Bible Thumped

I live in what a friend once referred to as, “The Buckle of the Bible Belt.” On the ten mile drive to my parents’ place from my apartment, there are at least ten churches on the route. There are several more within a mile of the route. Yes, there are a lot of churches in the area. One might think that, with all of these churches in the area, there would be many community service organizations helping those less fortunate, like the homeless. Instead, there is one homeless shelter that I know of in the county and not many more soup kitchens around. The general feeling from people here is that if you belong to any religion (and a particular church), that’s good. If you belong to their religion, that’s better. If you don’t consider yourself Christian or aren’t very religious, then there is something deeply wrong with you.

All of that played in my mind last week when I saw something that could serve as the poster child of irony. In my town on Saturdays, as people are out enjoying the day, others dressed in their best stand at busy intersections preaching at the top of their lungs and waving bibles at passing cars. I hadn’t realized how weird that was (I do think it’s weird, don’t get me wrong) until a friend’s husband, on his first trip here, was shocked by the idea that someone would do that. Those of us who find the idea uncomfortable call them, and the people that come up to us in public places to advertise recruit tell you about their religion (yes, that happens, too) “bible thumpers.” After a while, you block them out and go about your day.

Irony has kept me from forgetting about what I saw last Saturday.

I was at a light waiting to turn. In the grass median was a homeless woman holding up a sign asking for money. Across the street, two lanes of traffic, was a bible thumper in a tie screaming at the people waiting at the light that they’re going to hell for not believing what he believes. If he truly considered himself a Christian, shouldn’t he have tried to help the woman instead of ignoring her?

Now, I don’t know how long they were out there at that intersection. For all I know, he might have tried to help her earlier. It just gives what he was doing a feeling of hypocrisy.