Excerpts

 

 

From Disavowed—

 

 “Mike thought a moment. He closed his eyes and pulled at his chin, carefully considering his response. The answer, he knew, was a simple one. To him it made perfect sense. But he also realized that the words he was about to say contradicted every other word that preceded them. “You’ve got to consider how bad an existence blacks have had in this country. I’m not talking about that ‘my-great-great-grandaddy-was-a-slave-two-hundred-years-ago’ bullshit either.

 

 I’m talking about as few as thirty years ago when fat, white racist motherfuckers turned firehoses and police dogs loose on these people. All they were trying to do is vote or protest or ride the fuckin’ bus for Christ’s sake.” He began turning red in the face as he sat up and gestured to make his point. We are a country of laws and the laws are supposed to protect people. But ever since Jim Crow the law has been against blacks. If a white guy shot a black man, he got an all white jury and he walked. The only justice black people got came at the end of a truncheon stick or a billy club. And nobody gave a shit.”

 

 

 

 From “Church Stories” in Ramblings—

 

 First Baptist pastor Steve has a voice resonate and Southern. It sounds as if he comes from a part of the South so deep and rural that even the Methodists handle snakes. He is a gifted man of God and a talented speaker.

 

 Sweat beaded on his forehead as he pounded the pulpit and pronounced the name of our savior with an elongated “I.” “Jesus Christ died on the cross for you,” he shouted. “And He’s gone to prepare the way. The Bible says in my house there are many mansions.” Steve’s voice reached a crescendo. It enveloped us all and shook our bones as he proclaimed to the gathered faithful, “For two-thousand years God has been preparing a place for YOU.”

 

 Since we were doing some remodeling, I saw no problem when I leaned over to my bride seated next to her mother and father, both deep-water Baptists, and said straight-faced in a loud whisper, “Sounds like he’s got the same contractor we do.”

 

 

 

Buy your copy of Disavowed today from Echelon Press at www.echelonpress.com,  Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or from your local bookseller.