A Bastard Like Me!!

I am a Bastard.

When I was 17 years old, I entered college and became friends with Will D. Campbell. I first knew him through his books, Forty Acres and a Goat, and Brother to a Dragonfly.

In the 1960s, one of his friends was lynched while Will D. stood in the crowd watching in anger and grief what was happening to his friend by being strung up.

A reporter asked him which one God loved more, the Lynched or the Lynchers. Will D responded, “Both. We are all bastards, but God loves us anyway.”

As I grew into adulthood, more and more I became aware of the truth of that statement. It was the beginning of the gospel which I had not understood until that statement sank into my soul.

In the white south, we barely have accepted the term sinner to describe the human condition. I have quoted that statement twice under two different steeples and drew the ire of many of the Pharisees who heard me say it. It was made clear to me that my days were numbered, simply by quoting Will D.

In the last Steeple, I introduced Will D to the congregation as the one person who made me understand that I was a Bastard!! The grandfather, grandmother, and father of a boy who called my 5-year-old son a Mother Fucker, orchestrated a trial by Session which soon led to my departure from that Steeple. Another know-not Bastard admitted that he was a sinner, but he was not bad enough to be called a Bastard.

Although it took me another five years, I finally said to hell with the Steeple and left “for good.” It was obvious that a Bastard Boy like me was not welcome among the Hoity-Hoity like them.

If there is a condition for salvation, it is to know that I am not even a piece of shit without God. That my definition of Bastard - a Piece of Shit!! Heaven begins when one realizes that truth and admits it. Hell is when we know it, and don’t admit it!! Thus, the Know-Nots!

I am a Bastard telling other Bastards where to find a Father who adores this Pile of Shit!! It does not mean everything, it means all to me.