Lewis Black is a mean spirited comic who loves the 7 Words You Can’t Say on Television. He is a damned funny fellow. Me of Little Faith had me laughing out loud several times and pausing to think a few other times. The title, Me of Little Faith, means what it says. He doesn’t like organized religions, but he has faith in a Physic Friend and may have meet briefly with the Re-Incarnated Jesus Christ at a Trailer Park. Seriously. Lewis Black has had a few real world religious experiences, but he puts them aside when they are not convenient to him.
I was watching Bones the other day and one of the pivotally bits of business was that Booth is a Believer and Bones is not. Bones is a scientist and so an atheist as well. There was a point where Booth was praying and Bones asked him what he was doing-when it was perfectly clear what he was doing. Of course not having any common sense is one of the hallmarks of Bones character.
Like Bones I was a bit shocked to see an openly religious character on a modern TV Show, especially one on FOX filled to the gills with gallows humor and grisly corpses. Of course, even Booth was not a real world type of true believer as he thought this kooky church of weirdos was fine and dandy-most True Believers believe in their own Church and not much beyond. It’s the rare True Believer that thinks anyone else should be allowed to breath the same air that they breath, let alone go sit in the congregation of another church and smile like an idiot.
Which brings me back to Lewis Black and Me of Little Faith. I am a nonbeliever and pretty much content to remain so. Like Lewis Black I don’t need anyone to try to bring me into the flock or remind me that I will be burning in hell forever by staying out. It’s all Bullshit-to quote the great Prophet Lewis Black. But he then goes on to tell all these odd stories about events in his life that should have turned him into a True Believer, but somehow haven’t. He has also done a hell of a lot more research into the topic than I ever cared to pursue. I mean, I don’t like Indian food, so I don’t need to eat at every Curry joint in town to prove it to myself. Lewis Black, it seems, does.
At one point Lewis goes on a tour of the Mormon Tabernacle. He wanders through the tour, making fun of the whole silliness of Mormonism along the way. At the end of the tour there is a 12 foot animatronic Jesus and Lewis Black is so impressed that he yells out-Jesus Christ! Which Mormons don’t like for some odd reason. I mean, if you went into a Buddhist Temple and yelled out- Buddha! when you saw that two hundred foot reclining Buddha, would that offend anyone? Hmm, maybe.
Lewis talks about all religions, with the exception of the one whose followers likes to kill people for mention the name of their leader, their religion, their followers, or pretty much anything about them at all. He has a good point in not mentioning them, as death threats can put such a cram into your style. So I won’t mention them either.
The book ends with an old routine of Lewis Black Mark and Linn-Baker in which he channels the spirit of Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, and Billy Graham-and creates his own church-The Church of Comedy. There are a few funny bits in here, but there is so much mock begging for money and fake sincerity that I thought I was listening to a real sermon and pretty much tuned most of it out. Now I have this urge to send Lewis Black some money and ask him to pray for my poor sister and her son. . .
Lewis Black met a couple of Gurus, one who appeared to have a Halo and one who taught him a meditation technique that lead to an out of body experience. Having had an out of body experience myself one time and still not being a True Believer myself, I guess I have to let that one slide. But seeing a Holy Man would likely make me want to spend a little more time with him-at least to see if I could get a Halo of my own.
This was a fun listen-as the audio book is read by Lewis Black and he knows exactly where to put all the emphasis in his own freaking book. It’s tempting to yell and rant for a while after listening this book, but I think that is enough of this shit.
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