The Men I've known

I've met many different people on my trip through life. Some of them have given me the impression that faith in a god is a rational and sensible lifestyle. Others have shown me that faith in a god is a platform for personal power, and an outlet to force an opinion on a captive audience. Having a group of detractors of my own I am not afraid to say what I think. At least I do think these days. In my youth I numbed all thinking with alcohol and marijuanna.
I was hitchin down to virginia in the early seventies when I was picked up in Pennsylvania by a catholic priest who was the president of some huge catholic seminary in Baltimore. He was in his 60's and I in my twenties. He'd picked up some "Children of God" a cult prevalent then in those days on the east coast. Of course they ripped him to pieces for his 'professionalism'. I was a fundamentalist at the time but let learning be my guide rather than judgement. I learned he was gay. I learned he'd taken a lover in his early priesthood and then given him up for the job. We spent the night in Baltimores Roland Park district where the Seminary was and that morning I met a black priest from Africa who spoke with an Irish accent. He was raised by Irish nuns. I'd only ever heard blacks speak in ebonics up to that time and was amazed that he had the brouge he posessed. I was given a tour of the facility and then dropped off on I-95 to finish my journey to the beach.
I wound up at Rock Church, and listened to the reformed heroin addicts who ran that place talk in ecstatic terms of heaven, Jesus, and a better life. In later years I discovered that the Ministry there was involved in immorality at the highest levels.
That knowledge just added to my cynicism. I know what immorality I'm capable of, and I also have learned that to be immoral is to generally trash your life, and someone elses life in matters of degrees. But I digress.
I met a man on a highway in western New York who was a Calvinist. A huge believer in the work ethic. I was 22 and hitching back to Illinois from New York. He pretty much took me home and indoctrinated me in Christianity. He had me read a modern language Bible and When it came to commandments "Thou shalt not kill became Thou shalt not commit murder. Adultry either. His wife really liked me a lot.Anyway I had to move on in the spring. I wound up meeting a woman who believed in Christ and had strange ideas about orthodoxy. She opened her house to everyone and selectivly threw out the bums.I my self got tossed out eventually.shes in her seventies now and I hear that she is into Native American Mysticisim as well as Chrisitanity. She was a Cherokee Indian I believe. Looked it too. I migrated back to NYS and met a minister of a commune in Johnstown in 1974. He ran the commune and a church. The big secret was he was gay. I was too naieve to get it however and wound up playing guitar behind one of their talented singers. I remember his teaching was interesting and held my interest. But alcohol and marriage ended my time with christianity.I briefly tried to do the family Christianity in the mid and late seventies. Being a drunk interfered with a lot of the aceticism. My ex hated it as well and was on the look out for another man....But during that time I met a man who called himself a 'fundamentalist Plus' and he was a tounge talker, and had certain strict borders. He was in his late fifties and did good deeds for a lot of the local old folks. He took them to the grocery store, to doctors appointments, many really kind works to people who were shut in or invalided. He was extremely soft spoken and really had to be pressed to become reactionary. I managed to do that to him a couple of times however. My own father always said I could make a preacher cuss. I became divorced. I wandered kind of aimlessly around. I wound up in Cedar Rapids Iowa. I'd lived there for a few years when my first wife and I separated and reunited. i met a man who had NO work ethic whatsoever. He too was a Christian. He was a get a tract and hit the street kind of christian. We are still aquainted. I consider him a friend. But we have very little in common religious-wise. Then I met the minister at my present wifes church. It was the end of the road for me as far as the church went.This guy was/is the biggest wuss I ever met. But always spoke quite boldy. I like him until I got to know him then....ahhhhhhhh I dont hate hime. i just leave him be. He preaches contradiction after contradiction and if I bring it to his attention he accuses me of misreading him. Every time! So I said Oh well.
Bowe