NPR's 'Morning Edition' Interviews Blessed Feathers

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Blessed Arrows' Donivan Berube was recently interviewed on NPR'S Morning Edition of 'Music We Missed in 2013'.

His comments regarding his former church, Jehova's Witness sparked a heated religious debate on the NPR Website and led Berube to release a statement, which you can read excerpts of below.

"Donivan Berube here. To be honest with you, my expectations for this whole NPR thing were pretty low. Why would anyone care about Jacquelyn & I's story?"

And so it was that yesterday morning, just moments after our little four-minute interview aired, dozens and dozens of emails started pouring in from all over the country. People from California, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and even into Canada were writing in to tell us how much they loved the interview, how much they loved our album, and how inspired they were by the fact that we'd given up everything and outran society, just to travel around in our little orange tent. This was kind of incredible, and for a second I was overwhelmed with gratitude and inspiration.

[However] over the course of the day, 70-something people felt moved enough by the story to leave a comment. Things like: "In your ignorance, NPR newsstaff, you have allowed Mr.

Berube to twist the facts. His motive was obviously to sensationalize his story so as to get air time."

First let me say this: This was a four-minute 'Music We Missed' segment, not some hour-long Terry Gross opus on religion. Regardless of your religious views, what we presented in this story is merely biographical.

I tried to hide our relationship from my friends and family, but the more obvious it became, the more I heard things like: "You know Donivan, she's tall like you, she's nice like you, and she even plays music like you, but she's not a Jehovah's Witness.

Why don't you try bringing her into the truth? Why don't you invite her to the Kingdom Hall sometime?" A lot of the comments on our story were in relation to this, and the harder your arguments were fought, the more ashamed I became of what I'd started here.

Many of you posted scriptures arguing for or against aspects of our story, and somehow the US Constitution came under fire. I don't know why, but you even brought up legal versus biblical rape and slavery.

You're right, I could have talked Jacquelyn into becoming a Jehovah's Witness, or I could have stayed a Jehovah's Witness and married her anyway.

What does it matter? I made those choices years ago, and the fact that I was going to lose everyone was a consequence I had already accepted.

For strangers to come here calling me a liar and a sensationalist is not only silly, but it's beside the point. NPR decided to feature us in a short segment about music, not doctrine.

And to all the people who wrote in to wish our love well, to offer us a place to sleep when we're on the road, or merely to let us know that they liked the interview and downloaded our album, we will owe you our infinite thanks.

I was glad to be given the opportunity to relate with and inspire a few people who had experienced something like what we described, to give people a new song to sing while they celebrate the New Year, and to encourage people to not be afriad, to follow their dreams. Thank you to everyone who got it.

Thank you to NPR for having us, for listening to our music.

And thanks to the many people who wrote to us with kind things to say. You will save lives some day."' - via Tell All Your Friends PR.