When the pastor yelled at me

I don't attend AA meetings anymore. But there was a time when I was very active in "the program", as it's universally referred to by members. And since AA is wedded to church basements, I met a bunch of priests and pastors. In fact, I was usually the liaison between the church and the AA group.

For the most part, this was fine. In fact, there were a few ministers and pastors that I liked. (I can't say I cottoned to any of the Catholic priests.) There was one pastor in particular that I enjoyed talking to. He was the head of his Baptist church and whenever we met to talk about church/group relations, we'd sit in his office -- and end up laughing a lot. I lent him books to read, and we talked about god and atheism. It was quite enjoyable. He was a fine man.

Then one rainy evening, as our group was meeting in the church, the ceiling opened up and water poured onto the altar. To be more precise, the majority of the water fell directly onto a large, open bible in the center of the altar. Of course, we rushed to the altar and moved everything away, right down to the tablecloth.

That evening, I called my friend the pastor to tell him what had happened. In the process, I said "So we grabbed the bible and all the other things..."

He burst in. "You didn't touch the bible?!" he said, horror in his voice. Apparently it was a magic bible, or something. Heathen hands weren't allowed near it. I responded that he should be very thankful that we did touch the bible, as it would have been ruined if we left it where it was. He calmed down but it was a tad unnerving.

You never know with these religious people. Dog forbid you step on one of their nonsensical traditions. It's kinda creepy. You want to like them but they believe in fairytales. Anyway, I still like the guy. What can you do? They all believe in nonsense. You try to ignore it but despite your best efforts, that jack-in-the-box head rears up now and then. It comes with the territory.