People are weird and strange. Maybe you don’t believe me. Let me convince you.

A while back I went to this church with my boyfriend. Yes, it was a big Southern Baptist church in a medium sized Texas city of about 100,000 people. This city literally seemed to have a church and liquor store on every corner. We had been to this same church once before. It was a beautiful Southern morning.

Upon entering this church, after the morning Sunday school class, about 11 A.M., we chose a seat about halfway between the back row and the front row. We just wanted to blend in as well as possible. Easy enough, right? Yes, it was.

A young man was to deliver the sermon. He was about 24 or 25 years old, and I assume, he had spent his youth in church. We were an older couple in our early 40’ s and I had finally gotten my boyfriend to go to church with me after weeks and months of urging. He was a good man, quiet, big, strong, smart, about 44 years old with two grown children. Looking at him, you would never think, he was a great public speaker. Looks can be very deceiving.

The young man preaching was a dynamic speaker and reminded me a lot of Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. I could tell he had all the right qualifications for influencing and leading people: a clear firm piercing voice, a handsome, usual, common face, and a complete knowledge of the bible. He was even about the same size as Dr. King. Perhaps, sometimes, though, we expect too much of people. That’s right. Sometimes, we get carried away and brand people, successful, loser, winner with insufficient evidence to justify such a label. I was completely amazed and stunned by this wise and insightful young man. That is, until I got home and had to listen to my boyfriend rant and rave. He was mad, mad and totally irate because of what this young man had said:

“People bring evil upon themselves by not living the Christian life!”

I know what you are thinking. He’s right! I thought that same thing when I first heard it myself. It seemed quite reasonable at the time.

That is until my boyfriend started tearing it apart.

I asked him if he thought the young man would be successful in life and the ministry and he said,

“Yes, unfortunately, he will be successful in both … although he bases his sermons on false premises!’

“False premises?” I asked stunned.

“Yes, false and dangerous premises.”

Now, I know what you are thinking. My boyfriend is a quack. Yeah, some of you were thinking exactly that. Let me tell you a little about him. He was an Air Force officer for over ten years and lead many good men. From looking at his Air Force photograph, I could tell he was successful because he had a chest full of medals. Once, he told me he had supervise over 200 young men and women and almost all of them liked, respected, and got along with him. He earned two degree, and got a masters degree while raising his family. In short, he is a very intelligent man. Here’s what he said”

“That young man is totally off the mark with that sermon. Who the hell does he think he is? How can he stand up there in the pulpit and mislead all those young people? How can he tell them if they do good, no evil will come their way? Doesn’t he know he is setting them up for future pain and misery?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Woman, don’t you know evil comes to everyone regardless of how good they are or have been. Just look at the children that are molested. Are you telling me that any of them had been bad, and therefore, have brought evil into their lives? No! Look at all the soldiers that died in Iraq. Do you think they all were bad and brought enough evil into their lives to justify dying? What about the nun that was just mugged? What evil did she inspire? None! To suggest evil comes to those who invite it in is irresponsible.”

“Yeah!” I agreed. “I guess you have a point.”

A month later, we went to Sunday school at the same church and the young man was teaching the class. Again, he repeated his statement that what we do in life invites evil.

Yes, you guessed it. My boyfriend exploded.

“How can you preach such misleading trash to these young men and women, and kids?” he asked still beaming. “Don’t you know you are setting them up for trouble?”

For the next 20 minutes, my boyfriend cited example after example to the Sunday school class without a single interruption. He completely held their attention.

The young man came over and thanked my boyfriend for opening his eyes and invited us to come again to his church.

Later that day, my boyfriend apologized to me for losing it and said he was embarrassed and would never go to that church again. Three years later, my boyfriend (yes, the same one I always had to drag to church) became assistant minister at the very same church.

People are strange, aren’t they?

Copyright .2004 ShyPoet1 and may not be used without written permission from the author.