Uncle Floyd's Letter
"Spirited" or "Spiritual"? Dear Brother Editor:
One Sunday a short while back Ola WilMot's mother was among our visitors at Willow Row. She belongs to one of them Holy-Roller churches. Ola was real proud like that she got her mother to come, but the ole woman wasn't impressed. She said it was the deadest service she ever attended, 'cept Curt Turner's funeral. She told Ola our preacher was just a talker and the church didn't have no spirit.
Some folk is got plumb wild notions about the Spirit. They think He operates mysterious. They whoop, holler, dance, roll, cry, shout, yell, rant, jabber, wave their arms, shake their fists, clap their hands, play jazzy music, and conduct a regular celebration, then chalk it all up to the Holy Ghost.
Will Wilinot said he attended one of the meetin's where his mother-in-law goes one time and was downright embarrassed. Will said one woman got overcome by the Holly Ghost, as they claim, and stood on her head. The preacher clapped his hands and shouted, "Halleluier, she's lettin' her glory shine!"
That recollects to my remembrance a woman preacher me and Ma heard on the radio last week. She was of the shoutin' variety and was preachin' like blazes. All of a sudden she stopped, changed from her high pitched to a natural tone, and started to make a 'nouncement. Still gasping for breath she remarked, "I sho' hates to make 'nouncements when I is high on the Spirit."
I don't mean to make fun of these folk, brother Editor. I know they is in dead earnest — at least some of them. But I recken they must think "spiritual" means "spirited," and the Holy Spirit is felt aorta like jug spirits.
I believe if these folk would get hold of their emotions long enough to do some dead-serious Bible study they might see things different. Per example, they might read about the Spirit comin' on the apostles in Acts 2. They were sittin' when the Spirit fell on them, not rollin' and shoutin' and prayin'. And the Spirit didn't knock them out of their seats, neither. When these apostles spoke with tongues they wasn't jabberin' and blabbin'; they spoke so that ever body present could understand.
And Paul makes it plain in 1 Cor. 14 that folk who really received the Spirit miraculous was to do things decent and in order. The prophets was to speak "by course." Don't that mean one at a time, and not all speakin' at once?
It appears to me that people get caught up by a spirit of whoopee and think God's spirit has a hold of them.