This letter below was written by my father, James M. Couts, two years ago, addressed to the church council, of which he was a member. Before writing the letter, he was a Lutheran Minister for 28-years, and now runs the largest rural summer-feeding program in the United States.
He was born ouside of Mansfield, Ohio, the youngest of six children, to one of the poorest families in the state. He didn’t have electricity until age 12, when nearly everyone he knew already had a line connected. He is white.
I post this today, because I believe it explains a perspective rarely taken into consideration in today’s Jeremiah Wright-driven politics–and politics-driven religion. Also, I hope it sheds some light on the theological camp from which Rev. Wright was preaching; he was preaching from God’s side, not America’s.
Enough with my blathering, here’s the letter:
When I was still dancing, I worked with this girl. Her name was E. We new so many E’s at the time, we started attaching adjectives to their names, when conversing about them. There was Cool E, Hippie E, and the E that we worked with. She came to be called Dumb E.
I used to be a stripper. To specify, I used to be a stripper in West Virginia, and it sucked. The economy is horrible there. So, every time my best friend, Violet (who also used to be a stripper) and I got the chance, we would make the long trek to the mystical land of Columbus, Ohio. The city contains, not only a giant building in the shape of a basket, *gasp* but is also the home of the first Wendy’s! Anyway, I’m not a fan of Columbus.