Dear Mr. Keillor,
I think Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead is superb, and does a fine job of capturing a small-town Midwest religious life. Have you read the novel? You grew up in some kind of hard-core fundamentalist church, that from what I hear is rather like the Missouri Synod Lutherans with which I grew up. Just what was that church [I've heard different stories about that] and how did you come to drift away from it?

Ervin W.
St. Paul

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Haven't read Gilead, Ervin, but have heard good things about it. Probably a novel capturing small-town Midwest religious life isn't a novel I'm anxious to pick up. You're a better man than I. I'd rather pick up a novel capturing the life of gay sophistication in Vienna in the waning days of the Hapsburg Empire or Mafia life in Las Vegas in the early Fifties.

I grew up in the Plymouth Brethren in Minneapolis. Our meeting hall was at 3701 14th Avenue South and we went every Sunday morning and again in the evening. It was somewhat different from Missouri Synod Lutheran in that the Brethren renounced the idea of church hierarchy and forms of liturgy and any sort of pomp or churchy decor. Men in surplices, sanctuaries with candles and crucifixes — they regarded it as a thin veneer of piety that appealed to the worldly. They were puritans in the original sense, radical reformers. Growing up in it with most of my relatives, it just felt like family to me. I left rather precipitously when I was twenty years old, a college kid, and it was made clear to me that the Brethren did not feel that a Christian could be a journalist or a writer of fiction. So I made a clean break. The Brethren are in steep decline today, due to their schismatic nature. They believed in the inerrancy of Scripture, which made them scholars of the Bible, which brought out a prideful and legalistic side of them, and they neglected the more loving pastoral gifts and let it be a lesson to the rest of us. We all have a judgmental and self-righteous side and the Christian life is more about kindness and mercy. So on we go, by the grace of God, and thanks for the letter.

Mr. Keillor:
I absolutely love Prairie Home Companion. I will forever remember dancing a jig to the Powdermilk Biscuit theme song and listening with intrigue to the news from Lake Wobegon. Journeying back from a soccer tournament down windy country roads while enjoying the annual joke show is a favorite memory of mine.

I want to know what your views on the future of radio shows such as yours. I am sad to say that I am one of the few people in my high school who are aware of the wonders of NPR. As far as I can tell the future of radio is bleak.

Do you have any thoughts on what will be the destiny for radio?

Sincerely,
Erin L.
Huntsville, AL

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I'm happy you like our show, Erin. The future of public radio is shining bright if only we can wrest it out of the hands of people my age and into the hands of people forty years younger. The problem isn't the medium — the technology is light, portable, easy to use — the problem is the heavy hand of tradition that keeps innovation at bay. There is so much that can be best conveyed through audio, Erin, and that won't change. The music industry is getting flattened by the Internet, but there's a great future for radio. I see reality radio as the next big thing — eavesdropping radio, the microphone picking up things you weren't meant to hear — and then I see radio drama coming back to life, but radio drama that attempts to impersonate reality. And for bands and songwriters who want to reach a broad market, there's nothing like radio, especially as record production goes flat. Do a whole concert on the air, let people tape it for free, and sell copies to people who can't make their own. That's the way to advance your music. Get it out there first and worry about income second. A whole new business plan. And radio is where you can do it. As far as news goes, radio is the province of the Authoritative Voice, and people are always ready for the next one. We are creatures who love to listen to our own kind. We're intrigued by the sound of ourselves. When I see people walking around with little wires running into their ears, I have to think radio has a future.

Post to the Host:
Any plans to teach your comedy composition course at the University of Minnesota again?

Chris J.
Minneapolis

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No plans to teach again, Chris. I taught some courses and it was high times being around funny twenty-year-olds, but it's hard work, too hard for me, and it eats up a man's self-esteem. Teaching is a religious calling and you do your best and then you walk away feeling utterly inadequate and it's hard on an older person such as myself. And I'm becoming an eccentric recluse who sits in a dim room with three cats and knits scarves and listens to gypsy music and weeps and smokes cigarillos and sips absinthe. Fragile, in other words. But thanks for asking.

Dear Mr. Keillor,
As a long time admiring fan of PHC and your writing, I was dismayed to read your suggestion to President-Elect Obama that he "might pardon his predecessor and his vice."

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney need to be held accountable for their actions. If the powerful are not subject to the consequences of our laws, then our laws are of no consequence and the American experiment with democracy has failed.

Say it ain't so Mr. K!

John H.
Pittsboro, NC

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The economy is staggering under trillions in debt, we need to rebuild this country after eight years of blind willful indifference and destructive politics — and we are going to start out by conducting a prosecution of the outgoing administration for war crimes? I have no doubt that a determined prosecution could make a case against the Current Occupant and his Vice, but pursuing it would be sheer insanity and would plunge us into yet another ugly hopeless chapter such as the impeachment of Bill Clinton. The verdict on Mr. Bush was rendered in November and now is the time to go forward and do the essential things. Shore up the economy, fix the tax system, end the bloody war, and save the planet from our own excesses. Retribution is not what we need.