Reading Copy

Cliff Richard - once labelled at Britain’s answer to Elvis in the 1950s - lists his favourite Bible stories in The Times. I suppose I like Jonah and the Whale. Imagine being stuck in a whale’s stomach for a few days? That would learn yer for disobeying the Lord and certainly an innovative punishment. Last week, I was actually reading a book about whaling - Nathaniel Philbrick’s In The Heart of the Sea, which concerns a whaling ship called the Essex that was sunk by a sperm whale. The crew were forced to travel thousands of miles across the ocean and it got so bad that people were eating people. Incredible story.

Here’s a different take on the Jonah and the Whale story from the VeggieTales crew. VeggieTales are animated vegetables in case you don’t know.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The Catholic Explorer has an interview with Anne Rice - author of Interview With the Vampire

Popularity: 20% [?]

USA Today tells me The Shack is the latest smash hit from the religion section.

A little novel written by an Oregon salesman and self-published by two former pastors with a $300 marketing budget is lighting up USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list with a wrenching parable about God’s grace. First-time author William P. Young’s book The Shack, in which the father of a murdered child encounters God the Father as a sarcastic black woman, Jesus as a Middle Eastern laborer and the Holy Spirit as an Asian girl, is No. 8 on the list.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Douglas Todd, a religion and spirituality reporter for the Vancouver Sun, was supposed to interview touted atheist Richard Dawkins (author of the God Delusion). However Dawkins refused to do the interview. Eventually an interview was arranged with a different reporter.

You would think that someone like Dawkins would be just itching to get into it with a religion reporter…

Popularity: 21% [?]