measuring cup

[gurdonark]

When I was a kid, we spent our summers attending Vacation Bible School at all the churches in town. These substituted for day care, I suspect, for the parents in the town. Vacation Bible School varied a bit from church to church, depending on denomination. The Pentecostals had the coolest felt figures--very life-like. When you are a Biblical literalist telling the stories of miracles, needless abstraction is not the "done" thing. I remember being 8 years old in Methodist VBS, trying to glue spreckles onto a light bulb to make maracas. At Presbyterian Bible School, they were really big on songs.

But the day of Bible School I remember the best was the day the minister over at the Missionary Baptist Church gave a sermon to us kids about being saved. The sermon was kinda high tech. He took some murky, blood-like liquid, mixed it in a measuring cup with some other liquid, and voila! the murky liquid was clear, saved by grace from sin. But then he asked a question: "How many of you are SAVED? How many of you would go to Heaven if you died right NOW?".

In our Methodist church, we didn't get asked this question a lot.
We typically made maracas rather than declarations about our immortal souls, and sometimes played drop the handkerchief, red light green light, red rover or Mother May I during the breaks. So it probably is no surprise that every Baptist kid in the audience shot their hand straight up high into the air, while my hand stayed resolutely down. At the time, I felt so badly--how could they be so sure? How could I be so much in doubt? But now, I look back at myself, and like myself just a little, because I didn't try to believe for the sake of fitting in.

Comments

[ladyelisa.livejournal.com]

I happen to like that about you a whole lot -- even back then there was something urging you to be your authentic self.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's funny how it felt so uncertain then,but it seems quite honest now.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

I like kid-you too. :) Almost as much as grownup-you.

It's a strange thing to ask a bunch of children such questions, when you think about it. How many of them really know what or why they are answering?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is the problem. All those formulae and recitals. It's really too bad, because then too many people imagine that such enthusiastic formulae are the entirety of that belief structure, which is the opposite of the way it is. I always find it ironic that the baptist denomination, which was founded on the thesis of the individual experience of the divine, has gone down such odd roads lately.

Re:

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

Being raised Catholic, I can attest that the regurgitation of rhetoric plays a large part in the catechism of the kids there, too. Even the major sacraments are hurried by. What most kids remember about their first communion is having to wear fancy white clothes, and probably eating a big dinner afterwards.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_riomaggiore/]

what a great memory to recall. funny how there is a gaol to get scalps--especially kids, who are most likely to fall to peer pressure. even adults "accept" to be accepted--all, without knowing what they are saying or doing. maybe just to be on the side that is "right" as it appears at the moment.
i never liked the flannel boards, singing or the talks (even the snacks seemed somewhat weak). i like going home, as i always took the long way home--to play baseball, which was my home of comfort, acceptance and of rules that made sense to me. no magic or deceit or pressure to "believe" something i didn't understand-- instead i could just play and be a kid.
thanks.
also, want to let you know that my postcard from the Bahamas arrived today. thanks again.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I liked the songs and flannel, but neither as a child nor as an adult have believe or brimstone type preaching appealed to me.

I'm glad that postcard arrived--the mail service is not quite lightning from Grand Bahama :)

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

This is a great story! I think you show great trust and belief in yourself. And what you write and think about today shows that you can extend that belief to the world.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I do miss spending my half days playing with Elmer's Glue in bible school :).

[laruth.livejournal.com]

A lovely story.

I wish I had that kind of confidence in myself as a child.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Maybe it helped that I was raised in a less strict tradition. Maybe I was just a weird kid :).

Thanks.

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

I just have to say that Vacation Bible School sounds really freakin' scary! I still can't get over this maracas out of light bulbs thing. That's just begging for a visit to the emergency room, isn't it? And the fake-blood salvation experiment...eek! I would have cried (and would have probably preferred to be colored rather than clear). In fact, all this religion stuff is terrifying...drinking blood, eating bodies. It all sort of appeals to me now, but how the hell is a kid supposed to get anything out of that? Transubstantiation?! Consubstantiation?! The Crucifixion?! Eeeeeek! It's all so terrifying. Thinking about death and eternal damnation/salvation all summer does not sound like fun. That said, my one brief (very brief) stint in vacation Bible school with my grandmother (Presbyterian) made me just feel stupid, because I didn't know any of the Bible stories.

Did the Pentecostals have cool things like snakes and speaking in tongues? That might be a rockin' vacation...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You know, it's funny, but the "scary" parts were few and far between. The sermon by the Baptist fellow which was "fire and brimstone" was far and away the most "scary", which is why it stuck with me so long. Each VBS lasted roughly one week, and they were almost all about teaching one the Old Testament and New Testament basic stories.

It's intriguing to me, though, how much of this Heaven and Hell seeps into one by osmosis. I have an old friend who grew up in a pentecostal type tradition, and the ideas colored his thinking long after he had decided that the church was not for him.

I remember mostly the games of Red Rover and Mother, May I, but that probably indicates that I was not an assiduous VBS scholar.
I do remember lots of choruses of songs like "Jesus Loves Me" and
"Peace Like a River", and what could be wrong with that?

But I do see what you're saying--odd to think on, if you think on it that way.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

and it's funny--I've been to a number of Charismatic services over the years, but I've yet to see my first vision of speaking/interpreting in tongues or other stuff. Snake handling is more rural than even my own rural upbringing.

[taebopper.livejournal.com]

I've attended a "speaking in tongues" Pentecostal service, and it freaked me out. :) Of course, I was younger then. I'd probably like it now...unless they tried to cast a demon out of me.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I've had a lot of friends who are Pentecostals. Heck, I've even got a sibling who's Pentecostal as of late. But I've never BEEN to a good old fashioned casting out and speaking out Pentecostal service. The last Pentecostal service I saw was near Easter in South Central LA, where we sang more gospel hymns than I can ever remember singing, and the fellows who escorted one from the car to the church knew Bible verses by heart they recited as we walked along.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

casting out demons must be an odd thing to watch indeed :)