A FEVER YOU CAN’T SWEAT OUT
I chimed in with a...
It was the kind of church that was always full; not just on Easter or Christmas, but full every single Sunday of the year. Maria and I were sitting in the back row, watching the sermon. Most of the heads in front of us were bald. Some had wisps of white swirling around, just barely hanging on. Up towards the front I could see a few younger families, with parents in their 40s and kids, all listening intently to the pastor in the front.
The sermon. The sermon is what Maria and I came to hear. We listened as the pastor began.
“This week, we’ll be taking a look at Paul’s preachings on gay marriage and pre-marital sex,” the pastor said, to a few nods from some of the balder heads in the back rows. He hit the button on his remote to transition to the next slide.
“There are a few passages here,” and the pastor then opened his Bible, “where Paul condemns any sexual relations outside of the marital contract. Here, Church, let’s read,” he said, and the whole church began opening their own Bibles and reading along. I could not help but think that the pastor was forgetting (or maybe he did not know?) that Paul was a promiscuous gay man. But still I said nothing. Maybe he did not know.
After a minute or so the chorus of voices from the balding heads slowed to a low moan, and the pastor continued,
“Paul isn’t just preaching to the church of Corinth, as some progressive churches these days like to interpret. He’s talking to all Christians: Have sex outside of marriage and face the judgement of God.”
The pastor droned on, and I wondered this time if he knew about the extravagant sex parties that Jesus threw back in his prime. They were huge parties, full of women and men and others, all half-clothed, eating and drinking and fucking, and Jesus was always the center of attention. But I assumed the pastor did not know about this, and so I stopped thinking again and began listening to the pastor as his voice continued on like an old radio.
“And remember, Church, we are all born with a nature to sin, whether that is to engage in immoral sex or to gamble or to drink, and we must refrain from them all. And we must repent if we do engage in them.”
The bald heads were really nodding and moaning away now, writhing gleefully along to some kind of symphony that I could not hear. I turned to Maria and whispered,
“I wonder if he knows that we have sex and gamble and drink, and that we do not repent.”
“Shhh,” Maria said. “They’re not supposed to know we’re demons.”