Listen Live on KKFI
Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
On this week’s Interfaith Voices:
The Not-So-Holy Causes of “Holy Wars”
Religious violence around the world reached a six-year high in 2012, from attacks on monks in Sri Lanka to bombings of Coptic churches in Egypt. That’s according to a new Pew Research study, which found “high religious hostilities” in one third of the countries polled. But are those conflicts really caused by religious differences? Probably not. This week, we’re zooming into one spiritual rivalry that’s more complex than it seems: the clash between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
Bonnet Rippers: The Allure of Amish Romance
Fifty Shades of Grey isn’t the only kind of erotic novel selling millions of copies. Amish romance novels – with titles like The Quilter’s Daughter, The Shunning and When the Heart Cries – offer chaste alternatives to steamy Harlequins.
Web Extra: ‘Amish Vampires in Space’
It started as a joke. Jeff Gerke, the founder of a Christian science fiction publishing house, was getting frustrated with the Amish romance craze. “The only kind of Amish romance we’re looking for,” he used to say, “is ‘Amish Vampires in Space.'” Author Kerry Nietz liked the sound of that, and 30,000 words later, he emailed Gerke with a book proposal. “You won’t believe what I’m doing.”
Featured speakers/guests:
Gregory Gause, professor of international relations and Middle Eastern politics at the University of Vermont
Lesley Hazleton, author of The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad
Valerie Weaver-Zercher, author of Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels
Kerry Nietz, author of Amish Vampires in Space
