Despertar

halo in reverse

The pastor at my parents' church likes to refer to himself as "God's mouthpiece."

It's a loud church. People clap and cheer and fall down in the aisles when they catch the spirit, or when the pastor says something profound.

This one time, he was in the middle of saying something profound. Ever seen a Southern Baptist preacher really get going? He was doing that, sweating, jabbing his finger at the air, telling us Gawrud this and Gawrud that. People were clapping, whooping, cheering. Go, Gawrud, go!

He said, "Gawrud said, 'Get away from that serpent, Eve, that serpent is evil!' And by the way, did anyone ever notice that evil spelled backward is vile?"

Everyone went nuts. NUTS. Cheered and clapped as though he had just illuminated the most divine coincidence in the history of language. As though he had just announced that Gawrud Himself was going to make an appearance at the end of the sermon.

But, wait, thought I, up in a balcony pew, silent among the throng of hollering Baptists. Just a second.

"Evil spelled backward is vile"?

God's mouthpiece can't spell?

What the hell?