It was my first visit to this church. The young pastor was standing by the door, so I introduced myself. It was easy to tell that he wanted to be popular. He came to this parish weeks ago, was slow of speech, had large feet, short is stature, and his last job was a actor.
I don't believe he was trying to call attention to himself by wearing a risque necktie, but I thought, only a person trying to call attention to themself would wear a blue an ochre colored tie.
It appears that he had won the respect of his congregation. He represented himself as contemporary, a man-in-the-street thinker, his questions and answers being curt and polite.
We found out later that his friends used to call him Little Willie. He walked up to the podium, stood quietly, and lethargically gesticulated at the choir to sit down before he spoke.
He titled his sermon, "Playing the part of a celloid angel."
He began with a lengthy prologue on the value of "Playing fair," he inserting this for the benefit of the boy-scouts who were present. No-one was disappointed; although a good many people like myself felt he may have sacrificed a little too much artistic integrity in his apparent attempt to reach out to the masses.
He was making every effort to answer the problem of Good and Evil. But I'm afraid the vast philosophic implication of the first sermon are left, more or less in the balance, as he moved on to the second part of his sermon which was, Fad-awareness.
He spoke of a de-frocked monk, suspended temporarily from his monastery for the importation of racy post-cards. He cleverly brought in the problem of the, "Flight of the oppressed"
He spoke of a Christian's long journey, comparing it to the historical tale about the yellow dog who had found his way home from Nome Alaska, to Rhode Island.
Pastor Willie teaches that Christian's must replace all their bad points with good ones; get involved in all church activities; and every night before they go to bed, add up their new friends. But if visual, they can draw up a popularity graph, or cut notches in a stick.
Next week Pastor Willie is going to speak on, "The birth of the future."
I glanced at my watch which is averagely correct, it being somewhere between twelve noon and one. After his talk, one cannot help pondering, "Isn't it terrible how fast a man can undo everything!"
Next week, I will visit a church that has just organized 20 quadrilingual members to function as a curtsey at the local Pentecostal church. There is no doubt they will receive their share of quadrilingual curiosity seekers during the service.
Phil LaSpino
I don't believe he was trying to call attention to himself by wearing a risque necktie, but I thought, only a person trying to call attention to themself would wear a blue an ochre colored tie.
It appears that he had won the respect of his congregation. He represented himself as contemporary, a man-in-the-street thinker, his questions and answers being curt and polite.
We found out later that his friends used to call him Little Willie. He walked up to the podium, stood quietly, and lethargically gesticulated at the choir to sit down before he spoke.
He titled his sermon, "Playing the part of a celloid angel."
He began with a lengthy prologue on the value of "Playing fair," he inserting this for the benefit of the boy-scouts who were present. No-one was disappointed; although a good many people like myself felt he may have sacrificed a little too much artistic integrity in his apparent attempt to reach out to the masses.
He was making every effort to answer the problem of Good and Evil. But I'm afraid the vast philosophic implication of the first sermon are left, more or less in the balance, as he moved on to the second part of his sermon which was, Fad-awareness.
He spoke of a de-frocked monk, suspended temporarily from his monastery for the importation of racy post-cards. He cleverly brought in the problem of the, "Flight of the oppressed"
He spoke of a Christian's long journey, comparing it to the historical tale about the yellow dog who had found his way home from Nome Alaska, to Rhode Island.
Pastor Willie teaches that Christian's must replace all their bad points with good ones; get involved in all church activities; and every night before they go to bed, add up their new friends. But if visual, they can draw up a popularity graph, or cut notches in a stick.
Next week Pastor Willie is going to speak on, "The birth of the future."
I glanced at my watch which is averagely correct, it being somewhere between twelve noon and one. After his talk, one cannot help pondering, "Isn't it terrible how fast a man can undo everything!"
Next week, I will visit a church that has just organized 20 quadrilingual members to function as a curtsey at the local Pentecostal church. There is no doubt they will receive their share of quadrilingual curiosity seekers during the service.
Phil LaSpino
