Preached the First Amendment

One day, preacher man preached the first amendment.

He yelled and screamed a lot. He said we were all a bunch of sinners and were going to hell.

Crystal made us sit in the front row. I could see spit coming out of his mouth sometimes. I wondered what his problem was.

The loose flakes of floor crunched when I ground my heel on them. I pushed my foot down real hard and tried to smash the chunk under my foot.

"Be still," Crystal whispered to me.

Preacher man glared at us. "Thou shalt worship no God but the Lord God," he yelled. His voice sounded kind of raspy. "Worship of false idols is the sure path to hell." His voice dropped to a more conversational tone. "False idols are not just movie stars and political leaders," he said, "they can be anything that you substitute for the living God. Anything other than God that you worship. Anything other than God that you pray to. God hears your prayers, hears your requests, whether you ask him or pray to a false idol. "

I wondered if all the little kids asking Santa for stuff were going to hell.

Not likely.