"...I was reminded of her painful experience at Holyoke Seminary. . . The worship there was a part of what scholars now call the Great Revival, and often had a highly emotional pitch. Girls were asked to stand, or come forward, as a sign that they declared theselves for Jesus. But at one such meeting, Emily Dickinson, aged sixteen, was the only one left seated after the altar call. She sums up the experience in a flinty remark: 'They thought it queer I didn't stand. I thought a lie would be queerer.'"
---Kathleen Norris
Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith
4 comments:
Whoa . . . we just got finished discussing Langston Hughes' "Salvation" in freshman English . . .
Connections everywhere.
Beth
Beth--"Everything is to the point."
:)
I remember something like this happening at chapel at a Christian university that I went to. I remained seated instead of standing up and shouting something that the speaker wanted us to shout. That mandated conformity bugs me in any area; the ferocious attack of guilt, both within and without, is difficult to withstand. I'm so glad that Jesus was a non-conformist, which shouldn't be be confused with obedience to God.
Jesus was just plain authentic. He was who he was. Period. (I love people like this and long to be one.)
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