I have been thoroughly enjoying reading To Kill A Mockingbird
* * *
Miss Maudie settled her bridgework. “You know old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist–“
“That’s what you are, ain’t it?”
My shell’s not that hard, child. I’m just a Baptist.”
“Don’t you all believe in foot-washing?”
“We do. At home in the bathtub.”
“But we can’t have communion with you all–“
Apparently deciding that it was easier to define primitive baptistry than closed communion, Miss Maudie said: “Footwashers believe anything that’s pleasure is a sin. Did you know some of ’em came out of the woods one Saturday and passed by this place and told me me and my flowers were going to hell?”
“Your flowers, too?”
“Yes ma’am. They’d burn right with me. They thought I spent too much time in God’s outdoors and not enough time inside the house reading the Bible.”
My confidence in pulpit Gospel lessened at the vision of Miss Maudie stewing forever in various Protestant hells. True enough, she had an acid tongue in her head, and she did not go about the neighborhood doing good, as did Miss Stephanie Crawford. But while no one with a grain of sense trusted Miss Stephanie, Jem and I had considerable faith in Miss Maudie. She had never told on us, had never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in our private lives. She was our friend. How so reasonable a creature could live in peril of everlasting torment was incomprehensible.
“That ain’t right, Miss Maudie. You’re the best lady I know.”
“Miss Maudie grinned. “Thank you ma’am. Thing is, footwashers think women are a sin by definition. They take the Bible literally, you know.”
* * *
One of my ancestors, Daniel Parker, was an influential Primitive Baptist and he had a high regard for the outdoors. In fact, he said that he learned more about God out in the woods than he ever learned about God in a book. However, the rest of the description is, unfortunately, all too accurate regarding many Primitive Baptists.
To witness the most hateful example, Westboro Baptist Church, CLICK HERE.
Here are links to my previous posts God Hates Westboro Church and The Westboro Hate-Cult.
