Shout Out

I found this site linked at Pyromaniac and I was immediately smitten with Keith Drury’s essay, I’m a Camp Meeting Reenactor – are you?

I have a college buddy, Ken O’vell who is a Civil war reenactor. He spends summer weekends dressed up like a Union soldier and shoots his musket as he and others reenact old Civil war battles. As for me, I’m a Camp Meeting reenactor. Most every summer since I’ve been a lad I attend camp meeting services and get to experience camp meetings pretty based on the pattern of the 1800s. Camp Meetings are just a hair over 200 years old and their history is rich and informative. Actually experiencing an Old Fashioned Camp Meeting tells me more about who my denomination is than reading about a 1700’s up tight Anglican cleric, John Wesley. So I like camp meeting reenactments.

This guy is a published writer, but I’m captivated by his witty posts and good-natured pokes at the pop Christian culture on his blog. For example, take point # 7 from his emancipation proclamation of July 28, 2005 – I’m tired of being young— I’m gonna’ start being an old man today:

7. I’m gonna’ laugh more and take things less seriously. Everybody in the church is too serious—even young people. As a young man I’ve taken myself far too seriously and acted at times like the church was about to collapse. As an old man I now know that the church will survive all kinds of things. I’ve seen it survive past “emergencies” like holy laughter, WWJD, KJV-RSV, the Church Growth movement and the Prayer of Jabez so I now know it will make it through Purpose-Driven pot-holders. It survived Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Tammy Faye so I know it will survive Brian McLaren, Rob Bell and Joel Osteen. And in the interest of being lighter I plan to make fun of things more and poke fun at people—especially Baptists and Nazarenes, who are my most frequent readers. Actually I think I’ll poke fun at people in the exact order of my readership. In fact I may have to make fun of lots of my own past writing too—I was far to serious a writer as a young man.

I hope you enjoy Keith’s stuff. Also, I added a few things to the left column today.