Social Stratification in the Deep South

This is a couple days late, but here it is. The experience from May 27.

As I mentioned earlier, today we went to the 16^th Street Baptist Church for the Sunday service. I’d never been to a Baptist church like that, but I’ve been to similar services. I really enjoyed it for the most part, but there are some things that didn’t sit very well with me. Some comments made by the pastor seemed out of line to me, but after a little reflection have some justification based on a perspective slightly different from my own. The Baptist church is historically a conservative church and I suppose this one is particular was very traditional in the sense that they interpreted the text of the Bible very literally and took the words at face value. At least that was my understanding when the pastor made the comment, “Don’t ask me what I think about shacking up or same sex marriage, because it’s all right here.” At that point he referred to his Bible. I had been enjoying the service up until that point in time, but after that I had difficultly paying attention in the same way. That isn’t to say that overall I didn’t enjoy it, but that’s something I felt was inappropriate.

At lunch I had a discussion with Marcus, Kendra, Benny and Jaymi about how that comment made us feel and why we think the pastor made that specific reference. All of us were bothered by the comment, but the other brought up some things I hadn’t thought of before. Kendra said that she could justify his statement better, because following it he said that God hates the sin, not the sinner. I can see how that may justify it somewhat, BUT that means that same sex marriage is a sin. That isn’t something I believe, but it was interesting to think about.

After the service we spent the rest of the afternoon traveling from Birmingham to Montgomery. We had time to reflect on the bus about the church service. We talked as a group, but we’d already talked so much at lunch that I didn’t really have much to say. I’d been to similar church services before, so it wasn’t a new experience for me like it was for other people.

We had a chance to relax and just hang out as a group when we got to Montgomery. Complimentary happy hour = a good time. Don’t worry mom, we didn’t overindulge. We also played in the pool for like 2 hours after that. We’ve had a good mix of work, learning and play. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the trip!!

David and Me After Church

I have more journals to come, but I need to get ready to go to the Hancock County library. Have a great day!