Bashir interviews Bell

Bashir: You ate your mother for breakfast. That’s true, isn’t it?

Bell: I begin with the belief that when we eat our mother, God eats our mother. I begin with a divine being who is profoundly empathetic, compassionate and stands in solidarity with cannibals.

Bashir: I get that. But did you eat your mother for breakfast?

Bell: Eating your mother for breakfast is one culinary perspective within the stream of Christian cannibalism. There’s been within the Christian tradition a number of people who eat their mother for breakfast, but others eat her for lunch, or save her for dinner. Then there’s postmortem cannibalism. One of the things in the book I’m clear on and want people to see is that this tradition has all of these different opinions on the right time to eat your mother.

Bashir: So did you eat or not?

Bell: It’s a beautiful hope. We ought to keep that front and center.

Bashir: You’re trying to have it both ways. That doesn’t make sense. Yes or no: did you or didn’t you eat your mother for breakfast?

Bell: I think that’s a paradox at the heart of Christian cannibalism.