One of the many birthday parties I endured this weekend (that is another rant altogether) was for Lilly's friend Malaayia (I swear to God I am sure I spelled that wrong - there are like a hundered a's and y's involved but I get the order messed up...). She is a sweet little girl of color in our otherwise lilly white Scott county. Okay, I just flat out lied there. She actually is a bit of a bitch but she LOVES Lilly, and has spent the last two years defending her friendship with Lilly like some sort of prize and picking fights with other girls who get to friendly with her.
Okay, so here's the thing. I really want to encourage Lilly to have a friend who is different from her, but I think I might be encouraging a friendship that I would never ever encourage if the the little girl was white! We went to her birthday party today and I love her mother - she's super sweet and works at Toyota - just promoted to specialist from a job on the line. Let's just say that we were the marshmallows in the cocoa at the party, but everyone was VERY nice. The thing is - they are super duper Baptist. I'm not talkin' - go to church and then a potluck Methodist behavior. I am talking full on, almost-didn't-make-the-party-because-CHURCH-RAN-UNTIL-2:30 Baptists!!! Now that is not necessarily a deal breaker, but I was a bit worried that I was going to say something wrong. The one gal was a hairstylist and I was informed that she had 'ministry in her hands'.
Okay. Sure.
Another other gal shared that she is attending Asbury to be a christian counselor. Fantastic, although I could have done without her rave about how great the program was because it contained little or no psychology or counseling classes. Seems like you might need a bit of those things to be effective, but what the hell do I know?
So the party was fine. The girls had fun. But honestly, if they were white, I'm pretty sure she'd not be coming over for a play date next week...
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1 comment:
I don't think you're a racist at all. From your post it seems you don't have any trouble with the color of a person's skin, you're issue seems to be with "the length of their worship service being directly proportional to the literal nature in which they express their belief". You're uncomfortable with what may be commonly referred to as "Faith Fundamentalists".
Don't be alarmed. The fact that you willingly admit your unease says to me that you understand the basic issue at heart here.
Being a Methodist, you automatically associate religious ideology with a 20 minute sermon and a covered dish casserole.
Encounters like these will only serve to broaden your views. That's a good thing.
So the next time you find yourself lugging the stroganoff to the church basement for the monthly pot luck, remember, we're all a whole lot different and a whole lot the same.
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