Faith & Spirit Quote by Dave Barry

Barry’s joke works because it flatters and insults everyone at once, then ducks behind a newspaper columnists’ grin. The first sentence is a small act of social vandalism: it punctures the polite fiction that your friend’s artisanal sourdough starter, Civil War reenactments, or model trains are “fascinating.” He’s not arguing that hobbies lack value; he’s pointing out the audience problem. Enthusiasm is inherently niche, and most conversation is a failed attempt to recruit bystanders into your niche.

Then he twists the knife: “This is also true of religion.” The subtext is that religion, like hobbies, is often experienced as an in-group language - absorbing to practitioners, tedious or bewildering to outsiders. That’s a provocative equivalence in American public life, where religion demands a seriousness we don’t extend to coin collecting. By classing it with hobbies, Barry shrinks a sacred cow down to the size of a weekend pastime, which is precisely why the line lands.

The final clause is the real punchline: “although you will not find me saying so in print.” It’s self-censorship performed as comedy, a wink at the limits of acceptable speech. He “says” it by insisting he won’t, letting readers feel like co-conspirators who got away with hearing something slightly forbidden. Context matters: Barry’s brand is breezy suburban satire, and this is him acknowledging the invisible fence around religion in mainstream humor - then stepping over it while insisting he hasn’t moved.