Pastor's Message - August 2025

The film opened with summer league baseball, and not just any summer league. As the camera followed a home run ball over the fence, I instantly recognized Hicks Field, home of the Edenton Steamers. You may sometimes see me wearing a Steamers ball cap during the summer, though cooked clams seem an odd mascot.

I attended a couple of Steamers games with my parents during my father's final years, when they had retired to nearby Hertford, North Carolina, hometown of baseball great Catfish Hunter.

The movie was "Dog Days of Summer" (2007), a coming of age tale set in a sleepy Southern town with terrible secrets. They could not have chosen a better location, as real-life Edenton was torn apart in the early 1990's by the "Satanic Panic," " when the employees and owners of Little Rascals Day Care were accused of sexually molesting the children in their care.

In true "witch hunt" fashion, the accusations soon spread beyond the day care, taking in leading figures in the small town. The accusations were, to put it bluntly, crazy. With the "assistance" of a therapist, the preschoolers "remembered" events like the murder of babies and being thrown into a school of sharks. The audio tapes of the "therapy" sessions mysteriously disappeared. Eventually, a handful of adults would be tried, convicted, and sentenced to multiple life sentences.

Much like the better known McMartin Pre-School trial in California, lives in Edenton were destroyed, families town apart, before some convictions were overturned, the remaining cases dropped by the District Attorney.

We are in our own "Dog Days of Summer," the hottest and most humid weeks of summer named after Sirius, the "dog star." We've been working hard to maintain a sense of balance and hope as our nation falls into chaos and cruelty.

With everyone on edge, with tomorrow uncertain, the risk of hysteria is real, especially given social media's algorithms, pushing misinformation and extremism for profit. I've seen progressive allies platforming misinformation, even when they know it is misinformation. Then there is AI.

A year ago, ChatGPT didn't know much about me. Today, it can accurately describe my preaching style, and even produce a short homily that mimics my patterns of speech and cadences.

It seems like a good season to slow down. Don't send that email. Leave it in "Drafts" until the morning. Don't share that meme until you've verified the information. Watch some butterflies, or rain coming across the lake, or the grandkids playing Uno. Like me, you've probably met some new people this year as we mobilize and organize to resist our white supremacist government. Why not invite them over for some burgers and grilled sweet corn? (or Tofu Dogs... whatever works for you!) Heck, if you can find the clams, maybe even some "Steamers."

Blessings, Gary