Southern Hospitality
What is “Southern Hospitality”? Is it real? Is it just some creepy old couple being overly friendly and open to having friends, or is it just someone giving you a fresh glass of sweet-iced-tea? Well, I am from the South and I am here to tell you that it is real, but more often than not, it is fake. Does this mean everyone in the South is a hypocrite? Nope, it doesn’t, just most of the time they are. I think a lot of true Southerners feel obligated to be nice so they do it, and they smile and hand you a piece of pecan pie and a glass of sweet tea because it is “correct” to do that. Now, there is a cooking show that stars a Southerner that I hate, yes, it is Paula Deen. She is a smilin’ go gettin’ momma and she loves butter and fat and butter and fat. Awesome right? No, she makes everyone think the South is full of ignorant food loving idiots who smile and are happy all the time and I hate it. So, she has given the South a false image that we have to keep up at all times, and now we Southerners, we are just smilin’ away trying not to get too upset and show the world who we really are, a shotgun-slingin’-animal-killin’-drop-an-M80-in-a-pond kinda’ people. Is it ok to be the “shotgun slinging ect. ect.” people? YES, we just don’t really know if the world would be ok with that so, we hide behind something we aren’t. Slowly it is killing us and in reality we are just a bunch of silly goons trying to do right. Now, not everyone in the South is barbaric and not everyone in the South is a smiling “Paula Deen” I am sure there are tons of inbetween. I’m just making an example with something I know so I can prove a point here.
So, where on earth could I be going? I dunno…the group of Christian people in America as a whole? See, Joel Olsteen is, to some people, an encourager and there are plenty more like him. These people do have a place in the kingdom…or in hell, but that is not my place to name. There are plenty of people out there who are trying to make Christians some “politically correct” group of people who can accept anything. Well, that is exactly where the world wants us. A massive group of people who are willing to cave in to anyone’s demands doesn’t make for a strong body of Christ. There are people everywhere who are trying to conform to what people demand and I’m telling you that as Christians we are not supposed to be like everyone else. Was John the Baptist like anyone else? Heck no, he wore freakin’ camel’s hide and ate wild honey and locusts. This guy was straight up weird and not politically correct at all. Then you’ve got Jesus, the man Himself. He was anything but political. He called church leaders “white washed tombs” and snakes. I don’t know, but as the Messiah I think that exiling yourself from the current church is not the standard political move. Now to be Christlike we don’t have to go and declare ourselves separate from the church and freak out and lose our minds but we can not back down on our beliefs and sugar coat life. Sugar coating something is called lying. We need to be honest with ourselves and be the people we are called to be and have some faith in our God. If we follow God’s word it says that we will prosper and we will succeed. We might even be able to claim the name “Christian” or “khristos” and be the anointed we are called to be.
