Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) (13 page)

I laughed “Okay wise guy let’s see how you
do when the place is packed.”

“I’ll be fine. If it gets tight I’ll call
across the street and either Roberta or Cathy will help.”

Cathy was a waitress at Lighthouse whom
Greg thought was cute but had not yet had the courage to tell her so.

“Well then for your sake I hope it gets
jammed.” I said as I breezed out the door.

Coda
Six

I would not say that racism is in-breed within our
movement but I would say that it is the secret shame of our heritage and it is
far too prevalent in the actions of many of our people.

Preachers from Billy Sunday though Bob Jones Sr.
have all taken funding from the Klan and allowed the hatred that they stand for
into far too much of their preaching.

For far too long there was an underlying current
within the Baptist movement that when Paul spoke of not being unequally yoked
he was referring to not marrying some one of a different race. John R Rice who
as you know I deeply admired took this very position. In fact I remember giving
you and Rita, his book on marriage and courtship when you were dating, and
being guilty of totally forgetting some of the vile things he said in that
work.
 
You guys were more than gracious and
I remember Rita was far more concerned about the inherent physical abuse in Dr.
Rice’s story of the young lady whose father spanked her on her wedding day,
than the racism in his opposition to inter-racial marriage. In either case, I
and many other preachers remained silent for far too long, and in some cases
remain silent, concerning the excesses of works like this.

The movement went further than just opposing
inter-racial marriage or calling it unevenly yoked, and in some circles,
notably those in the sphere of the more conservative fraction of the Bob Jones Separatist
movement began to equate marriage between the races with the one world order
movement.

Sunday and Jones and even Rice were of course
products of their times but the hollowness of the sin that they embraced when condoning
the sentiments and actions of organizations like the Klan premeditated the IBM world
for far too long.

I was woefully unprepared for this problem at Calvary.
I knew, vaguely that Dr. Longstreet was against mixed marriage but I thought of
him and this idea as the unfailing sin of an older man who would soon learn the
error of his ways. I ignored the stories I had heard of Calvary before I got
there, stories that somehow in my mind I had regulated to the far past, when
they were actually not that long ago.

For example it came to my attention that one of the
local youth facilities had brought a group of young men to the church, the
visit went fine until one of the deacons, who is currently sadly still a
deacon, objected, saying he did not want ‘those boys near our girls’. Did that
mean their race? Or their background? Or both? Either way if I had been the
pastor then perhaps I could have changed things. Instead those poor young men,
many of whom I am sure were in need of salvation were sent away.

There were other smaller incidents, the Prihor’s encountered,
I heard later some suspicious based not only on their ethnicity but on her
father’s ownership of several rock and roll radio stations, and his prior
marriage to a Hispanic woman. Similarly I think that Leda and Argon meet with
some resistance and I know that Argon spoke to me after 9-11 with deep concerns
because several parishioners knew that he had Muslims in his family.

Again if I had been more aware of these matters or
thought of them as a big deal I would have acted faster and better. Instead I
did what I had set out to do I intentionally grew the bus ministry knowing that
this would expand our outreach into the local Black Community. The grumblings
from the racist within our church grew louder, but I brushed them aside.

Then you caused me problems. I mean that of course
in a good way. Your salvation and subsequent joining of us at Calvary remains
one of the highlights of my pastorship. I am very proud of the path the Lord
put you on and the small part I played in that journey. While your past may
have initially raised some eyebrows, the fact that everyone could see the
reality of your salvation was without a doubt a deciding factor in your rapid
rise in the ranks of church leadership. Before you began to court Rita I
worried more that you and Argon would eventually clash as you grew in the Lord
and moved past him on the leadership scale. I was pleased to see how much he
loved you and how proud he too was of your growth. I was confident that in the
long run like Barnabas with Paul, Argon would eventually graciously step aside,
but I feared there would be some bumps in the road.

Your relationship with Rita was however another
problem all together. You know that you were not the first inter-racial couple
at Calvary but you were the first interracial couple in leadership at Calvary
and that was a huge problem for far too many people, and it became because of
their concerns a problem for me as well.

At first I admit I handled the matter wrong, concerned
more for keeping the peace than guiding the two of you on the right marital
path. When you ignored by request to date for a longer period of time and
married anyway, I was actually afraid that we would lose our friendship. I am
happy that you were the better man and just chalked my objections up to
pastoral concern. Still the fact that we now had an inter-racial couple at the
church both of whom were teaching Sunday school to our teens was not meet with
warmth by a certain faction. In fact just three days before I was removed as
Pastor I was told in no uncertain terms by Deacons Sinclair and Lafayette that
I needed to bring both of you up for church discipline and remove you as Sunday
School teachers, the problem was they could not give me one good reason why you
should be subject to church discipline and I knew both of them to be living in
glass houses.

Chapter Thirteen

I swung over to the Duel Highway and
dropped the papers off at Argon’s.
 
We
exchanged both pleasantries and more information on the project and then I
moved on to my next goal.

I turned up the highway going west and
headed across town and past the Wal Mart that so dominated the life of our
community as it did so many other towns and small cities across America. I did
my part for globalization by hitting the drive through window at Starbuck’s and
getting an ice coffee. We were in mid-summer and for the first time that year a
heat wave seemed to be born. It was over 90 that afternoon and I sweated in my
Faded Glory crew shirt and Tommy Hilfinger white pants.
 
I grew up close enough to the beaches of
Rockaway to spend most every day of my summers in the surf, and I have never
lost my love of the ocean, I fingered the poka shells that I wore habitually
this time of year and re-adjusted the Panama Jack Sun glasses that I had paid
far too much for.
 

As I pulled into the driveway of Calvary
Baptist Church I grabbed the Guiding Light Baptist Ball Cap from the passenger
seat and tucked it on my head. My hairline is a thing of the past, for more
than a decade now I have shaved my head, I did wear a mustache, which was
turning noticeable gray with time. I am far from fair skinned but the heat of
the sun on my bald head would cause me a massive headache if I was not
careful.
 
My once black hair, a gift from
my Albanian Dad coupled with my light blue eyes, the result of my Red-Headed Irish
Mother, along with a sharp eastern European nose gave made me unique look if
not handsome one. I saw some age in my eyes as I adjusted the cap using the
rear view mirror and years in the sun had lined my face. It seemed each day I
looked more and more like my Father Alexander.

Seeing my Dad’s face looking back at me
made me make a mental note to call him that night.
 
I tried mostly to call on Saturdays any way,
as it was easier to handle the time difference on the week end. After my Mother
had passed Babi had tried to tough it out in America, even living with Leda and
Argon for a while, but America was the land of “his Mary” and without her here,
there was little that compelled him to stay. He returned to Albania and surprised
Leda and I by settling near the beach in Duress not in his home town of Trinia.
His pension from thirty years work with the New York Satiation Department
allowed him to live quite comfortably in the emerging democratic economy of his
homeland.
 
His last visit to the States
had been for Rita and I’s wedding, happy to see his wayward son finally in the
hands of a capable woman, he had returned home.
 
Leda, Argon, Rita and I had alternated summer and winter visits for the
past couple of years but something in me made me decided to make sure that next
summer all four of us went, maybe we would take Roberta and Donald as well.

I took a deep breath got out of the car and
turned towards Calvary.
 
As I walked back
into a place I had sworn never again to step foot, the weight of the past
several months settled on my shoulders.

 
The
break between those of us that left Calvary to from Guiding Light had been like
a bad divorce with all the same residual feelings and mad accusations.
 
Friendships such as the one that my attorney
Ric kept with her paralegal Betty were rare and had to be worked on almost
daily.

Argon as a defecting deacon had lost almost
half of his Facebook friends by the time the dust settled. As for Rita and I,
we had lost a few friends but because of the popularity of the diner we had
also seen a more rapid healing of relationships. While the hard core folks at Calvary
still bore a grudge, Tim Lafayette for example had never again step foot inside
Lighthouse, most people allowed their stomachs to overrule their regrets.
 
Still it was strange to walk up the steps that
lead to the church offices and in the back of my mind I kept hearing the
Simpson’s Mister Burns say “Release the hounds” as I rung the small bell on the
receptionist desk.

Plumb, pleasant and personable Patty
Pembrose was the acting Secretary at Calvary and as she came out of back room
to the receptionist window she greeted me with a wide and surprisingly sincere
smile.

“Oh my goodness Adam how wonderful to see you.” She said coming out of the
small door next to the window to give me a chaste but welcoming hug.

I always appreciated that Patty, unlike most
of our fellow church goers, and in fact most Americans made it a point to
pronounce my name in the Albanian fashion Ad-damm with the second ‘a’ long as
oppose to the American Ad-am with the second ‘a’ short.

“Patty how are you? How are Jacob and the
boys?”

“We are good, all good. And Rita and the
kids? And oh my how is Miss Millicent, I miss her so.”

“We are all good as well. Miss Millicent is
working the farm stand herself this week end. Come by and say hi, even if you
don’t need anything she will have sweet tea for the boys I am sure.”

Patty nodded “I’ll talk to Jake but I am
sure we can do that.
 
So what brings you
to this side of the wrong or right side of the salvation tracks?”
 
She said laughing.

“I need to see Dr. Longstreet.”

“Does this have anything to do with poor
Ivy, Oh Adam; you know she would never kill any one. She was mad, sure and hurt
about Dr. Lexington and Miss Mac but she would not hurt them.”

I smiled “I agree Patty that is why I
agreed to help Christina Denmark with her defense. I am hoping that Dr.
Longstreet can give me a moment.”

“Oh to help Miss Ivy I am sure he can.”

I thought for a moment about telling her
that I was not really here at this moment to help Ivy but I choose not to,
right now it was important I get into to Longstreet.

“Thanks” I said as non-committedly as I
could without sounding insincere. Patty picked up the phone and I turned to
gaze out the big bay window of the outer office.
 
A few word spoken by her into the line and
she turned to me and smiled.

“Dr. Longstreet asked if you could just
give him five minutes or so he is with a young couple thinking of marriage, but
he is almost done.”

“No problem, hey is Tim around by any
chance?” I had heard that Lafayette was spending a lot of time on the Calvary
Campus.

“Yes. He is down in Luke’s old office, down
this hall here and……”

“Third on the left, I’m old Patty but not
that old.”

She blushed and laughed “Sorry.”

“I know Pastor, his five minutes will be at
least ten, so I’m going to wander down and talk to Tim.”

Patty smiled and gave a school kid giggle
which on a plumb thirty something was more than a little disconcerting

Chapter
Fourteen:

I strode down a hallway that I once knew as
well as my own home and remembered when I thought it would be one of the final
places I would see this side of the grave. Instead its walls felt cold and
sterile, filled with dreams of what might have been.
 
As I said Church splits are like divorces;
they begin in disillusionment, progress to animosity and then to hatred before
circling back to melancholy and eventually cooperation and in fortunate cases respect.
Calvary and Guiding Light were not yet at cooperation and so the waves of malaise
were strong in me as I ventured towards what had been Luke’s office.