Sunday Evening at the Baptist Church

Theology Today, Jan 2005 by Herbert, Mary Kennan

Not many people attended those services back then.

In our group of gangly kids perhaps only a half-dozen

would arrive for the six o'clock Bible study when

Larry's mom would lead our class. Her brave façade

might crumple if I stared at her as if she were God

or a television screen, a vice new to our neighborhood.

The new deity lured old and young to watch a new,

new black-and-white destiny right at home. I too

had become fond of TV, but tried to pay attention to

her words, scripture in our pamphlets, and lessons

with a moral to carry home. And now a confession:

sometimes I did become bored with these sessions,

and I'd flip through the pages to see what was to be

learned next Sunday and then the next Sunday and the

next one ever closer to our deaths. Afterwards, free,

we kids gathered in the church basement dining hall

to treat ourselves to a cold Coke, then only a nickel.

Coin of the realm in my pocket. What else could prevail?

Originally from St Louis, MO, Mary Kennan Herbert teaches literature and writing courses at Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY. Her poems have appeared in previous issues of Theology Today and in other religious and literary journals. Seven collections of her poems have been published: six by Ginninderra Press in Australia and one by Meadow Geese Press in Massachusetts.