Dancing-with-Baptists-Createspace-Final--A4

DANCING WITH BAPTISTS
North Shepherd. While his mother tried on dresses, Greg was allowed to roam, “just not too
far.”
Over by the Boy Scout display of uniforms and sashes were two water fountains.
Each of the white porcelain structures rose out of the floor tile and blossomed to a bowl with
a small chrome fountain. A small ship’s wheel-like chrome knob on the side turned to release
the cool water. Above the twin fountains were signs. The one on the right said, “Whites
Only,” the other “Colored Only.”
Greg stood there wondering what would
happen if he drank from the wrong one. Then he thought, I guess this is why Mrs. Smith taught us
to read.
Sometimes, on really hot summer Sundays, the boys would sneak into the church
kitchen to see if anyone had left a Coca Cola in the refrigerator. While Greg shared that cold
Coke with Emmett he never once thought of those water fountains at Sears.
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Small Trinity Street Baptist was probably the birthplace of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” No
one there drank, cussed, fooled around on their wives, or was gay. Gerrod Blackstone, the
music minister, was a
“confirmed bachelor” at 34. Marcie Williams and LuAnn Sutton lived in that one bedroom
garage apartment because it was cheaper. The one thing that was out in the open, and often
inside, was smoking.
Four of the seven deacons smoked. The church provided a smoking area out back for
those who struggled to sit through an entire sermon. Greg saw a few non-smokers out there
on occasion, as well.
But now smoking was becoming a Baptist issue and Greg heard earfuls about it.
The Baptists had actually taken on the tobacco issue much earlier. At the 1937
Southern Baptist
Convention an amendment to a social resolution stated:
ItisthesenseofthisConvention thattheprevalenceofsmoking
amongChristianpeople,especially amongpreachers,churchleaders,
anddenominationalworkers,isnot onlydetrimentaltothehealthof
thosewhoparticipate,butishurtful tothecauseofChristinthatit
weakensthemessageandlowers theinfluenceofthosewhoare
chargedwiththepreservationand
spreadoftheGospel.Washington D.C. 1937
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