He was a true Nerd Pioneer.
Sixties-era crooner Pat Boone, he of the white “buck” shoes, scrubbed face, saccharine lyrics and later career as an Evangelical. He stood out like a sexless schoolboy against Motown and Elvis, and evidently he hasn’t changed in his dotage.
I was astounded to read that he is now the force behind The Holy Dream Land Company (HLDC), which sells square-foot parcels of land in Israel to Texas fundamentalists (and anyone else who will put out their $100).
The thinking here is that Christians gaining ownership of the Holy Land will speed up the rapture (no, I’m not going to explain this to you) and also how neat it would be to OWN a piece of the place where Christianity began. And if you visit Israel, you get GPS directions to find your square and you can stand on it (with your feet very close together). It’s yours. No one else’s. You could defend it with your gun. You’ve got proof at home on a certificate framed on your wall right next to the stuffed buffalo head.
I have placed this chilling example in my “Okay, I Just Give Up” file. But if any of us looked, I’m sure we could locate similar horrifying examples in under a minute.
We aren’t the first to think that the world is going to H-E-Double Toothpicks. In this Sunday’s Gospel, the disciples are discouraged, fed up with squabbling in the new church and with the Roman soldiers flexing their muscles in their faces again. How do we handle this, they ask Jesus. What do we do?
So Jesus tells them The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.
I will warn you that it’s not as simple as ripping up the weeds.
And we will read from what is my favorite Psalm and sing the beautiful hymn, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.”
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of the mind
And the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind
If our love were but more faithful
we should take him at his word
And our life would be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.
Pat never recorded this one and for that we are eternally grateful.
See you in church.
Barbara
