Saturday, November 6, 2010

Sue, sui generis

Sue is generous?
Suey, suey, suey.
Why is this girl different from all the rest?
Sue, sui generis.

Picture this 45 to 50 years ago.

Sunday school: A girl 2 standard deviations from the norm in height and weight,  awkward Baby Huey amongst the cute little chicks, struggles to understand this day's lesson. She seems to be the only one paying attention per usual. Either her classmates are secure in the knowledge that Jesus loves them or they really don't give a damn. Either way, they seem to know something she doesn't know.

To atone for her sporadic attendance, something she has absolutely no control over, she is to recite a Bible verse.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want...

Immediately she is confused. Is the writer (David she was told) rejecting the Lord?

In public school, she usually gets the right answers. In Sunday school, she always misses the point.
If she were Eve, she certainly would have eaten that apple chosing knowledge over blind obedience.
If she were Abraham, she would not have gone through the motions of killing her only son to prove obedience.
When God throws misfortunes in Job's way to prove a point to Satan, she wonders why Job's children needed to be killed (along with all his wives, servants and livestock). When Job's friends reject him assuming Job must be on the wrong side of God, they are punished for assuming the obvious.

On and on. However no thanks to Jesus, God becomes more reasonable in the New Testament although the logic of having ones Son tortured and killed seems to escape her. The parables are even harder to decipher.
The prodigal son. she saw the non-prodigal son's point: it is unfair. (We like to reenact this parable in our own family).
Then the tale of the 10 brides awaiting their groom. Five were wise; five were not. The unwise wasted their oil so they were not able to receive their groom. At the last minute, they plead to the wise ones to share their oil, they were rebuffed (aren't they supposed to share?see The Prodigal Son). The point shewas told, was that you had to be ready to receive the Lord.

Not only did she go to Sunday School, she sang in the choir (The Crusaders before anyone knew that was a pejorative word). She had a reasonable voice before hitting puberty reduced her range  to half an octave.  Due to her excessive height, she was always in the back row.

However she thought God did not like her. She had many questions. Sheseemed to be entirely alone in this. She actually scheduled an appointment with the minister to voice her concerns. Sadly she could not articulate them very well and he gave her the standard You are too young to fully understand this.

Even though he was nice about it, she felt he was very condescending.
She never showed up in that church again.

You're nothing but a pack of cards!"Alice
Alice in Wonderland.

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