I Vow To Thee My Country
Good morning, y’all. I hear there’s still folks without power up here in the mountains due to the high winds and all. I’m glad to report our lights have not even flickered. I’ve got my backup generator primed and ready to go to provide power for the Rec room here at TackyToo if necessary, but so far the generator has remained silent.
Unlike all of the major networks, I consider it a component of good journalism to report the good news as well as the bad. I often wonder what would happen if the news folks tried to balance the news by devoting fifty percent of each telecast to people doing good, being nice to one another. It would take a re-education on the part of the viewers. We’d have to be willing to accept a program where part of the time we were saying “ahhhhh”, instead of “oh my God” the whole telecast. It would be refreshing to see politicians being interviewed for some good thing that they’d done instead of running from the cameras. You know that the good has to outweigh the bad, otherwise we would have already killed ourselves off. It would be an interesting experiment to see if we could raise the collective zeitgeist by altering our news coverage, just a little bit.
I realize “if it bleeds it leads”, I’m guilty of that sometimes myself. I just think that promoting the worst of the human condition without paying equal time to the good things we do, sets the bar so low for journalism. It probably is harder to find the stories of good people acting honorably than to listen to the police radio for the latest call. It just seems like we should be promoting good behavior, even if our promotion of the bad is subconscious. Impressionable minds are watching television for clues as to how to act, we should be promoting our highest ideals, not our lowest conduct.
Just one of the many things I cogitate on while I head into Blairsville to this Sunday’s service at the new location of The Full Gospel Original Church of God. I am relieved to find that the parking lot is not filled with the overflow crowd that we had at last week’s Easter service. There are a few people milling about the broadcast truck, but they seem to be more interested in watching the crew than the telecast. Parking is still an issue, and I have to park about four blocks away. I am concerned that the pollen filled walk back to the church will set off my coughing again. The Reverend Helen Handbasket could have serious competition for the crowd’s attention if I get started. I make sure that my two rolls of Hall’s mentho-lyptus cough drops are in my jacket pocket and I head in.
Mulva has saved my seat on the aisle, third row right. The auditorium is packed, but everyone appears to have a seat. I surmise last week’s attendance was due to the “Easter” bump, and that this week’s smaller crowd is not a reflection of the service last week. I think that folks that came for a “spirit filled” experience got their money’s worth last week, even if the testament of faith had to be foregone for safety issues.
The house lights dim and the choir launches into “Nearer My God To Thee”. There is no puff of smoke, but there is a “poof” moment, when the Reverend Helena Handbasket magically appears before us. The Reverend is decked out in a Kelly green robe with a white sash trimmed in gold. I’m wondering if the green signifies Spring, rebirth, renewal, or just the only robe that was clean. I’m pretty sure Mulva doesn’t want me to ask. I just think most folks do things for a reason, and the way we get to know folks better is to ask what the reason was. I will defer to Mulva’s sense of ecclesiastical etiquette on this one.
Well, the Reverend Helen Handbasket was in fine form. Apparently this week’s brush with stupidity by the legislature had rankled the Reverend, and she was not going to let her congregation escape without letting them know how she felt about intolerant Christians. I mean we went from Mary Magdalene to lepers without blinking an eye and the segue made perfect sense if you believe in the Golden Rule. Good Christians are all supposed to be united in their love of the Lord, despite their Earthly trappings. So whether you are a person of ill repute, or unclean skin, you are deserving of God’s love. The Reverend wrapped up with Romans 9:12, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
With that, the choir went into “Love Lifted Me”, and the Reverend moved to the floor in front of the altar to await the lost souls and the serpents. This time they arrived out of order.
More later.