Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God"

[Silent3]

I had read about this project of Julia Sweeney's before, read that she'd done a stage show, listened to a few audio clips from that show online, and read talk about a movie, although that seemed a bit iffy, given that a distributor would be hard to find given the subject matter.

Just a few days ago, I stumbled across the movie as coming up on Showtime, and I thought, "Wow! Even if it's just on cable, the movie finally got made!". I set it up to record, and watched it tonight.

Sweeney has a great story to tell here, and she tells it well. It's very different story than the way I became an atheist -- much more emotional, and in that probably much more meaningful to a believer watching the movie trying to relate to how someone who once believed, passionately so, could lose their belief in God.

The story starts out with Sweeney as a believer who had somewhat drifted from active religious involvement, not having lost any faith in God, but suddenly getting a little jolt that gets her thinking about how she's never really thought too much about her faith, a faith that was more felt than understood. Her aim at first was to devote herself more to her faith, to learn more about what it was that she believed.

I don't wish to retell the story here, but suffice to say Sweeney's efforts led to a very different end result than she'd originally intended. This was no casual spiritual journey. She read a lot, studied a lot, and traveled to different places in her quest to understand and refine her faith. She ended up encountering disconcerting thoughts and feelings, however, that shook her faith. She tried to adapt to these shocks, tried to intellectualize her faith, abstract it, cast her faith in different forms -- until finally serious doubts began to arise not just regarding the particulars of her faith, but in faith itself.

Finally deciding that she didn't believe in God was a trying emotional experience. Hearing her retell her struggle made we wonder how different my transformation from being raised Catholic (just like Sweeney) to being an atheist would have been like if I'd ever had so deep an emotional connection with my erstwhile faith as she had with hers.

For anyone else who would like to see this movie, it's still on at least two more times on Showtime coming up in the next couple of weeks (the 9th and 12th, both times early in the morning if I recall correctly). I also discovered that it's available as a DVD and an audio CD.

[meowomon]

1. I guess I'm still agnostic

I don't really think it matters much anyway.

[KT2000]

2. Yes - I heard her stage show

was really good too.

[complain jane]

3. I saw her

performing with Jill Sobule, who I love... Jill's music is folksy, very real, adorable and sweet and just great. I was skeptical, because I didn't know who Julia Sweeney was. But it worked beautifully. Julia would tell a story about her life, and would work it into an intro to one of Jill's songs. Anyway the stories led up to how she met her husband, and how they got married- we got the info bit by bit, tailored to fit Jill's songs. It was a lot of fun.

She didn't reference "Letting Go of God" much, except for a few vague references to religion and her point of view, but I knew about it already because I researched her before going to see the show. I agree with her.

But, I went into it thinking she was going to be an annoying addition to my beloved Jill Sobule- and left there thinking she was the greatest thing, just so personable and down to earth and sweet. They really complimented each other well.

And then right before the show I found out she was the actress who played "Pat" on Saturday Night Live's "It's Pat!"

She was great!

[rurallib]

4. I heard much, maybe all of it on 'This American Life'

I think. This was over a decade ago.
At the time I was just trying to come to grips with my own thoughts. To say the least it was compelling to me.

[trotsky]

5. There are an astonishing number of believers - even liberal ones...

who simply refuse to accept that someone could arrive at non-belief after a careful, deliberate, intellectual journey into their faith.

Needless to say, they don't like to hear from people like Julia Sweeney.

[AlecBGreen]

6. i agree

there is also a large number of non-believers who simply refuse to accept that someone could arrive at belief after a careful, deliberate, intellectual journey into their faith. :)

[trotsky]

7. If I ever meet one I'll be sure to correct them! n/t

[pokerfan]

8. God Said, "Ha!" is also worth a rent

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990226/REVIEWS/902260304/1023

There is a kind of luminous quality in the way Julia Sweeney talks about her life and family in "God Said, `Ha!'" She wanders the stage for an hour and a half, talking about a year in her life when her brother, Mike, was dying of cancer. This is a sad subject, painful to her, and yet she makes humor of it. She is a comedian, and, like the hero of ``Life Is Beautiful,'' she deals with life with the gifts at her command.