For this week’s readings, I found the “Narrative vs. Theory” article very interesting. There are a lot of different stories portrayed throughout this article that illustrate the religious landscape in America and throughout our world, and I appreciated the new perspective it offered to how Americans experience religion. One narrative that really stood out to me was the one of religious extremists. I had never before considered that religious zealots were educated and proud of what they did, that suicide bombers could be put on the same level as Orthodox Jews, because they both followed their religion to the extreme that they found necessary. The narrative relating to religious secularization also caught my interest, specifically the story about a family so devoted and full of “True Believers,” that a logical explanation for an empty house would be that Judgement Day had finally come. In this case there is virtually no distinction between religious life and daily life, they are one in the same. While this story may seem ridiculous and out of place to us now, we must also understand that for many people secularization is not an option when it comes to their religion, it rules all part of their lives, and religion comes first.