When Church Meant Snakes

I’m kind of laughing here….today, being Sunday, I see that a large, “church” in Seattle (Mars Hill) is undergoing some “restructuring”. I hate seeing this. I hate it that a church, no matter the denomination, has to be under such scrutiny for wrong doing. God is not a happy camper. I lived in the south as a child (army brat/Louisiana/Texas) and the friends I made had families from the area…Fundamentalist Christian (this is the 50s south mind you), wonderful people, alltrying to live on the Army allotment checks and shopping at the PX and the local Piggly Wiggly grocery stores (long before the term “supermarket” was ever used…lord I’m olde…and notice the “e” at the end of “old”…adds character.) My mom and grandma were old European Catholic, my dad was Pennsylvania Protestant (I think) and although God was a family member in our home, we didn’t attend churches. I remember attending a church function with my mom one Saturday afternoon (the day should have been a tip off and which my grandma thought was just outrageous…not the true Lord’s Day)…but mom had made friends with a lady next door in Fort Hood, and we went along with her and her 4 kids. When we arrived, I could tell mom right away wasn’t thrilled. Where were the saint statues? This “church” was a tent for gosh sakes! Where was the alter and Baptismal font? No pews? Mom enjoyed the rousing gospel music (sort of) but let’s just say that when they brought out the big box full of snakes, mom grabbed my arm so tight it went blue…she pulled me off the seat and headed for the bus stop 5 blocks away…man…my mom could run for a little bitty lady! It took us 3 bus transfers to get home…but when we did, it was like finally reaching heaven. My grandma put her hands to her head and lamented as mom told her the story…there were hugs and kisses and salutations to our “Catholic” God….and grandma thanking every saint imaginable that a snake hadn’t gotten out and bitten us to death! My mom was only 23, just getting used to life in America from the relatively safe confines of Bavaria…this was new…mom wanted to taste it all. Good or bad…mom wanted to experience America, so she could be American. But the notion of snakes put a damper on that. Her idea of the Garden of Eden was more like Adam, Eve, an apple……and a nice little garden worm But you know…to this day, I thoroughly enjoy good gospel music…the kind sung by a wonderful black choir (and that’s another story). But yes…today’s churches still suffer from the same ol’ complaint….money hungry pastors going after those who are kind, God-loving, and saintly. It never ends. And if it did….what would we have to rectify and complain about?