Frankenstorm has flooded the east coast of the U.S.. I am watching the hurricane aftermath this morning with one eye on the T.V. and the other on my computer. The election has all but been silenced by the storm. Even as the candidates cross their fingers, hoping their message holds until the election day next Tuesday, other news seems to have passed under the radar. It's amazing the kind of stories that squeeze their way to the forefront during deadlocked news days like today. Also, many good stories get buried, unfortunately.
Brenda forwarded this headline from the UK's Daily Mail website to my phone this morning:
"Mega church pastor beaten to death with electric guitar by man who rammed car into church."
The news shocked me as I read the article. Apparently, a crazed man rammed the church, ran after, caught and killed the pastor, Rev. Danny Kirk Sr., founding pastor of the Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church in Forest Hill, Texas. The congregants are in disbelief. They say the pastor was a caring man and a great preacher, that he will be greatly missed.
Am I dreaming? Another story from the Daily Mail website was from the U.K (Oct. 30, 2012):
"Mr. (Geoffrey) Haywood was pretending to be blind when he went for a walk near his home and fell into the water-filled ditch, where his body was found by searchers. The coroner described it as the most extraordinary case he had dealt with in more than 30 years...Mr Haywood’s brother Howard said: ‘Geoffrey had psychological blindness which started after the death of our mother. I would put a Christmas dinner in front of him and he would say, “Where’s mine?” But if someone dropped money in front of him he would pick it up straight away."Again, am I hallucinating? Are these reports for real?
Of course there is an extreme quality in both of the preceding stories. I wonder what other kinds of crazy happenings are going on in our world that are not even reported. (As a minister, I've been privy to many crazy stories that would boggle the everyday mind). But in this crazy world, truth is stranger than fiction.
We almost forget that 20 years ago we barely had cell phones. I remember watching the OJ's "low-speed" chase live in my living room on June 17, 1994. We thought then that we were super hi-tech. In the years since, the availability of immediate news on our phones has ramped-up the need for news agencies to offer a constant flow of stories to elevate ratings.
I can't wait for the elections and the storm to blow over so we can get back to normal. Who knows what stories will next make their way to our phones and our hi-def TVs? Maybe something like:
"He's alive! 'Dead' man stuns his grieving family by turning up to his own funeral!"
What's next?
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