In a bookstore aptly entitled “giant book sale” a few days ago, I stumbled across this book by A.J. Jacobs. In it, a comedian (at least, that’s how he described himself on the book jacket), tried to live biblically for a year. He claimed he was going to follow all sorts of “wacky” rules like not wearing clothes of mixed fibers, and not shaving the corners of his face. It reminded me of an open letter to Dr. Laura I had read a long time ago. (and managed to dig up). In it, someone who clearly thought themselves to be funnier than they actually were, asked Dr. Laura about various other biblical laws they clearly thought were outdated in an attempt to show Dr. Laura that castigating gays because the bible does so is clearly wrong. While I have no interest in defending Dr. Laura, a woman who views religion in purely political terms (and even went as far as to convert for political reasons), I find the two humorists reactions to religion, and religious people in particular as odd.

I wonder if at the outset either of them knew that there are people who actually do follow those “absurd” rules they try to use as humor, and that all those questions humorously put to Dr Laura, are in fact real questions to many of us. The title of my post is somewhat of a misnomer – I realize that many people find my behavior “funny” and have no problem with that. Many people think it’s unusual that I keep my head covered, or that I claim to be a native Philadelphian without ever having tried a cheesesteak. What I do find interesting, is that some people seem to be shocked when they discover that there actually are people who follow the bible. The reaction seems to me to be something along the lines of “well you can believe that stuff if you want, sure, and plenty of religious people act in a particular manner, but I can’t believe you would base your actions on the bible itself. That’s 5000 years old – why can’t you find a nice good modern day cult to base your actions on instead?”