A Conservative Thanksgiving

I've never posted a diary before.  I hope I break no rules.  This (below the fold) was posted on Hoffmania today (12/2) and it really got me.  With permission from the author:

In the same vein, here's a heart-warming story from this Thanksgiving:

My Mom is widowed and lives in a senior community in Boulder City, Nv. I also live in Boulder City. It's a charming small town which is very proud of it's history (The Town that Built Hoover Dam) and is well-known for it's friendly residents. Mom is in her 70's and has made a lot of friends in her community and is universally well-liked.

This Thanksgiving, instead of eating dinner at home, she told me that she wanted me to take her to the local Elks' Lodge for the Senior Thanksgiving Dinner. Being an Elk myself, I told her that it would be no problem, but wondered why she had a sudden interest in the Elks.

She told me that all of her friends from her neighborhood were going there and that it would be more fun to be with a large group. I agreed and she called one of her best friends (or so she thought) to arrange a time for everyone to arrive. On Thanksgiving Day, I picked her up early and we got to the Lodge about 20 minutes early. When we walked into the Lodge room where dinner was being served, we were surprised to see all of her friends already seated and, in fact, they had just finished eating. They told her that she must have misunderstood what time they were supposed to meet. We went to the serving line and got our dinner and when we returned to the table, they had all gone. A little confused, we sat down and ate, and even though the food and the service were excellent, I could tell that my mother wasn't happy.

A couple of days later, I got an e-mail from Mom in which she told me the whole story, as related to her by one neighbor who, it turns out, really is a good friend.

Although my mother generally keeps her politics to herself, she had mentioned to one of her friends that she had voted for John Kerry. This got around to one couple in her neighborhood who profess to be devout christians and extremely conservative. They got on the phone to all of their friends and organized a scam wherein, if my mother intended to eat Thanksgiving Dinner with them, they would tell her that they were going to meet much later than the real time that they were actually going to be there, and that they would be gone before she even arrived. This way they wouldn't have eat with "one of those liberals."
First of all, my mother is far from being a liberal at all. She generally is a middle-of-the-road voter. Secondly, what kind of "christian" would intentionally tell people to lie in order to exclude a widow who lives alone from eating Thanksgiving Dinner with her friends?

These are the new conservatives: mean, intolerant racists who wield their religious beliefs like an axe, attacking anybody who doesn't fall in line behind them. I gave up on organized religion years ago precisely because of people like this. They firmly believe that if they go to church on Sunday, that gives them exemption to lie,steal and generally sin during the rest of the week.

at Hoffmania "Flashback, November 2000" comment #1

•  ouch

  I feel sorry for that lady. Honestly though, anybody who would be that cruel probably was not worth spending Thanksgiving with anyway.

  It sort of reminds me of a Republican canvasser in Phoenix who told me that I couldn't possibly be a Democrat because I was a white male. I simply called her a racist and walked away.

  by pine on Thu Dec 02, 2004 at 07:41:36 PM PDT

  •  At least

    she was with her son.  

    by legadillo on Thu Dec 02, 2004 at 08:05:04 PM PDT

•  Those folks aren't "Christians"

  If they think so, they need to blow the dust of their Bibles and listen to a few things Jesus had to say.

  by KSKathy on Thu Dec 02, 2004 at 08:32:52 PM PDT

•  Holy cow

  That brings tears to my eyes. People are sometimes just unspeakably petty, rude, and cruel. Oh yeah, immoral.

  by pucknomad on Thu Dec 02, 2004 at 08:41:52 PM PDT