Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Quick, what’s the difference between a Catholic priest and a Baptist preacher? Give up? The priest will shake your hand in the liquor store.

So goes the old joke that’s been told countless times across the country. What does it mean and how does it apply to this latest post? Well, let’s just say the Baptists rarely practice what they preach and they were put in their place this past Tuesday down here in Bible Belt Mississippi.

Tuesday was election day in these here parts for just about all the municipalities surrounding Jackson…all of them were mainly for mayor and alderman in various towns except for one, Flowood. You see, Flowood is a town here in Rankin County and Rankin County is a dry county…well, a damp county at least; one may buy beer in Rankin County but never on Sunday or election days. The result of these dry laws is the classiest restaurant in these parts is pretty much a Logan’s Roadhouse. If you just went ugh, then you may feel my pain.

Business owners and the mayor of Flowood have complained for years that our area is being held back by the dry laws; no good commercial progress will ever be made until restaurants and hotels can sell wine and liquor by the glass. Flowood finally succeeded in persuading the state legislature into letting their citizens vote on legalizing the sale of wine and liquor by the glass. The churches went into an uproar, ads were put in newspapers predicting everything from an increase in drunk driving to debauchery if the vote passed. Normally, as in years past, this measure would have failed miserably as a result; not this time. Nope this time the measure passed in an overwhelming and solid victory over the fear mongers and hypocrites.

Finally, Mississippi is entering the 21st century folks! Albeit, it is being dragged kicking and screaming but it is finally happening! People who think for themselves are finally starting to outnumber the Bible thumper preachers and the oblivious sheep that follow them. But that’s not the funny part, folks. Nope, the truly funny part has to do with the old joke I told you in the beginning of this post. Baptists for years have publicly railed against alcohol sales and consumption…and a lot of these very same Baptists can be seen on Bourbon Street in New Orleans drunk as skunks, patronizing the bars and cabarets when nobody’s watching. Which is what makes this situation even more ludicrous and pathetic; these people keep preaching how they are going to heaven and everybody else is going to hell on Judgment day because they’re soooo righteous…I got a news flash for ya, hypocrites…Jesus didn't preach "Do as I say"...did he?