Is This Everywhere?

Does the typical congregation treat their preacher like royalty? I mean, respect - sure. But sometimes I hear folks at work talk about their preacher like he's a demi-god. It grates on the nerves. I mean, they are just people.

Even moreso is when they talk about "The First Lady" of their church. I don't know, it just seems offensive to me somehow.

I keep thinking of Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery" where he says the following, and I wonder to how many of our preachers this actually applies:

The more we talked with the students, who were then coming to us from several parts of the state, the more we found that the chief ambition among a large proportion of them was to get an education so that they would not have to work any longer with their hands.

This is illustrated by a story told of a coloured man in Alabama, who, one hot day in July, while he was at work in a cotton-field, suddenly stopped, and, looking toward the skies, said: "O Lawd, de cottom am so grassy, de work am so hard, and the sun am so hot dat I b'lieve dis darky am called to preach!"

Great book, BTW.