Joe,
Jesus. Reading your essay on "Left Behind" brought back queasy memories of the fucking crazies I knew in high school in Guymon, Oklahoma, in the heart of the Panhandle (otherwise known as the "Heart of the Dustbowl"). I remember that I and my fellow football team members were required by our coaches to participate in a "team-building" exercise. This meant that we'd all put on our ties and slacks and penny loafers and team blazers and, as a group, attend a different team member's church service each Sunday.
For a lot of the guys, it was like visiting another planet inhabited by possibly hostile aliens. They were actually frightened that something God-awful would happen to them. And we're talking nothing but Protestant churches here. I don't believe that we actually ever got around to the Catholic church. I do believe we had a Catholic church. We just never got there.
And let's not mention Jews, Muslims, or any of those "others" that we most definitely did not have in our God-fearing Christian town.
I left there as soon as I could, and I have never had any desire to go back -- unless I could do a quick "in-and-out" on my private jet, which I don't have. I'm just curious to see how little has changed, except for the new hog plants that employ all those dirty Mexicans. And so what if it's those dirty Mexicans that are the only cause of population increase in the town for the last 30 years? Or that the stinking fly-infested hog plants are the only economic element keeping the town alive? I'm sure that Jesus would have found another way to take care of things if people had just let him. And it would have smelled better, too.
Yours,
John
Palo Alto, California
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John,
I laughed out loud when I read the part about visiting other churches. I saw the same thing as a kid. And, like you said, these were protestant churches they were visiting.
I am down here in Belize right now and all those nutcase fundie churches have missions. Which means they have a couple with kids living like kings as they pressure the poverty stricken locals to be saved. The missionaries claim they are helping the villages, but all they do is pray over the sick. Never one penny for medicine or food. The only food comes when the villagers attend the services and send their kids to the mission "school." All education here is through churches, including state sponsored ones You can imagine what a mess that is.
Gotta run. Internet here is irregular and may cut out on me.
Solidarity,
Joe
