What the Flock??!!

 Until the news broke of the bigly protest at the fancy, Southern Baptist Church in in St Paul, Minnesota, I hadn't given much thought to ministers and pastors having day jobs. The pastor at that church, David Easterwood (a fitting name, I'd say!) has a fulltime job as the director of the local ICE field office. Makes you wonder which is the side hustle. I really had thought at some point that "the calling" is a 24/7 gig for all of them. A niece is married to a minister, and I've never known him to have a day job of any sort. I believe though, that something like 30% of pastors in his field of Christianity have fulltime jobs in other, non-religious fields.

I did know that as I had worked in Memphis with maybe a dozen guys in commercial construction who were preachers. But these fellas had store front churches at best. Kinda like a starter kit of ministry. Many didn't even have that, and they'd tell me they were also a preacher. I'd give them a Pete Davidson "Ok" and not expect too much work out of them. It's probably like servers in LA being actors in that they are really actors not waiters, just waiting tables until their big break. Most were not good painters. They probably were not good preachers either, but who knew? I wanted work out of them, not salvation. It was a struggle to get either, though a couple tried the salvation part. I was not "Ok" with that. 

Actually, the only one I took seriously as a painter, seemed to be the least serious about his religious side. Alonzo could talk whoring with the best of them! In front of his son one day, he reminisced about a $5 dollar whore in Mexico he had fallen head over heels for: the true love of his life. He lit up when talking about her. His son (street named "Rat" actually by his grandmother because as a child, he'd scurry around the kitchen cabinets looking for snacks) would just roll his eyes at daddy's memory. I don't recall if Alonzo had a storefront, but yeah, he was a preacher. Ok. He lost me one day when he explained that the "cheek" in "turn the other cheek" referred to the butt cheeks, not the face. As a bottom spanker myself, I laughed, but he wasn't kidding. Biblically speaking, it seems obvious to me that the cheeks in question were facial rather than the fun kind. I would expect a preacher to know that. I don't think he was much of a bottom spanker either.

But I digress. Stories for another day there. Probably the worst painter I ever knew was a black guy who actually had a storefront church in south Memphis. He was a nice guy- at first- but it was clear to me that he had no painting skills whatsoever. There's a teacher inside of me through and I do like to impart my knowledge. I just ask that you be willing to listen and learn. Whatever this guy's name was, he just didn't get it. Painting is easy if you are willing to get good at it. But if you can't grasp the brush and roller, you are not going to get the rest of it. The shop cut his pay, and I had to be the bearer of that bad news. Having not hired him though, I did not set his pay. I would not make the call to fire him. The bosses always want to pass down the dirty work to you. I wasn't having that. I made my boss William do his job. Of course, I still had to be the bearer of the bad news, but it was the shop's call, not mine. 

I tried to explain to this guy that I didn't set his pay, up down or in between; that the shop did. But yeah, this was based on my field assessment of his skill. There was no way to not be the bad guy with that criterion, but I was by my proximity. I told him something like the "shop said they couldn't use (him) anymore and, sorry you got to go." Nobody wants to hear that, but most guys see it coming. He didn't react well. "Call me a (n-word)!!" he kept screaming. Well, I hadn't and I wasn't going to and I readily saw how he wanted to shift the dynamic with that request. Make it racial rather than business. I did not take the bait. It was awkward, vulgar and totally unnecessary. The other trades on scene that day must have wondered if they were about to witness a fight, if not a murder. I never wake up choosing violence, so I wasn't having any of that, certainly not because a guy couldn't paint. I think I said something like, "Well, you don't work here anymore- do the right thing" and I walked away. Having lost his day job, maybe he could work on becoming a better preacher- fulltime?  

This preacher further upriver in Minneapolis may talk the talk but he does not walk the walk, of his walk with the Lord, if he is also not welcoming strangers in his land. I'm not completely indifferent to religions. If one is serious in their conviction, Ok. But if you can't follow your own rules, don't expect me to follow yours. You can go flock yourself.