#yeahthatgreenville

Can you imagine receiving an anonymous letter like this? Maybe you have. Maybe you have written something like this.

I've eliminated any specifics so that the form of the letter is more plain. What is the narrative here? How does the writer frame the receiver?

Stop Stop Stop Stop Dear __, We deeply admire you and your family. You are doing a wonderful job at BJU and on the __. I am close to you, but can't say this to your faces. I want you to ponder and not be embarrassed. I and others are troubled by something you are doing -- or not doing to be more exact. I am afraid it will affect [sic] your ministries and your lives if you continue to let bitterness dwell in your hearts and show so clearly in your lives. You need to forgive and forget and let go. As a Christian we are commanded that. You know that, but as humans it is a hard thing to do. You need to stop spreading things about another Christian to others. It looks bad sounds bad and is bad. It is above you to do this and is not causing so much hard to another as it is to you and reflects badly on you. Not a bad word has come from one you speak so much against, why? Can you say that? (Character assination [sic] is horrible.) You are even pulling others -- (church members/ __ members) into this. You are an example!!! __ members look up to you. Where does it stop? Prayerfully with you. Pray and let go. What are you trying to do? Ruin someone or you? Remember in Esther who built the gallows to harm someone? -- But who got hurt (died) in the end? Which character are you? Please mend this hurt in your heart, then show it publically [sic] so that others may see your true Christian spirit and disapate [sic] what you now show. Let others see Christ through you! Watching, waiting with love and prayers. Your Concerned Friends

How does the writer use Scripture? Where does the theme of "let go" really appear in the Bible? Maybe Ephesians 4:31? Maybe Matthew 6? Does that even fit?

And Esther? The writer presumes that the receiver is Haman -- a powerful and murderous character. I know the receiver of the letter, and they were neither powerful nor murderous.

But the Bible here is just a weapon -- a tool for the writer to use against the receiver of the letter.

And notice what the writer wants as a resolution to the issue: the writer wants proof. They want public and visible proof that will satisfy their own judgment. They don't want peace or justice or kindness. They want evidence.

So what does this letter actually do? The take-away is clear. The receiver can only do one thing:

Shut up.

More fur coat in the Snack.

I figured out who this is: Doris Hindale from Chicago.

Here's the weather that week, btw:

More pictures of the church windows.