God's mouthpeice has bad breath.

I enjoyed a fishing outing this weekend in deep East Texas. Getting out into the wilderness was good for the soul – can’t speak for the fish – but I had fun.

But while out there, you run into a peculiar situation: there is little radio to choose from as you drive. In between Tyler and Shreveport there is a fall-off in the number of FM stations one can get. At least FM stations playing music recorded since the Civil War.  So I switched the car radio to something called AM and listen to some country preacher who was ranting about how in America, his flock’s religious freedoms were under attack. He had a sidekick on the show who was from California, and he too confirmed that the new-testament evangelical church was under attack and that their freedoms were being eroded drastically fast, so much so, that soon they would not be able to worship at all. (He, of course, blamed the current administration, Satan and main-stream “Christian” churches for this loss of religious freedom. He also added in secular scientists and other socialists to that list.) Not quite sure how he worked that out in his demented little mind, but he did.

It got me to thinking. If there was one group in the USA who is not under persecution or one who is not losing their freedom, especially their freedom to espouse their beliefs on every subject under God’s yellow sun as loudly as they want to, it is the evangelical right-wing churches of America. They are everywhere, preaching all kinds of hate-filled doctrine about why we, as a country, are all going to hell.

The church in the United States is very safe. In fact, it is so safe it is ridiculous.  But the radio preacher quoted some facts (not sure if they are real, but here goes.)  Attendance to Christian churches is down almost in half since the early 1960’s. Giving – that is donations– is also way down. The next generation almost entirely doesn’t know Christ as its Savior. If this trend continues there will be less than a million born-again believers in America. (Really?)Again he blames secular education for this one. No one is teaching our children about God's Holy word. And I thought that was the church's job all along.

I had to cry bullshit on this one. All of my children go to or have gone to state-run, state-sponsored universities and I can tell you the Christian youth movements are larger and more vocal now than at anytime since I was in school back in the 1970’s. This pastor doesn’t know of what he speaks. Christ is BIG on America’s campuses. Not just big but HUGE. 25,000+ fill Kyle Field in College Station for a prayer meeting. (Hey that’s a state facility and people are worshiping God there.)  And in Austin, too. And Tuscaloosa and Birmingham…the list goes on and on. Christ has reclaimed the campus as His.

So where is the persecution? Where are the lost liberties these believers claim to have given up to the heathen Obama and his evil empire?

Of course, you can never call into these prerecorded diatribes that run incessantly on the air in the Piney Woods and other backward watering holes across the South, and because of such, their claims can never be challenged.

I see major, mega churches springing up everywhere in almost every city I visit and it is across the geographic spectrum. North, south, east and west – the big churches are growing. Their parking lots are filled week-in and week-out with SUV’s and sedans and families, as well as singles, all coming to worship their lord and savior, Jesus Christ.  And they are doing it in huge numbers. 

Even mainstream denominations have seen an uptick in Sunday attendance, after years of falling numbers.  Only the Catholic Church is seeing a slippage, and that mostly from the Rust Belt, where many in their flocks are moving away from in record numbers. Not really the church’s fault. In many areas of the country the Catholic Church can’t recruit enough men to the priesthood to fill the vacant pulpits. (Maybe if they could marry like normal people… just saying.)

But Brother Billy Bob from KGOD-AM, wants you and me to think that he and his flock and other believers are about to be driven from the face of the Earth by the secular, humanistic, Hollywood sex-perverted, imperialistic, hedonistic, non-believers who have taken over our country. And oh yeah, Obamacare is the end of civilization as we know it. Swear to God this man of God said that. Maybe that’s why his church is losing members. Maybe, just maybe, they can sniff out a nutcase and don’t want to follow him.

If the church in America is in trouble, it is because nitwits like this goober are at the helm. And if they’ve got their hands on the tiller of the boat, lookout, we may have a capsize any moment. And of course, if we do, it will be Washington’s fault. Democrats will be blamed. And the Right Reverend Billy Bob Big Mouth will continue to accuse people who do not look like him nor think like him of being evil incarnate.

Maybe we are. Because if he represents what heaven is all about, it is going to be one hell of a mess.

Amen.

This is the last blog for a few weeks. Going to tour the country, talk with people and throw a hook or two into some cool, fresh streams. I will be back soon. Until then, don’t get Lost in the Lone Star State. It is a dangerous place to be without a guide.