Actually
Submitted by Triple Q on July 10 1999 at 11:29:16
In reply to Re: Ditto!!!! Submitted by Chris on July 09 1999 at 20:03:15
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Brother Leroy was 16 when they gave him that church (he was an early bloomer). And the incident I was talking about was some 20 years ago. About a year after I started attending, he was offered a much better position in a much larger town in Texas and couldn't turn it down. He's come back periodically over the years to "guest" and I still go when the grapevine tells me he's here. But, after he left, they replaced him with a preacher that was older than Methuselah (sp?). I attended for a while but, in the meantime, had garnered a girlfriend. She had had a baby, was unmarried, and still only 17 at the time. This is a small town and when we walked in together for the first time, it was pretty obvious that word had gotten around. I ignored the glares and the whispering behind the hands but, when the preacher came up to the pulpit, looked straight at my girlfriend and launched into the sins of premarital sex without ever taking his eyes off my girlfriend...well, I got pissed. Before he was finished speaking, I stood up and told him "Look, if you want to preach, preach...but if you're just going to rail against ----- (my girlfriend), don't even call yourself a f**king preacher!" I pulled her out of her seat and pulled her to the door. And, when I say pull, I do mean pull. We got outside and I had to assure her that what I did (leaving, cussing the preacher) was not a sin...what he was doing (using his position to criticize the actions of one person who was only a guest in his church, when his job was to save the whole congregation) was a sin. The only time I ever go back to that church is when Brother Leroy is preaching (it's been years now)...even then, I waited until that particular preacher had left before I would even set foot in the church. I remember the first time Brother Leroy came back, I went to the church to welcome him back. We stood outside and talked a little while. Then the other preacher came over, smiled at me and held out his hand. I just looked at it for a minute then turned my back on him and focused my attention back to Leroy. He asked what that was all about after the other guy left and I told him "nothing". Then I apologized because I couldn't attend his service, told him to keep in touch and left. I missed the next time he came into town because no one told me about it. Fortunately the other preacher left before Leroy was able to come back for the third time...so I was able to attend. |