Picket Fences and Rainbows, Part Two

As mentioned in the first part of "Picket Fences and Rainbows" I've been walking down some of the darker paths of my memories. There's been some sorting and categorizing, and a lot of pondering this week. I apparently touched a nerve with many, and I think I'll poke a few more this week.

Looking back at many of the things I thought I HAD to do in order to be a good Christian this week, I've been angry, guilty, sad, and giggly. Here's some of the things I recall, and I'd love to hear from you and some of your "had-tos." These are not universally from all fundamental churches and schools, but these are some of the things that I have heard or experienced in my fifty-three years.

1. House must be clean at all times in case company came over in order to not have a bad testimony. Yes, I heard this preached from a pulpit more than once.

2. Dresses, and skirts all of the time for us gals. If you were wearing pants around the house, and company came over, you changed while someone appropriately dressed answered the door.

3. Church attendance "every time the doors opened" unless you were dead, in the hospital, or dead. I have to confess that as a teen I found church very, very boring, but I went anyways because I had to.

4. Clothes that didn't "cup" any body part, even a little. I seriously heard one very embarrassed lady speaker say that we really shouldn't appear to have round breasts or hips. 

5. Don't question God's anointed, meaning only the pastor or evangelist or missionary that preached. And I have so many things that wished I had questioned back in those days.

6. At one point, no wire rim glasses for men because that's what "hippies like Jon Lennon wore."

7. From another preacher, around the same time, no big, plastic glass frames because of that "Elton" rock musician.

8. One terrible piece of women's clothing: hose. I personally believe that panty hose were invented by a very angry man who hated women and his lecherous brother who was secretly a "leg man."

9. No current secular music, at all. It should be at least a decade old, and then listen only if it fit the approved style, beat, words, etc.

10. God's anointed apparently required much nicer cars than a lay person because they drove so much. (This one really gets me, when I realize that many usually sent deacons, and junior pastors to do the visiting).

11. Door to door witnessing and visitation. I can't say that this was entirely bad, but saying that everyone should be ashamed if they didn't do this on a regular basis? What about family life?

12. Leading at least one soul to Christ a year, preferably one a month or more.

13. Remembering the exact date and time and place and outfit and every detail about when you were saved.

14. 1611 KING JAMES VERSION. I am still hearing preachers on the radio say that if you were not saved through the KJV, then you should question your salvation. I. AM. NOT. MAKING. THIS. UP. Pretty sad for all those non-english speaking folks, am I right?

15. And suits and ties for the men, the male equivalent of wearing hose. Every service, every visitation, every speaking engagement except at a Christian camp when jeans became temporarily acceptable.

16. Speaking of jeans--just no. Not for women-ever, and most men-unless they were needed at work. Denim was for work, and any time else-the Devil.

17. NO pre-recorded sound tracks for special music. They were worldly, and the beat was "the Devil's music."

18. Just one word: Culottes.

19. I would say that we were told to avoid gay people, but honestly I didn't know or hear much about them except from sermons about some awful place that they all apparently ran around naked having constant "illicit, unnatural relations and abominations."

20. Worldliness. We could never be "worldly." That included everything from using a current word like "groovy" (Handle it. I'm a child of the sixties.) to the styles that we wore. Example? Maxi skirts were banned at my high school because it was the current trend. 

I know some of my comments are rather tongue in cheek, but this list contains actual things from sermons, and rules I have heard, and followed all in the name of being a good Christian. These seem very shallow now, but I believed they were necessary back then. Thank God for growth, and wisdom and Grace.

Share some of yours, if you will. I'd love to see what we have in common. Next post, we'll do a little bit more traveling in the dark, and then come the rainbows!

Serve God. Love others.

Teapotjan

Hippy Teapots

I remember the shock wave that went through my small childhood church when they first walked in to the auditorium. If my mother had not made me turn around for the sake of politeness I would have stared at them as any fundamentalist nine year old child would at this embodiment of sin. The church members initial reactions ranged from looks of disgust to an actual withdrawing to other, safer pews. I snuck glances at them whenever mom wasn't looking at me. Sinners had entered the church! It was a young couple holding their beautiful little blonde-haired girl. He had hair down to his waist, and she had a dress halfway up her legs. I could only think "hippies!" It was 1970 after all.

The young couple came to church because they were scared and needed help. Their daughter showed adverse signs from their use of drugs and they wanted to change whatever they could to help her. Many of the church members truly would have nothing to do with them. Nothing. They raced by them avoiding all eye contact as if a glance would send them into drug-induced hallucinations. Thinking back, I am amazed that this couple didn't turn away from church and God completely. But the concern for how their lifestyle could hurt their child had drawn them in and their love for her kept them there long enough to meet one of the few people in that church that knew how to act. It was my mom. 

She and my dad invited them to dinner, cooed and cuddled their little girl, and led them to Jesus. For several years, that couple and their children were frequent guests in our home. They grew in the Lord, completely left behind all use of drugs, and raised lovely, healthy children. I haven't heard from them in decades, but I'm sure I'll get to see them again in Heaven.

It may seem that this kind of thing wouldn't happen today, but it does. I've seen it. Big "F" fundamental folk still seem to expect the unsaved to act. . . well . . . . saved. Any difference in dress, appearance, and action warrants a withdrawal. A guy with hair over his ears, a girl with a pierced cartilage, clothing too casual, too denim, too short, too long are all deemed worldly. And the very people that should be reaching out, self-proclaimed Christians, instead pull back, hush their children and warn them to stay far away. Then place their children in Christian schools, Christian sports leagues, Christian clubs, and then wonder why they can't handle the real world when they get there.

Now, I don't think that there is anything wrong with any of the Christian things mentioned above. I'll get into some of that in another post. But I do take issue of the complete separation of Christians from everything and everyone in the world. It leads to the same wide-eyed shock I felt when that young couple walked into my church seeking help. I can't help but think that the drop in church attendance and the influence of God's people came from this "not of of any part of this world no way no how" mentality. 

Again, in the interest of keeping these entries short, I'll stop for now and write more tomorrow. Meanwhile, let's examine our reactions to those who are not like us in spiritual matters and compare them to Christ's reactions during His time on earth. And pray that God gives us the ability to reach out to Hippy Teapots.