WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SOPHIE WILDER

In the novel, "What Happened to Sophie Wilder", writer Charlie Blakeman runs into his former college love after 10 years and finds out that she has converted to Catholicism. Charlie can't make sense of her conversion, but as he finds out more about Sophie's past, he sees her life is more complicated than he previously thought. When Sophie once again disappears, Charlie sets out to discover what has happened to her. I haven't read this book, just published. I listened to Terry Gross (my favorite interviewer. She is fabulous) interview the author. I might read it if I can get over my bias that these young novelists don't know shit about the real world and here they are writing novels as if they do. What always fascinates me is the interest that people have in religion. And, especially someone that seems almost preoccupied as does this author, at least from Terry's interview. I'm not talking about fanatics like jihadists, etc. who want to kill people but those who want to cogitate their navels. Those who are Catholics are the worst. They accept all this BS, i. e., Pope, pomp and ceremony--then they fret about it. The Protestants are as bad. The author used an example today that I thought was good. The Prosperity Gospel. A guy like Joel Osteen (he didn't mention him by name but Osteen is main proponent and has this gigantic non thinking bunch of Texans who listen to him) The author's quote,  "the Prosperity Gospel is supposed to make you feel good about the things you naturally want already." Another good Protestant example are the right wing fundamentalists who have mostly got their head up their fourth point of contact (paratrooper term for, "got your head up your ass)." Fortunately my religion is very simple. I embrace Jesus in what He "said" and "did" and this is found in the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Anything else that someone quotes is what was said about him, not what He said. And, where the f..k do the Catholics get all those ideas of costumes, pomp and ceremony:  they invented them. Sure didn't come from Jesus. He hated that stuff, only about the second time he got pissed: one was at the money changers in the temple and the other one was at the Pharisees, forerunners of the Catholics who He said paraded around in long and flowing garments and were white sepulchres, about the worst thing you could say about someone in Jesus' day. When the Catholics/Protestants spew forth with all this bullshit, I say the Pope may have said it or whatever but you can count on this, Jesus didn't say it.