Episode 3: The Relevance of "Young Goodman Brown" to Today's Alienated Person of Faith

This episode explores a 14-page 1835 short story by the author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne - a story which author Stephen King described as "one of the ten best stories written by an American." This chilling story, which can still keep people today awake at night, through its narrative of deep occult doings in a sleepy "Christian" town, reveals a loss of spiritual innocence and trust in community and its religious institutions and leadership. Dr. Bennett summarizes the cogent elements of this tale, and how he and possibly many others now relate to the spiritual alienation Goodman Brown felt, now from the modern, "righteous" Bible Belt spiritual culture of their upbringing, as they similarly "pull back the veil" on the true nature of their beloved religious institutions and peers. This episode originally aired on WRFN on Jan. 19, 2023. (c) 2023 Joseph Michael Bennett