Sept. 24, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:
Jerry Clower's style may be different, but message of Christianity is the same
By Mike Haynes
I suspect a lot of people
reading this column are like me: equally comfortable with C.S. Lewis and Jerry
Clower.
I sometimes have to re-read one
of Lewis’ paragraphs to grasp what the late Oxford professor just said. Most of
his writing for the general public is absolutely clear and logical, though. No
wonder the beloved, intellectual author, who died in 1963, has been called the greatest
Christian writer of the 20th century.
Jerry Clower, on the other hand,
was a down-home, Southern storyteller who talked about country roots in Yazoo
City, Mississippi, and the hilarious escapades of characters such as Marcell
Ledbetter and Uncle Versie.
Jerry Clower
One of Clower’s best-known tales was about his
visit to a Texas Tech-Mississippi State football game. To enthusiastic
laughter, he described Tech’s horse and rider mascot: “Out of a chute down in
the end zone, here comes a fella dressed up, they called him the ‘Red Raider,’
and he looked like Zorro – boogity, boogity, boogity – right on that field,
he’s comin’.”
The other day, my brother David
sent me a link to a 15-minute video of Clower talking at a church in Virginia. The
style is the polar opposite of Lewis’ writing that explained and defended
Christianity, but for me, it gets the message of Jesus across just as
effectively.
The country comedian even sets out one of the
main themes of the British author, that of “mere Christianity,” a faith that
transcends denominations.
Clower said someone asked him,
“What church do you go to?” and he replied, “Oh, I’m a Christian.” “You are?”
“Yeah. And I worship at a Southern Baptist Church. But if you’re a Christian
and go to some other kind of church, I can worship with you.”
He proceeded to deliver what he
said would be his sermon if he could get up on a mountaintop and preach to
everybody.
Point No. 1: “I’d say make for sure that you
are saved.” Clower recalled when, as a 13-year-old in 1939, his mother took him
and his brother to an annual revival meeting, carrying “a chicken pie and two
egg custards” for lunch before the preaching.
When the revivalist told the
congregation that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the
wages of sin is death,” the young Clower said President Roosevelt and General
MacArthur popped into his mind. They must be exceptions, he thought. “And that preacher said, ‘I’m talkin’ about
everybody – even the president, even generals.” the young Clower recalled that
“I caught aholt of that old pew, and … I thought, ‘if that’s so, I’m in a
mess.’”
But the preacher added the
literal saving grace: “If we’ll confess with our life the Lord Jesus and
believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we can be saved.” The Mississippi
boy was convinced. “While they were singing No. 197, ‘Only Trust Him,’ I walked
down the aisle and I had that experience of grace that only comes from the
saving power of God.
“And I have been a Christian
ever since.”
Point No. 2: “I’d make for sure
that I could find a New Testament, Bible-believing church, and I’d put my membership
in that church, and I’d make ’em a good hand.”
Point No. 3: “Make for shore
that you’re not a nitpicker. It don’t make no difference to me what color shirt
a preacher wears.” Clower advised visiting an unchurched person or family and
telling them about salvation through Jesus. “And when they walk down the aisle
and publicly profess Christ and join the church because of your witness … (Clower
let loose his signature, wide-mouthed howl that sounds like “haaaawww.”) … 99
and 44/100ths of your nitpicking will be cured. You’ll be so thrilled to see
someone born into the kingdom of God, you won’t have time to nitpick.”
Point No. 4: “Be sure and be a
storehouse tither. Do not rob yourself of the blessing of giving. … I make a
motion every business meetin’: Them that ain’t givin’ nothing, we post their
name on the vestibule out there where you walk in the church. … Ain’t nobody
gonna rob me of the blessing I get from givin.’”
Point No. 5: “Make sure that you
go to church, that you read the Word of God, that you hear your pastor preach, that
you are so close to God that if tragedy hits your life, you won’t act like a
pagan, you’ll act like a Christian.”
Clower recalled when his teenage
son was in a coma after a car accident. Thinking his boy was dead, he prayed,
“Lord, I want you to let me be in amongst the faithful that stand up and use
this to the glory of God. I’m gonna give thanks and keep going…”
His son, Ray Clower, recovered
after four days in the ICU, played football and became a coach.
The Grand Ole Opry comedian
closed with this: “I am convinced there’s only one place where there ain’t no
laughter, and that’s in ha-ell. And I’ve made arrangements to miss hell. So ‘Ha, Ha, Ha!’ I won’t never have to be
nowhere where some folks ain’t laughing.”
That’s not quite how C.S. Lewis
would have put it, but I love it.
