think God’s on your side
John Calvin’s under floorboards
during board meetings
He told me that I should note in my reading of journals, monographs, and texts how all the great predators were theocratic …
that if you were going to rape the land and people, whether it was the original Indians or the working class that followed …
it was important to think that God was thoroughly on your side.
“John Calvin is always under the floorboards during America s board meetings.
From True North by Jim Harrison (New York, Grove Press, 2004).
Probably quote from Mr. Harrison a lot more than I should and I admit it isn’t without some misgivings.
The passage I quote today, I feel it explains much of what makes the Evangelical Church of Trump work.
There is a lot of my West Michigan background in the background of Mr. Harrison, though his foreground can take in a lot of life I did not experience.
And I wonder, do other people get it?
Take the John Calvin reference.
I am sure that most folks might know who Mr. Calvin was, but in West Michigan, where I grew up, John Calvin wasn’t under the table, he had a seat at the table.
The local college was named, Calvin College.
My wife went to a grade school operated by the Christian Reformed Church name Calvin Christian.
Most folks I knew had copies of The Institutes of John Calvin on a shelf in their home.
But I was raised Baptist.
Mr. Calvin was there in our theology with his TULIP acronym*, but we also told the joke that Calvinism was the fear that someone, somewhere, was having a good time.
BUT I DIGRESS.
I make no apology for Mr. Harrison’s content.
It is what it is.
But his use of language and narration and view of life, lives and lifestyle is powerful.
I remember back in the day when I worked in a bookstore and this one customer, who by his dress and manner and overall appearance was probably from what we called, ‘Up North’ which took in the part of the State of Michigan that was north of Kent Country up to and including the Upper Peninsula of the state.
Boy Howdy, maybe just north of the Grand River all the way to Lake Superior.
Nothing wrong with guy understand, but going north, you entered a different world that often times might have been more comfortable had it been about 1952.
Close to the same feeling I get when I drive across the back country of the State of South Carolina.
This feller as I remember him would not have stood had he been in the band, ZZ Top, including the long beard and dark sunglasses.
He was buying a copy of Garrison Keillor’s latest book, though I can’t remember which one.
I chit chatted with him, told him I hoped he enjoyed the book as I read all the Keillor stuff and enjoyed it all myself.
He stopped and looked at me for a second.
“I am getting it for my nephew”, he said, “he needs to read about life.”
Well says I, you should get something by Jim Harrison.
He stopped and looked at me for a second, looked away then back at me and said, “No, no way, this kid is not ready for Harrison …”
He looked off again, then said:
“Someday …”
And he caught my eye, nodded, a nod with a lot of understanding and kinship in it, and walked out.
*The acronym TULIP is used to represent the five core doctrines of Calvinism:
Total depravity,
Unconditional election,
Limited atonement,
Irresistible grace, and
Perseverance of the saints.
No Haiku For You 