Reverend Ref +

GRUMPY PRIEST .... Part 2

This has been a banner week. First I preached on being an active, vital community or becoming a graveyard housing the dead; which was, if you recall, a response to my grumpiness about the overwhelming apathy and lack of participation in Holy Week by one of my congregations.

This past Saturday, during the yard sale, I learned that one of my parishioners took issue with a book and decided to play censor (in the name of all that is Good and Holy, I'm sure), ripped it up and deposited in the trash can. A few of my other parishioners were less than pleased about this. I was less than pleased about it.

"What was the book," you ask? Was it a racy Harlequin romance? No.
Was it a book explaining the "true" meaning of Song of Songs? No.
Was it a book of erotic poetry? No.
Was it The Happy Hooker? No.

It was something called Ken's Guide to the Bible.

Ken's goal in life, apparently, was to show people that the Bible isn't the wholesome family book it's made out to be sometimes. That it's full of malice, murder, sex, adultery and other weirdness. For instance, he used the passage about Lot's daughters getting him drunk and having sex with him to point out "family values."

I personally thought it was rather interesting, and I breezed through it (or what was left of it) in about 30 minutes. And, hey, if it got somebody to open up a Bible to check it out and then come talk to me, all the better.

So today I need to go have a discussion with this parishioner to let her know that she is not the Purity Police.