I Love Corey, Chapter Seventeen

Normally these meetings only lasted between forty-five minutes and an hour but this one was now an hour and a half old and showed no signs of ending. Not only that, normally those in attendance accorded the speakers with the common courtesy of remaining silent while someone spoke even though they might disagree with the speaker. Not tonight. That minister and his congregation felt that they had the right and duty to boo and try to drown out anyone they disagreed with. By now the whole thing was barely under control. Finally in one of the rare moments when it was quiet Mr. Downey called upon me. Oh well I thought, here goes nothing.

“Before I begin to address the issue I would like to take a minute to make some observations. I’m appalled that certain members of the audience seem to feel it is their right and privilege to exhibit extremely poor manners and try to drown out speakers when they are talking.” There were a large number of boos and catcalls about that time. I just waited until they finally were quiet before I continued. I looked Reverend Langston right in the eye. “Reverend Langston, I call upon you to ask the members of your congregation to allow people to speak. I’m sure their and your parents taught each of you better manners and I’m equally sure your mothers would be ashamed of you.” Boy that set them off. I just continued to stare directly at the Rev. Langston. It took close to five minutes before silence returned. “If you want to talk you had better allow me the same privilege as I have the floor and I won’t talk while you yell” more yelling and booing “and the sooner I am allowed” more booing, “to talk the sooner I will be done.” I continued to stare at the Reverend and finally he seemed to get the message. He stood and asked the members of his congregation to please remain silent until each speaker had finished. He was red faced and I was sure I had made an enemy but the whole thing had gotten out of hand. Apparently I had shamed him into acting. I continued. “Thank you Rev. Langston. I now call upon all of the rest of you to follow the reverend’s example and practice good manners for the rest of the meeting. If we all do so then the meeting will be over much quicker and all of us who have something to say will be able to do so.”

“I’m placed in an awkward position. I was a Scout when I was young and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I got a job at this school I met Vern Garvin, the scoutmaster. I soon began to help him with the local troop. I think the Scouts have much to offer young people and I support their goals. There are many adults who now practice many of the lessons they learned in the Scouts with good effect. I sincerely hope I’m one of them. However, I’m now faced with a problem. My parents taught me not to discriminate and that is unfortunately now the problem. An organization which I have held in the highest regard is now practicing something I can’t approve of. Not only that, in order to retain my job I’m faced with doing something that gives me a great deal of personal sadness. I’m forced to conclude the Boy Scouts of America are guilty of practicing discrimination against boys both for religious beliefs or lack thereof and for their sexuality. I think the worst part of this is that I feel that it would be in the best interest of both the Scouts and those whom they have chosen to exclude from their ranks to end this policy. Who says that someone who doesn’t believe in God can’t learn many of the lessons that the Boy Scouts teach. I think they can and I think they would be better people for it. I also think that the members of the troop would benefit from contact with such people. It would teach them tolerance for those who sometimes have other beliefs. The same holds true for those of different sexual orientation. In both cases I feel the knowledge gained by each of these groups about the other would be beneficial to all. It’s a cold hard fact that atheists and homosexuals exist. We’re all aware of the grave injustices and sometimes violence done to some of these people. It is my personal opinion that acts like that would be less likely to occur if people were better acquainted with each other. It is with great sadness that I now have to announce that I will no longer be able to assist the Scouts and I also have to recommend that the school district inform the Scouts that they will be unable to allow them to use school facilities until such policies are changed. Thank you for allowing me to address you.”

The Rev. Langston now claimed the floor. He started in with a personal attack on me.

“Coach Lofton, do you consider yourself a Christian?” 

“Yes Reverend I do.”

“If you don’t change your mind you’ll burn in hell.”

“Says who?”

“I do.”

Now I was mad. I knew I had already made an enemy so there didn’t seem to be any reason to hold back. Plus he had made a mistake. I decided to go on the offensive.

“Reverend, why is it I’m going to burn in hell?”

He started spouting off about all the places in the Bible where it condemns homosexuals. I listened and when he ran down I started in.

“I notice you make reference to various passages in the Old Testament. Does that mean you believe all of the Old Testament?”

“Yes I do.”

I couldn’t believe he could be so stupid. He walked right into a trap. “Well then, I guess you must believe in human sacrifice, in not eating pork, in not eating shellfish and in polygamy. Those things are all espoused in various places in the Old Testament. Of course I don’t know how you manage to reconcile the ham dinner you had to raise money for your church last month? Besides, you’ve just said that I’m going to burn in hell. Who appointed you the judge? I thought we would be judged at the Second Coming of Christ. I don’t recall any passage in which there was to be a judge appointed by God in the interim. Of course you may be God but so far you haven’t bothered to let anyone know.”

If looks could kill I would be dead and I’m sure it would be a slow painful death. His face was bright red and he looked like he was ready to come after me. About that time someone started to laugh. Rev looked over at that person and then others joined in. If any thing he got even redder in the face. I figured I’d better try to diffuse the situation somewhat. 

“Look Reverend Langston, I know you don’t believe those things and I said them not to ridicule you but to point out that one can’t always take the Bible literally. There are too many places where the word of God had been passed down word of mouth for many generations and even after it was in written form the language has changed and it has been translated out of its original language. As for my own beliefs, I believe God created man in his own image. If God created men I just can’t believe he would create some and then leave them no chance at salvation. Besides, this isn’t about either your or my religious beliefs. This is about the law of the land. Someplace in the bible it says render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s. In this case it is Caesar’s laws and not God’s laws we are talking about.” 

I looked around and observed that I had managed to convince even some of his followers with the part about Caesar’s law. Rev seemed to notice it too. Things seemed to calm down and people got to speak their piece. Finally everyone had said all they wanted to and Vern had resigned in public. I suggested that both Vern and I would be more than willing to help anyone who wanted to take over as scoutmaster and hoped that the district wouldn’t object to that. The school board agreed to that provided it didn’t go on too long and finally Mr. Downey got the meeting closed. All in all it was a very depressing meeting. One other thing that bothered me was that JJ’s parents were there and they were followers of Rev. Langston. Somehow that worried me even more than the Scouts.

After the meeting we were all milling around and quite a few people came up to Vern and me and thanked us for the work we had done in the Scouts and said they understood our problem. Corey and I headed home and fell into bed. A couple of quick kisses and we were both out like lights. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.

To be continued ...