Let Terrell Give the Blessing

I am the lucky descendent of many southerners from places like Louisiana and Oklahoma and Arkansas, to name a few. Southerners enjoy a well-seasoned food heritage from seafood to corn pone. They also relish the taste of words in their mouth. They roll them around and release them with a specialized flair. I have one cousin from Alabama who is particularly intentional with his words and movements. Terrell is a slow southerner that neither rushes for fire nor hurries through crosswalks. He takes his time and relishes each moment of any given situation or conversation. He and my mother had this in common.

While growing up, my family spent many years traveling to an agreed-upon destination to celebrate Thanksgiving together as an extended family. As a result, it will always be a holiday of great sentiment for me. There were conversations to be found all over the house and a covey of kids playing outside. The smell of food was overwhelming for an impatient girl like myself, waiting for that sweet banana pudding, savory cornbread dressing and decadently juicy roasted turkey. The wait was infernal since your earliest waking moments were met with the smells of yeast rising and corn baking. Once the table was properly set (another delightful attribute of southern hospitality), we gathered around the table in a messy circle, awaiting our place assignments. Before we took our seats, someone would inevitably say, “Let Terrell give the blessing.”

Terrell was a young seminary student, so I suppose we relied on his biblical knowledge to carry us through yet another season of gratitude. But we had other cousins studying to be preachers and still other relatives in secular vocations that were just as knowledgeable and heavenly minded. So why was it that Terrell was invariably called upon to usher us to the feet of Jesus?

I picked up the newspaper yesterday, March 2, 2021, with a heavy heart. Here it was again, spread across the front page. The indictment of Christianity and the political right-wing rioters who invaded the U. S. Capitol in January but have been holding court over adversity and outspoken controversy for years — all in the name of our heavenly Father. I knew the article wouldn’t be kind and that it wouldn’t understand that these extreme viewpoints were not the views of all Christians. Many of us believe in a progressive…

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