Alton Brown: an autobiographical story on his beginnings with food

[thewayne]

It's considered a little controversial because he mentions his religious beliefs, I don't have a problem with that because he's stating it in a very simple, non-proselytizing manner.

http://community.livejournal.com/good_eats/460094.html

Comments

[donkey-hokey.livejournal.com]

Isn't the Guideposts magazine a religious publication? Doesn't that make mention of his spirituality highly relevant? And furthermore, isn't Guideposts privately-published? *sigh* (oops, sorry, off the soapbox now)

Anyway, you're right, the article was not at all offensive. If anything, it was uplifting (at least for me).

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

Geez, that anyone would find that offensive just amazes me. Criminy.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but realize that in many circles, even mentioning religion is not only considered gauche or passé, it may even be considered rude or pushy. As in, "It offends me that you're religious."

I grew up in California and I know that despite my family's religious roots (and the fact that we all still go to church on Sundays), I still find it very hard to talk about religion in a non-religious location. The cultural memes I grew up with are too strong, and talking about religion is just Not Done.

Well, at least if it's Christianity. And that's not meant to be snarky, just an observation of the local cultural meme.

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

I grew up half in California and half in rural Kansas, so I guess that time in the heartland -- where it's assumed you are religious, are Christian, and are most likely Protestant -- changed my perspective. I can appreciate that the culture exists, though.

Of course, I'm one of those "Don't talk about politics or religion? What's left to talk about?" kinds of guys. :)

Beyond that, though, the sheer intolerance that would make someone angry when a religious sentiment is written in a neutral context still seems incredibly childish to me, regardless of background.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

A lot of people can't discuss religion in a semi-detached way. It has to become a hot button issue and frequently proseletyzing must ensue. I've had some excellent discussions on belief and religion with two guys that I work with. One has a BA in philosophy and has studied comparitive religion, the other is pretty well educated.

Anyway, Bernie and I (the non-degreed one) had a great discussion about evolution, the nature of god, and the nature of worship. Lots of fun for us, but neither of us got dogmatic and certainly weren't trying to convert the other since neither of us are religiously active.

The thing that started our discussion was an instructor who, out of the blue at the end of the first summer session, gave Bernie and I a bag of pamphlets for a standard fundie brand of Christianity. We both glanced at the material and chucked it. But the thing that disturbed us is that public colleges are supposed to be religiously neutral, then again, Alamogordo actually had a book burning about five years ago. The target? Harry Potter. The instigator? A local preacher/pastor. Said instigator was subsequently seen leading his two nieces/nephews/select from the above out of a theatre showing Harry Potter.

I love "Do as I say, not as I do"!

[ateji.livejournal.com]

I rather wish he had an LJ of his own... if he does, will you relieve my stupidity and let me know?

(And yet he's such a heathen... religious, a Mac user... ^_~)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Heh. He has his own web site (I'll try to find the url later) but stopped receiving email from fans after a series of rather inappropriate messages were sent.

To the best of my knowledge, he does not have an LJ blog.