For a range of how different Arkansans plan to observe their sabbaths, check out the calendar of events on the weekly Religion Page of Arkansas' Newspaper, and note how they differ in style and substance. For in this small, wonderful state there are as many ways to observe--or ignore--the day of rest, recreation and renewal as there are personal preferences and styles.
For examples: Canaan Missionary Baptist Church in the state's capital city was holding a Health and Back-to-School Fair; Collegeville Nazarene Church in Alexander, Ark., was holding a revival; Greater New Freedom Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock was honoring its young people by handing out school supplies for the coming academic year; Mount Zion Baptist Church on the appropriately named Cross Street was holding its annual Women's Day Worship Service; Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Woodson, Ark., was having a Family and Friends Day celebration; Pine Grove Baptist Church was holding its 148th Homecoming with a potluck dinner to follow its morning service, complete with a musical program; Ms. Debra Sims of the Union African Methodist Episcopal Church was to be the hostess of that church's second annual First Lady's Tea in North Little Rock at which the ladies in attendance were encouraged to wear their finery, including hats and gloves, which must have been a sight to see and admire. In the meantime, First Lutheran Church was holding fast to its old-time religion dating back to the Protestant Reformation by holding Vacation Bible School with the theme being "Here I Stand." There were to be songs, Bible lessons, crafts and snacks for the youngsters.
There were as many kinds of religious experience on offer as in William James' classic work The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Or as Gibbon commented in his classic work on the decline and fall of the Roman empire: "The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true, by the philosopher, as equally false, and by the magistrate, as equally useful."
Those who fear the establishment of a theocratic state in this country can relax, for the multiplicity of sects in this land of the free and home of the heretical assures that no single one can ever dominate. The best guarantee of freedom is the tendency of common sense to divide and conquer the assorted fanaticisms that always threaten democracy.
Hey, what a country--if we can only maintain it against the crazies whose beliefs were on glaring display in the late unpleasantness in of all places Thomas Jefferson's own Charlottesville, Va. As they usually do, ironies abound.
Editorial on 08/16/2017