A man in church sent me an e-mail, condemning all the people who show disrespect to the Lord by going to Communion in low-cut tops, miniskirts, and shorts. I wrote back that he needs to focus his attention on the Lord, and not on how other people dressed or behaved.
He wrote back and now says I'm in league with all those disrespectful people and that I'm just as bad as they are and the Lord doesn't like me, either; so I suggested that maybe he should take a clipboard to church and tally all the plunging necklines and indecently exposed legs. And even if those people dress like that, the Lord probably doesn't care.
So when I went to church this morning, I looked hard to see all the legs and cleavage I've been missing.
Dang. I didn't see any.
I think there's a connection between my church disappointment and the little act that Shambles puts on for our entertainment. This church guy and many others like him go on and on about disrespectful people in miniskirts - to the point that people begin to think all of us in our church are either miniskirted floozies or the self-righteous prigs who condemn them. And please take note that the condemnations are far out of proportion to the imagined offenses. It makes the rest of us normal people feel out of place. And our parish has built itself a bad reputation, built on the misinformation spread by the nasty dozen who are out to condemn their fellow parishioners - and also built on the unpleasant atmosphere that all that poison condemnation creates.
Well, in Shambles, we have one of those self-righteous people who imagines that all sorts of evil things are taking place in the Hallowed Halls of Mudcat. So, he's spent four years posting thousands of those poison condemnation messages. People fight back and refute the misinformation that Shambles posts, but the poison still lingers - and every one of his poison messages leaves a little bit of doubt, a little bit of feeling that maybe this IS the horribly repressive place that Shambles contends it to be.
Maybe somebody should just come out and say that Shambles is a liar. Of course, I wouldn't do such a thing, because I'd never hear the end of it. I suppose it's entertaining to see how we can help Shambles make a fool of himself, but there's a bit of poison in that, too. I guess maybe I should just say that Shambles sure is a pain in the ass, and leave it at that. But then I'd never hear the end of that, either - so I'll just keep mum...
But I was really disappointed that I didn't see all the leg and cleavage in church this morning.