23 SEP 07: RECALLING "REV REX"
It was sad to learn Saturday night of the death of Rex Humbard. If you're up in years or follow religious broadcasting, that name should be familiar. He gained a big following with his weekly telecasts from Ohio's "Cathedral of Tomorrow." But Humbard died in Florida -- so is it now the Cathedral of Yesterday?
A local pastor I know can tell stories about Rex Humbard - but they're not very complimentary. He worked with the ministry during its early years, and recalls the day he heard another man say to Humbard: "How much did you get from those suckers today?" Humbard never challenged that comment, and the future pastor noticed it. That pastor now preaches in a very different association, which has no cathedrals at all.
My main memory of Rex Humbard is very different, and goes back to a Sunday night a few weeks after I started college. I was home for Labor Day weekend, my mother had gone to bed, and I stayed up late watching the Cathedral of Tomorrow. You have to understand this was 30 years ago, when Sunday night was NOT yet football night. It wasn't even infomercial night, after the 10:00 p.m. news.
Rex Humbard's sermon that Sunday night was about Jesus's encounter with a leper. As he spoke, I noticed a bump on one of my hands. The longer he spoke, the more the bump grew - as if I was being punished for not watching "faith healer" Ernest Angley instead.
"I'm a LEPER!" Rex Humbard said loudly several times - emphasizing how people with leprosy had to warn people around them of their condition. "I'm-a GOIN' to the LEPER COLONY!" And as I looked at the growing bump on my hand, I wondered if he somehow had me pegged to join that group in the next few days.
Before the sermon was over, I couldn't stand it anymore. I didn't want to disturb my sleeping mother with this situation, so I quietly took the car keys off the hook in the kitchen and drove to an emergency room. Maybe, just maybe, I was becoming a leper. I should have been thankful Rex Humbard didn't preach about being thrown into the lake of fire.
I don't remember much of the emergency room visit on that Sunday night -- but I wasn't there very long. And I know for sure that the staff never asked me to show an insurance card....
But the emergency room staff did something to reduce the bump on my hand - because by morning it was practically gone. I drove home comforted in the fact that Rex Humbard had NOT accidentally issued a prophecy of leprosy for someone in his audience. Well, at least not for me -- but maybe others had the same problem, and also have been too embarrassed to admit it.
When I got home, my mother still was asleep. I quietly hung the car key back inside the kitchen cabinet where we kept it, and went to bed. I don't think I even stopped to pray that night. Too bad - because I didn't consider the events which could happen the next morning.
When I woke up that Labor Day morning, I realized I should tell my mother what I had done while she was sleeping. Yes, it was confessional time - and we didn't even grow up Catholic....
I explained the whole story to my mother - about Rex Humbard's sermon, the bump on the hand and my trip to the emergency room. She did NOT punish me, or take away my privilege of sharing the family car with her. She didn't even suggest I write the Cathedral of Tomorrow with a "love offering."
Since that strange Labor Day weekend in 1976, I've only needed to visit an emergency room a couple of times. Neither of those visits came after hearing sermons on radio or TV. Perhaps it's because I've become as skeptical of "televangelists" as that local pastor. When Benny Hinn runs around waving his arms on TV today, I never come close to falling back and collapsing.
BLOG UPDATE: "I got home at 5:30, and I'm still tired." That's what Georgia NAACP President Ed DuBose was overheard telling someone downtown Friday. We're assuming he was talking about a trip to Jena, Louisiana - and not some side trip to a Mississippi casino.
One of the organizers of the Columbus State University protest for the "Jena 6" appeared on WRBL Friday afternoon. Fallon Holmes said an event scheduled for two hours wound up going six - which is amazing, because long-winded speakers such as Jesse Jackson actually were in Louisiana.
For some strange reason, WRBL's Steve Ring never asked Fallon Holmes for her reaction to the Jena news item of the day - that a judge denied bail for accused attacker Mychal Bell. This anchor is new to Columbus, but a "Ring" shouldn't be out of the circle that much....
BIG PREDICTION UPDATE: My next-door neighbor had the outcome right Saturday night. Georgia edged Alabama in overtime 26-23. So how many Crimson Tide fans will turn on Nick Saban this week, and declare he's the wrong answer for the program?
Larry Munson stayed home from a Georgia football game for the first time in years - yet I'm told he spoke with the Bulldog broadcasters by phone during the game. Wherever Munson was, I imagined he worried and fretted in the final minutes just as much as usual....
I didn't realize until WDAK's Scott Miller mentioned it the other day that the first Georgia-Alabama football game was played in Columbus. That was back in 1895 - when Memorial Stadium actually might have held more spectators than the stadium in Tuscaloosa.
Meanwhile, Auburn struggled for a half before knocking out New Mexico State 55-20. Perhaps the Tigers were still recovering from the "International Day of Peace" held on campus Friday....
So let's see: Alabama has one loss. Georgia has one loss. Auburn and Georgia Tech each have two. And my good ol' Kansas Jayhawks are still undefeated, at 4-0! Have all you fine young men at Carver High School considered playing college football in much more comfortable weather - and winning besides?
In the hopes I haven't committed a recruiting violation, let's check some other weekend headlines:
+ The President of Southern Union Community College testified before a grand jury in Montgomery. Susan Salatto may have been explaining what she knows about possible scandals in Alabama's two-year college system. Or prosecutors may have been demanding someone in the South remove the word "Union" from her school's name.
+ WRBL reported an umbrella drive is underway at the Academic Success Center on 29th Street. Well, I suppose leftover box fans from the Valley Rescue Mission would be a bit awkward to carry over your head.
+ Alabama marked "Inside Out Day," with students watching a video about why they should stay in school and avoid going to prison. These days, I think the good-looking female teachers need to take notes on that video as well....
(How times have changed in our country! When I was a teenager, "Inside Out Day" was when you could show school spirit during homecoming week by wearing your clothing backwards.)
+ The new Iron Mike's War Museum opened on Tenth Avenue, next to the old state farmer's market. I would have guessed Mike Ditka would put this thing in Chicago, but....
(So if "Iron Mike" can open a War Museum with little fanfare and modest donations, what gives with the National Infantry Museum? It's looking for all sorts of federal handouts, yet it's going to have the fanciest movie theater this side of the Fox in Atlanta.)
+ The country music duo Montgomery Gentry performed at Fort Benning. I feel a bit sorry for those singers - because taking the "and" out of their name still hasn't helped them beat Brooks and Dunn at awards shows.
+ Plains, Georgia held its annual Peanut Festival. The weather for this year's celebration seemed a bit closer to boiled, than to dry-roasted....
+ Instant Message to Avery's Edrooms on Milgen Road: Hey, that's what the sign on the side of your building says. Did Brookstone School students hold a scavenger hunt or something?
This blog has thousands of visitors each month, from people in Columbus and around the world. To advertise to them, offer a story tip or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.
BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 2780 (+ 97, 3.6%)
If you mention this blog in public, please be polite enough to let me know.
© 2003-07 Richard Burkard, all rights reserved.