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April Fools | Episode 9
Oh, the Hypocrisy!
Sorry, this isn’t a Happy Easter story.
When one is introduced to hypocrisy at an early age, and then is repeatedly bludgeoned with it, Christianity becomes challenging.
Trigger warning: This includes references to sexual molestation.
Also, I will apologize upfront. I think that the ordeal that the Tennessee Three are going through has pushed me to the edge.
Once upon a time, in the 1950s, there was a somewhat slow-to-develop eight-year-old girl named Brenda. She had suffered a traumatic bout of rheumatic fever when she was around five years old and treatments weren’t very effective. Brenda was never the same.
In the 21st century, we know that rheumatic fever can have a significant impact on the brain. According to an article in the Global Heart Journal,¹ neuropsychiatric manifestations are frequent and can persist for decades. These include depression, anxiety, cognition, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But, in the 1950s no such data existed.
As with all children who are different, Brenda didn’t have many friends. Her mother was my mother’s best friend and I was often tasked (that’s the way my child's brain saw it) with spending time with her. I was never given a skill set that would allow…
