May 18, 2006 Issue

I was driving down Calhoun Avenue last week and noticed a large crowd at Clement Taylor Park. There were signs plastered around the park saying “Pray for City.” For that matter, there were signs all over town with that simple, yet rather cryptic statement. “Pray for City”.

My first thought was “Why?” Was there some impending disaster? Was the city in some sort of legal or environmental danger? Was the city facing threats greater than those that the developers have already posed?

The signs demanded the kind of thing you normally would find on a prayer list at church. I thought prayer lists were primarily for those who were physically ill or in a position of grave danger. I wondered what would a tourist passing through our town make of all these signs?

“Jeez, Marge – speed up, there must be something horribly wrong with this town. What’s with these prayer signs everywhere?!"

“I can’t speed up, you idiot. This traffic is worse than back home, and it looks like everyone is going to this rally for a “Blessing of the Marketplace,” whatever the hell that is.”

One of the founders of “Destin’s Week of Blessings” attributed our dodging the most recent spate of hurricanes to our prayers during these events. Huh? What does that imply about people in Pensacola and Gulfport and New Orleans? That they didn’t pray enough? That God likes us better than them?

The Blessing of the Fleet is one of the most cherished traditions Destin has. It has been a highlight of fishing communities around the world for centuries. But in Destin, that special day of praying for bountiful catches and safe passages is not enough. We now have a Blessing over the City. It is not clear exactly what this involves. We now have a Blessing of Children and Family. I’m pretty sure I understand this one, but for those who don’t, there will be hot dogs, cotton candy and a clown to help move things along at the Community Center. And finally, to wrap up the week of blessings, there will be a Blessing of the Marketplace. I think this is a blessing for all of the businesses to make a lot of money. Amen to that, brother.

In a recent article, Tom Gilroy expressed concerns over government’s new mission of “Faith Based Everything.”

“…if you want me to see the beauty and the power of your faith, lead by example, not by cramming it down my throat or voting for politicians who want to screw all of us so the rich can get richer. Christian values are feeding the hungry, helping the poor and aiding the sick…not cutting Medicare, veteran’s benefits, environmental protections, school lunch programs or health care. Period.

“…putting more religion into government doesn’t make it more moral’ what it does is allow every cut-rate thief, liar and hypocrite to hide behind the cloak of morality while committing immoral acts around the globe and at home that would shame any real person of faith.

“So if you’re against abortion, don’t have one. If you’re against gay marriage, don’t marry one. And if you’re against illegal immigrants, don’t hire one. Clean your own damn house and pick your own damn broccoli, and when you’re unmarried daughter breaks her pledge and gets pregnant, face your own moral dilemma and search your own spirituality for answers—just don’t force me to apply those answers to my daughter. I’ll handle her, and my grandchild, on my own.

“Values are something you adhere to, not something you force someone else to adhere to; that’s called fascism.”

Well, obviously, I agree with Mr. Gilroy. While I am not comfortable giving advice to our increasingly faith based municipal leaders, I would caution them in one area. Be sure and touch all the bases. Be careful not to leave anyone or anything out. I am not sure a simple blanket type of “blessing” is sufficient.

Please don’t forget to bless the skateboarders and skim boarders and surfers. Be careful with the surfers though. Sometimes surfers actually pray for the big waves that gulf storms bring. But go ahead and protect the surfers from sharks. Those shark attacks can get messy and don’t help much with our tourism.

Pray for those pesky Hispanics, most of which are probably Catholic. Since they haven’t been here long, they might not know exactly what to pray for. They need prayers for safe passage as they bicycle through our streets. And if our Blessing of the Marketplace is successful, pray for the Mexicans to bring a bunch of their friends up here—we’ll need them to work.

Developers may be covered under the Blessing of the Marketplace. However, I wouldn’t worry too much about them. They seem to have created some sort of pact and appear to be succeeding in a major way. They have truly been blessed in this town.

On a personal note, could I encourage you to bless the Cobia? I know it may seem unusual to bless a specific fish, but it is the species I like the best. So go ahead and bless them. Well, actually don’t bless them so much as the Cobia fishermen. What I’m trying to say is I like Cobia but I like to catch them. So maybe you could bless them so that there will be lots of them, but also so that maybe they won’t be so dang smart. That way Goose and I can catch more of them. Do you follow?

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