me and NPR

About a year ago I got really mad at NPR (National Palestinian Radio, Dr. Land called it) and said I wouldn't listen to it anymore or support it  Well, I fell off the wagon on both points.  I did give them some money last spring, well, I gave our local public station some money because I am an alum of the university and they are just pitiful.  And I listen to it just about everyday, to offset my listening to Fox News.

But they still annoy the hooey out of me sometimes, despite the great quality of most of their program. The other day Terri Gross was interviewing a Catholic Bishop in response to an interview from the previous week by a Sister Pat of a group of nuns who are protesting Catholic policies and dogma.

The interview was interesting because of the utter lack of communication between the two.  Terri Gross (whom I normally like to listen to quite a bit, at least in terms of her work with artists) just didn't get that the church's stand is based on an absolutist view of unchangeable truth (although we could probably argue about that).  She kept asking him why the church couldn't negotiate with the nuns' group and compromise.  The bishop seemed a little perplexed as to why she didn't understand that the Catholic church doesn't just compromise to make people happy.

I felt that Gross could have researched her subject more.  Of course, if she didn't try to embarrass the bishop, what's the point of interviewing him, right?  She'd already given him a hard time about the sexual abuse scandal.

Ironically, we have a cultural taboo about child sexual abuse because of the hundreds of years of Christianity's influence.  Prior to Christianity, nobody cared about sexual abusing little boys and girls.  It was perfectly acceptable.

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