The Church Fathers

This morning as I sat reading at breakfast, I was reminded of an incident many years ago in my home town church. It seems incomprehensible in this day and time that this could have happened.

A lady came into our town riding a motorcycle. The year was around 1039 or 1940. She stopped at our house of worship to join us in morning services. She was properly attired for riding a motorcycle, in jodhpurs. The ushers for this service met her at the door and seeing how she was dressed asked her to leave. Seventy years later we are dismayed that she would be barred from worshiping because of her clothing.

This same lady about two years after this incident was instrumental in saving my sister's life. She had become a friends with my mother and had stopped by our home to tell my mother good-bye. She and her husband, a doctor in this town were on their way to South America for how long I do not know but I think permanently. When she arrived at our home she soon learned that my sister Ruth, was seriously ill. She called her husband and told him he needed to come to see her right away. My father had asked that she be seen but apparently he did not emphasize the seriousness of her problem.

The good doctor did come immediately and realized that she had appendicitis. She was taken to the hospital and he removed the offending and badly infected appendix. Peritonitis had set in. Antibiotics were not commonly available then. As I recall he put powdered sulfa into the abdominal cavity. I am not certain of this but that is how soldiers with abdominal wounds were treated early in the war years of the 1940's.

The happy ending of this story is that she survived due to this lady's efforts and her husband's skills and timely intervention. Knowing my mother I believe she must have made it known to this lady that she and most of the congregation were not in agreement with what these men of the church did that Sunday morning.

The Bible speaks of repaying evil with good. I think this is what happened in this case. So much has changed since that day and ladies are not only wearing long pants in church but preaching from the pulpit in them. Thank goodness for change and good judgment by those in key positions of authority.