Tabernacle Night

From the year 2001 to the year 2004 it was a pretty good bet that I was grounded. I remember my ceiling being littered with pieces of paper with numbers and x-marks on it counting down the days to freedom that, like a lot of ex-cons, I found short-lived. I suppose I found my room, with its books, lack of bed (by my own choice) and perennial smell of cheese as comforting as an inmate finds prison bars. When friends invited me to a birthday they would inevitably say, "It's this Saturday, so don't get grounded!"

The one social event I was not grounded for (unless I had been really awful) was Youth Group. I started going because my best friend Andrea went. Plus there was food and I never said no to free food. Excuse me, let me rephrase that. I never say no to free food. So send any you like.

I was saved the year I started going to Youth Group. Technically, I was saved when I was eight, by this guy:

 The year I turned fourteen though was the year it became personal. My acceptance of a personal savior was followed by something called "Tabernacle Night."

They set up the Kid's Church room like an Old Testament tabernacle, which meant they pulled two big sheets out to divide the room into thirds and we lit a bunch of candles in the third room where the Holy Spirit was supposed to dwell. When we walked in, they gave us white tablecloths - sorry, I meant robes - to drape over our shoulders. Then they blessed us with holy water on our foreheads and big toes. Barefoot, we entered the second room, prayed and then entered the Holy of Holies, a.k.a., the stage where they kept all the props for Sunday School.

That night, in the dark sanctuary, wrapped in a church function tablecloth, I felt the presence of God for the first time. He told me everything would be okay, which I took to mean people would stop calling Andrea and I lesbians. God did not deliver on that one, but I felt confident as the years went on a miracle would happen. (It didn't. To this day people seem uncomfortable with our friendship. What can I say? We've been friends since we were ten, we've lived together, had a gay dog together...we even fight like a couple.)

The experience was so amazing and transformational for me that I invited my other best friend, Heather, the next time they had a Tabernacle Night. I had not realized until I got her there that it's a very different experience for someone who was not brought up in church and had not been attending Youth Group for the past year.

In the dark, surrounded by candles and expecting to look to my right to see a rapturous expression on her face, I saw terror. I suppose a bunch of fourteen-year-olds led by a couple of forty year old men in a chant that went, "The Blood of the Lamb, we accept the Blood of the Lamb. The Blood of the Lamb. The Blood of the Lamb. Wash us in the Blood. Wash us in the Blood of the Lamb. The Blood of the Lamb," is a religious experience best saved for those who have grown up singing songs with those same words. 

A word of advice to all of you hoping to evangelize your friends: Make sure you don't take them to Tabernacle Night. They might think you took them to be the ultimate sacrifice.

I continued going to Youth Group and even continued to invite Heather, who politely declined. If politely means that she laughed and said, "No way, that place is freaky."

A few years later, I gathered my courage and invited Heather to Youth Group again. It was led by a young married couple and everyone had a lot of fun there, even people who didn't go to church every Sunday. Guess what they were showing that night? 

Oops.

 http://www.onepennysheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/080513-hagee-vmed-11a.widec.jpgonepennysheet.com. "John Hagee." Photo. onepennysheet.com 07 Jul. 2010. 18 Jun. 2013.
<onepennysheet.com>.http://cdn3.whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/the-passion-of-the-christ-image.jpgwhatculture.com. "Passion of the Christ." Photo. whatculture.com 03 Mar. 2013. 18 Jun. 2013.
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