My Religious Education : Hippies Hobos and Catholics

The University of Tennessee and Chattanooga is NOT a christian college, it is very
secular. In the middle of campus you'll be hard pressed to find a " cool" reputation among Christians, except within their own little circles.
The fads in the middle of campus are smoking, chanting "Obama-Obama!",
smoking, scanning the ground for precious quarters, smoking, going to frat parties designed to get the girls into the most lecherous costumes available, and, you guessed it!;
questioning God (closely followed by smoking). There was even a seminar by a professor here lectured about how nobody in their right mind would want to go to heaven.
But on the fringes of the campus you'll find something different. There are actually,
a lot of christian groups here. I made the mistake of trying to visit every single one.
I did not suceed but I got at least half way there. Now I have friends in several
different groups, all of whom invite me to their events. I love God but I don't like
being that busy so I've had to turn a lot of them down. I'm involved with three major
ones: CRU, Young Life, and the Christian Student Center. They are the usual mix
of different denominational cultures you'd run into among the Memphis Youth
Groups.
But here is where I digress from the usual. I will list them in order of their oddity:
- R.C.I.A.
- Homeless Church
- The hippie commune
About R.C.I.A., - its a catholic class for people who either want to become or are just
curious about Catholicism. Most of you know that my boyfriend is Catholic. We've
been dating for, a year and three months now, and talking about religion the whole
way through. It came to the point where a very learned bible professor told us that
to decide between Catholicism and Protestantism you have to decide which "voice" to
to follow: either the Bible, or the Bible coupled with tradition.
And I realized that I did not know enough about tradition to disregard it.
I owe it to Truth to try to get to know what the voice of tradition sounds like b4
I throw it out the window at least. So I signed up for the class.
We are working through the Catichism, the book of official catholic doctrine.
And it is here that I met Kate, a forty something single women who is a self proclaimed
reformed-lesbian, survivor of sexual abuse, and demon possession. All my other
classmates are normal but she is always talking about how she goes about blessing
everything in her house with holy water, and bathed her legs in holy oil when she
was sick. (she had some illness in her legs where she was going to have to get shots
all her life) She talks a lot and is very superstitious. The first lesson I found her quite
annoying. But she reminds me to keep an open mind, for surely I cannot disprove
her claim of demon pocession, I used to think I believed in demons in fact-- but my
initial reaction to her was "yeah right, you're just paranoid and probably manic
depressive" which, she might be. I don't know. Anyway as annoying as she was
at first I am, grudgingly, learning from her. And about her sick legs-- she got word
from the doctor today-- the illness has completely disappeared and he has no
idea why.
The Homeless Church:
ever since I read "The Irresistible Revolution" I have wanted to cultivate a
relationship with homeless. So, one day I was riding my bike past this pretty
park in the heart of Chattanooga I happened to spy a large blond woman with big
hips and a big mouth setting up a table of food. I pulled over and asked her what
was going on. "We're about to have church" she told me. This is Mrs. Carol, a
street ministries preacher. So intrigued I hung around. A skinny old black man in
black clothes and stinking like nobody's business came up to me and gave me a big
bear hug, and told me Jesus loved me. He introduced me to his friend, whom he
called my brother, and told me that he was my father ( in Christ Jesus )
This is Charles. (He's in the hospital right now, a car ran into him as he was
crossing the street one night, he'll live but I don't know if he'll look the same)
I met tons of people, Andy the former prostitute turned Street Poet, who shares
my passion for reading, Mary the stroke victim who says the same things to me
every time I see her, "You know Jesus saved my life, and I ain't never drunk no
drink or smoked and when people hurt me I don't never curse them." She tells me
this and then excuses herself to go have a smoke. I met Tennessee, who can tell
you things your history book only knows second hand. The man knows how to
tell a story really seems to have LIVED his generations history. I met Dennis last
week. He'd just got out of the hospital. A couple of guys had beat him up and robbed
him of the three dollars he owned. The hospital gave him, a homeless man a
prescription for head trauma but he planned to try and fill it and sell it on the street
for money. I met Wanda who had six written violations for panhandling for money
food and cigarettes, and countless others who had been sent to jail for
sleeping on the street- being homeless. Another man told me how the police in
Memphis had thrown him over the bridge into the Mississippi river. Somehow he got
out and ended up near a gas station. He offered a man there the money he had to
pay for the man's gas if the man would give him a lift back to the bench where the
police had first picked him up. The man drove him so fast they out stripped the police
and when that same police man came around back to the bench, there was the
same homeless guy, in the exact same spot. the police man was dumbfounded
that's the funny part.
the scary part is the police man threatened him with his life if he didn't leave town.
so now he's in Chattanooga. I think the homeless have taught me more than all of
my classes.
And now the final religious oddity: The Hippie Commune, officially known as the 12
Tribes. They haven't exactly taught me anything I didn't already know but they
give me hope. The members, formed in the 70's by reformed hippies all live together
sharing everything--
in fact to join
you have to give up all of your possessions and devote your life to loving people--
That is why I cannot stay away, they are always brimming with love. Ever
since I read "The Irresistible Revolution" I've wanted to join a community like this.
In fact I've been looking for something like this my whole life. There's just the problem
of their doctrine. It is a lot like old fashioned conservative church of Christ doctrine
from the little I've learned about it, and it is hard enough taking a firm stance on a
doctrine while I'm still trying to process my lessons from the Catholic class, AND
keep an open mind.
I've not yet reached a thesis on any of these teachers of mine; R.C.I.A., the homeless
and the Hippies. but I'm learning a lot. I was thinking in fact of furthering this education
by making a road trip to Philadelphia to see the community described in the
"Irresistible Revolution" (if anybody is interested in coming with me tell me )
I remember when, in the summer I would pray to God that college would be an
adventure. how I'd secretly rejoice when people warned me that college would
shake me-- 'Bring on the earthquakes!" I said, "I want to see and explore the new
world it will unearth.
Now that I'm here its all a little overwhelming,... but I'm loving every second of it!