PART ONE
The Sunday School class was studying Ecclesiastes. I was the newcomer. Even so I had seniority. I had grown up in this Church, been 'Saved" in this Church, had the best times and best friends through the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades in this Church.
I was not in attendance in the 11th Grade... my interests had (ahem) taken a new direction.
But when it came time to get married, I got married in this Church.
Fast Forward 20 years;
""All is Vanity" saith the Preacher."
When a stranger had invited me to attend, I accepted. I wondered if any of my old friends from 35 years ago still went there.
There was one, 'ol Norman . He had Salt and Pepper hair even as a Teenager, though he is all grey now. I recognized him right away, but he could not quite place me.
He said there were not any left from those days as best as he could recollect. He said that 'some were called to go some where else and others had, well, just left".
There may have been a time when I spoke that language, but its been a long time.
I said "I suppose they are gone, just the same".
I like Norman.
Fast forward a few weeks to the weekend after Rosa Parks had died back in 2005. The Sunday School class has only 5 members and at the start they always have the prayer request thing that I never seem to have anything to pray about. I thought that it might be appropriate to give a little thanks for having someone like Miss Parks in the world, and said so.
I sensed that this was not well received. The leader asked why this was on my heart.
I thought this was a rather strange question given the setting, but offered that I thought she was a great lady, worthy of honor and respect for a courageous act in a dangerous time for a noble cause.
I was much surprised to be informed that the whole incident had been planned and staged, that she was NEVER in any danger. At all. Wow.
The class of five all seemed to agree Rosa wasnt so special, but being good Christians, they added her name to make me happy.
I "GOOGLED " it up the next day. It was buried about 100 hits deep that Rosa's was nothing more than a PR stunt, and had about as much credence as the staged Lunar landing, Elvis still being alive and no Jews being killed in Nazi Germany.
As my mother would say "I could just about spit".
After writing this, I seem to have lost my desire to rant.
(to be continued)
Monday, November 13, 2006
SUNDAY MORNIN' COMIN' DOWN
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6 comments:
I am very interested in reading the rest of your rant.
Thanks for the shout out!
I'm so with Old Lady! My cathedral can be anywhere...in nature..on the street talking and sharing "religion"...wherever my soul is.
(Man, you sure don't know what's staged and what's real!)
Mass psychosis is a scary thing.........well psychosis at any time is a scary thing, but more manageable on an individual basis (i'm speaking from experience here) I always seem to be the fish trying to swim upstream and often find myself in similar scenarios, Steve.........props to you for digging out the truth! and standing by it...........!
-rdg
ps.....advantage - rdg!!!!!!
Some people live in a fantasy world because they simply can't deal with the real one. We have a neighbor who when he gets just a little juiced up with a couple of beers inevitably starts denying the Holocaust ever happened, acknowledging that my husband and I are in the offended tribe. I always wonder why he comes back to this rant? Rosa Parks will always go down in history as one of the most courageous women ever... at least in my book.
Ya'll are amazing.
Having finished the next post...
Griz, I can't seem to get to the meat of it but I'm thinkin' I have a little unfinished business there and it might be a good week to go and see what they think about the Most Reverend Martin Luther.
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