.

They didn’t make me eat a live chicken or anything

I don’t consider myself an overly religious person, but I thought this sign was funny and since it is Sunday…. I’m a Methodist, which is to say I was raised Methodist. When I was in high school my friend Debbie said to me “You Methodists can do everything- you are so lucky.”

Her mom was a strict Southern Baptist. I remember she was the first lady I’d ever seen that had a mustache. (It didn’t need mustache wax or anything, but it was there and couldn’t be missed. My mom beat it into us, so to speak, that we couldn’t stare, but it was hard not to.) Debbie’s dad came to our house to play cards, smoke and drink a beer. Eventually Debbie married the choir director of a Baptist church. The windows on her sister’s room however, were literally, nailed shut when she started high school. She liked to party.

Growing up a friend once asked “Are you a Catholic or a public?” ( We were both about 7 at the time.) I had no idea what he meant. I was told he was talking about school. His family asked us to mass once when I was 12 or so. I didn’t know Latin so it was all Greek to me; and I didn’t understand all the getting up and down. We Methodists just sat in our pews and didn’t get up except for Communion.

Doug was raised Methodist too, a fortuitous occurrence we decided the night we met since we’d never had to choose which religion our kids were going to be raised in.

When my mom died last year my brother’s hired a minister to preside at her memorial service. I’m not sure what he was (denominationally speaking). However I was told that funerals and memorial services were his bread and butter. He just goes from one service to another every day; he takes out the name Mary, inserts Sam, change a few pronouns, etc.-Kind of like lather, rinse, repeat. His words were very formulaic. Maybe they found him at Ministers R Us.com.

When I was growing up in Houston, the sermons at our church were usually upbeat; our minister focused more on the “Do unto others..” We didn’t have a lot of Bible thumping or a minister trying to put the fear of God in you every Sunday; but I was certainly raised believing in Heaven and Hell.

I guess that’s why when I first met Evelyn and she told me that she doesn’t believe in that I found that strange. (Everyone I’d ever known believed in H&H, at least I thought they did; not that it was discussed all the time or anything.) Evelyn and Ken are probably the most considerate people I’ve met. They are UU’s- Unitarian Universalists. I’ve been to church with then on more than few occasions.

The services have always been quite nice as has been everybody there that I have ever met. (They didn’t even make me eat a live chicken or anything.) Speaking of eating live chickens in church, I always laugh at this conversation in Steel Magnolias, one of my favorite movies which I highly recommend if you want a good laugh.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098384/quotes?qt0412923

I’ve got a friend who’s a Jehovah’s Witness, something I didn’t know til I tried to give her a Christmas present one year and one of Brett’s good friends is Muslim. Life can be pretty diverse I guess. I just realized I’m just having a deep moment. (Don’t worry, they don’t around very often.)

Oh well, to each their own, there’s certainly enough space for all of us. Happy Sunday everybody.

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  1. OldBlonde OldBlonde says

    Loved this post!

    And I certainly agree that “there’s certainly enough space for all of us”!

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