So, I recently went on a trip with my girlfriend's church youth group. I guess you can call it my church too, I tend to go there and participate in events fairly often. We drove to Mississippi, a nice short 2 day drive through, and to the south, to help rebuild after Katrina.
For most of the trip we were pretty much cut off from the rest of the world. There were no TVs, no computers, and hardly if any cell phone service. When we did have service we found out that while we were away five celebrities had died, Michael Jackson, Farrah Faucet, Billy Mays, Gary Papa, and some other guy who's name I can't recall at the current moment.
Anyways, the title of this post is Baptists, and for a reason.
Ever see the Documentary entitled, Jesus Camp?
You know, that documentary about aggressive christians making their army of kids to fight... well anything they don't like? I have. And, well, on this trip we went on, we visited a Southern Baptist Church, one just like in the Documentary.
I realized this as soon as they paraded the American, and Christian flags through their church, and after began pledging to each of the flags and the bible.
I refused to say them, out of respect I stood, since we were guests in their church and all.
The three of us that are gay, and our allies, felt very uncomfortable in this church. Speaking with them you could tell their education levels, and their willingness to accept diversity. Both, expectantly, were on the low side.
I knew going into this trip being gay and in the south wasn't going to be easy, and would be something we three would have to hide, for safety, and for the sake of our fellow travelers.
We were preached to, and what most of us got out of it was that, "If god wants you to slow down and listen to him, he might cut off your leg so that you will"---see what I mean?
