Knowing the Bible wasn't enough

Hi folks -

I had an interesting day. You may have noticed that I've been on a Bible quoting jag lately. I just get these little jags, sometimes Wordsworth, sometimes Emerson, sometimes the Bible. OK, sometimes Dilbert.

I generally go to work on Sunday morning after I read the paper. It's a quiet time to get ready for hearings in the upcoming week, return some calls, even see people who can't come in the office during the week. At the end of the day, I'll shower and lounge around dishabile and read in the silence of the huge house until late. Today, I went in about 10, put on the coffee, got a huge mug of it, and headed upstairs to my "working" office. I put on some New Age music, cranked it up, and started in. For some reason, my cell phone was turned off, which is really unusual. Well, I wasn't paying attention, I guess. Around 11, my son came in, his arms full of clothes. He slapped them on my desk and told me that Amy, my partner, had instructed him to deliver them to me, and that I was to shower, shave, get on a coat & tie, and have my ass over to her church by noon. I first thought that this might be her attempt to bring me closer to Jesus, or something of the sort, but she knows that I'm rather unconventional, so I discounted that. The office phone rang, and it was Amy. She was pretty frantic about wanting me over to the church ASAP. She is a trustee & a deacon (I think the first is temporal and the second is spiritual), and they were having a difficult business meeting where someone that the board of deacons wanted to toss out of the membership had brought an abrasive lawyer with him. Well, it's pretty darn sad when anyone needs their lawyer to go to church with them. (And that goes for both that member and the church deacons, etc.)

I buzzed over, went in the back way, and I slipped into the back pew. (OK, to the extent that I can ever "slip" anywhere.) I remained totally quiet, and I think that the only thing useful for the church I did was be seen by the other lawyer, with whom I've had little issues in the past. (I would like to think that I get along with everyone. There are darn few exceptions. This guy is an exception.) I'm glad I went, though, because this was a laboratory in behavior of humans under stress. The moderator quoted some scripture, generally appropriately, but it didn't do what I'd call a whole lot of good. A couple of preliminary business matters were disposed of with some minimal controversy, and then the congregation took up the expulsion. There were shouts (not "Hallelujah," but things like "This is crap"), tears, spontaneous prayers, sighs, applause, jeers and even a few amused looks. The affected member was duly de-membershiped (or whatever the heck you would call that result.) That member and his abrasive lawyer stalked out, and I'm thinking about calling that lawyer tomorrow and sweetly telling him that I'll accept service for the church, in other words, when they sue, to send the documents to me. I can't say that I know a whole lot of canon law, but I do know that the civil courts in West Virginia are very reluctant to intrude into the affairs of churches. Well, it's a little more pro bono work to fit into the schedule.

I don't know if I really have a point here. Maybe I'm just thinking that human foibles are evident everywhere, and no one and no group is immune from them. Maybe this relates back to the post about not fighting your pack.

Well, that Great Architect of the Universe certainly has a plan, but I still don't have a clue what it is.

Mizpah!

R