| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Ike" |
| Date: |
04 Oct 2004 09:59:08 AM |
| Object: |
Strange Christian Wedding I Just Attended |
The nite before the wedding, there was a catered dinner cafeteria style.
Friends of the bride and groom, and also his minister, testified, after we
received the sort of horrible all-you-can-eat food. They described a story
of how the groom "pursued" the bride, having got this idea in relation to
praying with his minister for "purity". Apparently his raging hormones were
causing a conflict with his purpose as a minister himself. The father of the
bride was also a minister, and the daughter was also a missionary of some
sort. It seems they felt that she had, as one of her important attributes,
an outlet for his otherwise sinful urges. The bride and groom were both
young and very attractive.
Later I heard that the bride had been engaged to be married to another young
man prior to having met the groom, but he chickened out a month or so before
the wedding, maybe being turned off by the intense relgiosity; I really
don't know those details. The same person who confided this, said that the
bride's father was very glad to have her be married, but this sentiment is
not unusual in a large family.
I actually left the terrible barbecue before it was over, so I wasn't there
for whatever praying they did. Of course they prayed before dinner, too. It
was getting rather late.
That same evening I had a conversation with a realative of the bride,
actually not of the same religion as the bride and groom, who asked me about
my impressions. After some prompting I eventually said that the evening had
not been a total waste of time in that, I had learned things. On being
further interrogated, I said that my impression was that the two really did
not know each other, and that might cause problems later in the
relationship. The young lady might discover that she was really more
attracted to a different sort of person, etc., etc. The relative agreed with
me totally on that point.
The next day was the actual wedding ceremony. By the way, the minister who
performed the ceremony was the bride's father. A couple of things stood out,
to my attention. One of them was the question he asked the groom. Basically
it was, whether he initiated the relationship. Apparently it is important
that the man be in charge. Later there was a lighting of 3 so-called unity
candles, by the parents of the bride, and of the groom, and finally a candle
in the center representing the couple.
After the wedding ceremony a lot of photos were taken of various people
posing with the new couple, and with each other, since it was also sort of a
family reunion. There was a little photo shrine with a guazy curtain and a
bench, that some of the people used to pose in. It was during this time that
I noticed that the discarded bride's train had caught on fire, and it took
several minutes to extinguish, since merely stomping on it resulted in
smoldering bits of it sticking to one's shoes.
The music was provided by a pop Christian group, headed by the bride's
brother, which serenaded throughout the ceremony with romantic tunes.
After the ceremony there was a reception at the groom's church, (yet another
location) attended by hundreds of people with more terrible food and no
alcohol. There were literally less than a handful of black people in
attendance, one of whom was a little boy about 7 years old who had helped
carry the bridal train. I found him sitting alone at the reception on the
steps to the stage of the church auditorium. He was trying to put together a
small battery powered footlight on that had been fastened to the stairs I
helped him put it back, and he confided in me that he was concerned that the
young man who had just been maried would not have much time to pay attention
to him any more. I took him over to the punch bowl, which was too short for
him to reach up to, and gave him a bowl of punch. he then saw the people he
was with, standing in the food line. They were a black couple with a little
girl, as I recall, and these were the only black people I remember seeing,
out of surely more than 1,000. Of course the churches (at least the
Protestant) are mostly segregated, apparently by preference.
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| User: "Vacendak" |
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| Title: Re: Strange Christian Wedding I Just Attended |
04 Oct 2004 02:52:23 PM |
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"Ike" <accordiondoc@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:0zd8d.2409$UP1.219@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
There were literally less than a handful of black people in
attendance, one of whom was a little boy about 7 years old who had helped
carry the bridal train. I found him sitting alone at the reception on the
steps to the stage of the church auditorium.
Seeing that would bring a tear to my eye.
--
"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are
servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal
for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of
a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of
reason than that of blindfolded fear."
Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787)
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