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Gone South
More specifically, why am I drawn to strange things that Southern religion somehow or-other gets drawn into? Articles that leave me wondering, "What would Jesus think about that?" For example, what would our Lord and Savior think about the guy down in Panama City who mooned the jury that had just returned a guilty verdict against him - something about his girlfriend and a box cutter. Cornell Jackson (no relation that I know of) told authorities that the mooning was the result of regular fights with various and sundry demons and though he had "Jesus and Michael Archangel" on his side, the struggle unnerved him and caused him to do what he did. Now what would Jesus think about that? Meanwhile, up in Fort Payne, authorities arrested the Rev. Dwayne Blue, cuffed him and took him in, because his tent revival was disturbing folks at the nearby Holiday Inn Express. Police records show that he was charged with violating the city's noise ordinance. The Rev. Blue said he "was only guilty of praying." Now what would Jesus think about that, especially if He had finally gotten Himself a room at the Inn? Or about what happened up in Athens, where Tammie Lee Doss and a couple of friends burst in on Tammie Lee's brother Randy, pointed a gun at him and told him to start praying for redemption. Even fired a shot close to his head when he seemed to be losing his concentration. Story was that Randy had taken issue with his sister and one of the friends over some point of theology. And when sister and friend started praying for him, Randy laughed. He shouldn't have. So they came over with the gun. And I wonder what Jesus thinks about all the commotion over the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, an organization that is pretty clear about same-sex anything of a sexual nature, being outed by a gay prostitute who claimed he and the preacher had been meeting monthly for more than three years - and not to discuss Biblical admonishments against what they were meeting for. Last I heard it was still a matter of "yes you did" and "no I didn't," but the preacher resigned and you can make what you will of that. What I made of it was that if it was going to happen (and it seems it was) I was glad it happened out in Colorado and not down here in Dixie. Not that I think it would. Nossir, down here we've got the Rev. Joe Beam of Franklin, Tenn., who runs an organization called Family Dynamics and goes around the country holding popular seminars on "Love, Sex and Marriage." The Rev. Beam, who is working on a sexology Ph.D. from the University of Sydney in Australia (why hasn't Jacksonville State University jumped on that bandwagon?), is not for gay sex, or for pre-marital sex, or for extramarital sex, but if it is just you and your wife - anything goes. Now good taste, and high standards of our journalistic smut-buster, prevent me from going into detail about what the Rev. Beam advocates and allows, but let me say that the questions asked by seminar participants would make the author of the old Playboy "Advisor" blush. So would the preacher's answers. But what would Jesus think? Or about Georgia Republican Sen. Nancy Schaefer, who explained that she felt Roe v. Wade should be overturned because (according to my buddy Jim, one of her constituents) "legalized abortions are cutting our supply of cheap labor, which, in turn, forces employers to hire illegal aliens." Huh? Well, I may not be sharp enough to know what Jesus would think about these things, but I've got a pretty good idea where Charles Barkley would come down, if you asked him. In an interview the other day, Sir Charles, who hints from time to time that he might run for governor, said he was less-than pleased with how "religious people in general are so discriminatory against other people. My idea of religion," he continued, "is we all love and respect. We all sin, but we still have common decency and respect for other people." As for the kind of governor he might be, Barkley observed, "I don't know anything about a lot of things, but I would ask somebody and try to make a fair, honest decision for the majority of the people. ... When you're elected to public office, you're supposed to represent everybody. Your job is not to take care of the rich or the poor or the black or the white. Your job is to take care of everybody." Now I wonder, what would Jesus think about that? Harvey H. "Hardy" Jackson grew up in Grove Hill. He is a professor and chairman of the history department at Jacksonville State University.
E-mail: hjackson@jsucc.jsu.edu
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