Nashville: The Mood (Part 6)

NASHVILLE: THE MOOD

PART 6

by Donald H. Carpenter

Copyright ©2017 by Donald H. Carpenter

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NASHVILLE: THE MOOD

PART 6

The Baptist Church has never really been put under the lens of scrutiny, the voice off in the darkness said.

The visitor could see the lips of the person speaking, and the lower part of the face, but the way the room was lighted, the upper portion was in complete shadow. The speaker had long excused that on problems related to glaucoma; everyone knew that about him. He always sat in partial darkness, and partial light, and it was just known about him by anyone who visited with him. It was made clear ahead of time to those few who were allowed in.

They’ve never been scrutinized, never put under a microscope. Of course, there’s been criticism over the years, usually from rebellious figures here and there in society. But those lone voices usually were protesting against some individual situation, pleading for their right to do this or that. But there’s never been an organized study of the church, of the institution, of its roots, outside of court church historians.

The voice paused for a few moments, and the visitor took the time to study the skin color (pale white), the distinguishing characteristics of the lips (thin and slightly pink, often pressed together or open only slightly). The speaker’s hands were below the desktop level, but based upon the upper body language, he must have never moved them. He was as still as a statue, sitting off in the darkness, except for the barely moving lips. So this was what a partially disembodied voice is like, the visitor thought. It might as well have been an old recording of an instructional manual.

Isn’t that true of all churches? the visitor asked tentatively. Only the members and the leaders care enough to examine it and re-examine it? Everyone else is interested in their own church, so why would they study another one?

The partially disembodied voice was silent for a few more moments, and the visitor stared straight into the darkness, trying to find the eyes, but without being too obvious. He wanted to strain, to partially shut his own eyelids in order to see better, deeper into the void, but he didn’t want to be too obvious. He could see nothing, and he wondered if it was even possible to see into that blackness.

There’ve been numerous books written about the Catholic Church, the voice said evenly. "Many books critical of the Catholic Church, both on a doctrinal basis, and its actual history…Of course, quite a few people would say that the Catholic Church has gotten by with many, many things that have never been studied properly. Or at least, only now are they beginning to be studied, and even there it’s only the very recent happenings, not the history and the culture that led up to those events.

And there’ve been histories of the formation of the Protestant Church, plenty of them. But somehow the American Baptist Church has escaped scrutiny, even if they’ve done things that were quite unique to them. If you can find such a history, please feel free to bring it to my attention and enlighten me. I doubt you’ll find it.

The visitor shifted a little uneasily, struggling for the next word, phrase, or hopefully relevant question. The visitor was slight in build, diminutive, slender, as if he had not consumed an extra calorie of food or drink in his lifetime. The visitor’s face showed a certain naiveté, but also a quiet intelligence, especially around the eyes. It was obvious he was interested in the subject, perhaps did not agree with the full impact of the statements, but the countenance promised to give the issue full consideration, and if an opinion needed to be altered or reversed, it would be done. What—what got you—onto this? When did you first develop this interest?

The voice remained silent again, the lips closed and pressed tighter than the visitor had seen them yet, and stayed that way. The silence went on for the longest time. Had the visitor angered the source behind the voice? Was it a long pause to order his thoughts, to put things precisely, neatly, with no waste? The silence became awkward.

I first became aware of the issue as a child, the voice started again. Many years ago. Too many to remember. It was just the contrast between the members of the church and the surrounding community, the minority surrounding community. By that I mean everyone else. It was obvious, to everyone who was not a member. I often wondered if it was obvious to the people within the majority, the members of the church. To this day, I haven’t concluded one way or the other. I just don’t know whether they see what we see, even if from a different angle. But to me, and to others outside looking in, the differences were immediate and ever-present. It may have been that I gave it more thought than the average outsider. Or maybe I just voiced my thoughts a bit more—very, very tentatively at first, then more and more openly. But it’s only been in the last decade that I’ve really said anything explicit along those lines. Yes, it helps that society has become more diverse, and that there are more critics of the church in general, aside from just this strain. But still, this particular strain is still worth exploring, still worth understanding, and above all worth exposing.

I understand that you’ve called them—a cult? the visitor half stated, half asked. He started to speak again, to add to the statement or question, but obviously thought better about it and reverted to silence. He looked straight into the darkness again, and sat back in his chair to give his words time to sink in, wanting to avoid diluting them in any way, in order that he could get a clear-cut answer to his question.

For the first time, the visitor thought that he could see actual movement in the darkness, a slight shifting, very slight. Still, it was something, he was sure of it. He braced for a long pause, but only a second went by before the voice spoke again, evenly and confidently.

"Yes, indeed I have. I don’t throw that word around lightly, you know. But it certainly occurred to me, and it took me quite a while to come around to this truth, but I am convinced it is a truth. The church utters ‘certainties’ like no other that I’ve seen up so close. It gets its claws into the very young, and leaves an impression that never goes away no matter how many alternative churches, or college professors teaching atheism, or devil worshipers in the countryside they cross paths with. The more I think about it, it’s amazing how it hides in plain sight. It’s there for everyone to see, yet no one sees it. The constant search for evil, in personal behavior, in conspiracy theories about the world, and in the focus on one enemy.

That last is very interesting. There’s always one main enemy, or if it’s more than one, one that seems to get the most emphasis constantly. I’m not enough of an historian of the church to know who the original enemy was. But I do know that once a specific enemy can no longer be sustained, because society itself, the society around the church, has changed to the extent that it can no longer support the concept of that enemy, the church moves on to another main enemy. It always has one in the waiting. It couldn’t survive without it, I don’t believe. And it’s amazing how they make the shift from one to the other so seemingly easily, so seemingly effortlessly, so seemingly painlessly. You would think that many people believing so strongly in some idea would have a harder time giving up the idea than they do, even if there’s a new one in its place. The two enemies are often so different that there’s virtually no similarity between them, except one was the enemy beforehand, and has been replaced by the new enemy. How does that happen so easily, so effortlessly? But it does.

And you believe the Baptist Church is in such a category by itself? the visitor asked, then paused. Haven’t some people called, say, the Church of Scientology a cult?

There was a long silence in the darkened corner of the room, but the visitor thought that some more shifting around was probably going on. It could have been an illusion, he realized, but he thought that he could see pieces of the blackness moving around within the total blob of blackness. He kept thinking that the longer he sat there, the better he would be able to see into that void, but it never happened. As he had done up to now, he decided to wait out the silence.

I don’t know much about them, the voice said. As I told you, I haven’t studied every ecclesiastical institution. Yes, I’ve read articles about that entity, and accusations that have been made, but I don’t know anything first hand, and therefore I have never considered it for very long. It’s more akin to reading about a murder in Chicago or Phoenix or Seattle. It’s just out there somewhere. I have a mild curiosity about it, but that’s it.

And how about the Church of Mesmenology? Our new neighbors in town?

The restaurant at the Off-Broadway Club in downtown was quiet on this Thursday spring evening. The winter just ending had been mild,