On Sunday mornings occasionally, mom and dad would send me to church alone. After Sunday dinner my parents would rest. I would go into my room to play. The day would be peaceful until a knock at the door. It was aunt Viola with her pocketbook on one arm and a big black bible crutched under the other arm. Mom and dad might have missed Pastor Goodson's Sunday morning sermon, but they did not escape aunt Viola's soul-stirring "get right" message.
Aunt Viola visited seemingly every other Sunday, and her visit lasted for hours. I honestly hated to see her coming. Aunt Viola's initial visits however, were really quite intriguing and entertaining. But I dared laugh or said a word because kids respected grown folks back then. Most times I would just sit there and stare with my ornery look as dad called it.
Aunt Viola would walk back and forth from the living room to the dining room preaching "you better get your soul right with God." She would read a few scriptures, and name behaviors that she called sin. All the time mom and dad would sit silently. Now that I think about it that was out of character for mom who was a strong will, outspoken woman to keep quiet while aunt Viola blasted her about her sins.
I recall aunt Viola saying smoking was wrong, and it was wrong to listen to the devil's music (the blues), which my parents often played on the stereo. She even condemned the rotgut liquor dad would sometime sneak and drank. After her sermon was over she would pray for our family and leave.
When aunt Viola left we all would breath a sigh of relief. However, I don't recall my parents discussing her or the sermon afterwards. We would go back to normal. Not too long after aunt Viola's regular visits mom died. Afterwards, aunt Viola's visits became few and far between. Dad died a year after mom, and the conscience voice ceased. I often think about whether those sermons were warnings to my parents.
Today, we have a moral social conscience voice that speaks out in this society, which people wish would go away. Some view the voice as hypocritical, others as saving the moral fabric of our society. Most people however, aren't tolerant of others imposing moral views upon them. They say, leave us alone, and keep your moralistic, self-righteous, and religious views to yourself. I believe these people will eventually get their desire.
There is a generation that is arising and being born that will undoubtedly be less imposing on others, and more open to various lifestyles. The conscience voice, as we know it will eventually cease. All those people who hate it will breath a sigh of relief. But what price will this society pay for that silence?
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and it may be too late.