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The BRC

Memoir Project Rough Draft

NaNoWrimo Update: November 20, 2005
Current Word Count: 32,227 out of NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000

Writing Update: This book is growing into epic proportions. 50,000 words is barely going to make a dent, or I need to sit down and make some decisions about what I really want to include.



The BRC

The BRC. The Biblical Research Center. Basically a church building that didn’t look like a church. In The Way, you couldn’t call it a church building because The Way considered churches to be off the Word. But The Way functioned as a place to hold large meetings for The Way Corps, and Sunday Night Service for the general public. These were Bible meetings where the members of The Way would congregate to hear the Bible being taught. This building was, a church. Anyway, in the minds of The Way believers, it was not a church, it was the Biblical Research Center. They were researching, and sharing knowledge based on research to larger groups of people in this building, not giving sermons, so it was not a church. Is it clear? Do you understand? The BRC is not a church. Do not call it a church. Does it look church? How many churches are just square, flat, one story brick buildings that resemble a doctor’s office? None. So this is not a church. Besides, a church has a big steeple (a phallic symbol and off the Word in the mind of Way Believers) and the BRC does not have a big penis on top of it. And a church has a cross on the top of its penis. The cross Christ died on did not look like a lowercase “t”. It looked more like a telephone pole. A big tree trunk. Once again, churches are off the word because they have a cross like a little “t” and that is incorrect, therefore off the Word, and so the BRC did not have a cross anywhere or a telephone pole representing the crucifixion anywhere. So, the BRC is not a church. Is it clear now? No stain glass windows. No pews. No priests. Just good Christians sharing the scriptures in a room full of chairs and people who want to hear the latest findings from this international research and teaching ministry. Just good Christians who want to hear a teaching from one of the head researchers. Not a sermon from a priest. Clergy? Reverends? Yes, but not a priest. Now it must be clear, this is not a church. This is a Biblical Research Center. But I think they did more teaching than researching there so maybe it should have been the BRTC, but I’m splitting hairs so I’ll hush up for now. Ok. Anyway, I’m off my point. I wanted to tell you about the BRC. In one word: depressing. Just about any public structure built either by a commercial or government agency between 1950 and 1980 depresses me when I enter it. The BRC, built in the 60s depressed me. In fact, I shudder just thinking about going into this building. The very smell of it, and it had a unique, stuffy, some kind of not so much stinky, but just custom aroma that I disliked as soon as I opened the doors. Every once in a while, I’ll encounter that smell in an unusual place like a library or and old elevator, and I will go right back to the BRC in my mind, and feel a chemical release in my mind telling me to feel sullen. Quite simply, it was most definitely not a church. The building, designed for the function of teaching and feeding a group of a few hundred people, did not celebrate the glory of God in its construction and in it, you could not feel the presence of the Lord. It did not express itself to the heavens or even offer up a cross on the end of a penis to let everyone know, this is a building where God is celebrated. Where we want you to come in, and if the sermon doesn’t heal you, maybe the building, with its solemn rejoicing to God, may help you find your own sermon to heal your broken heart. No, the BRC just functioned. Upstairs, a large meeting room (I want to say with blue carpet, but I could be wrong), capable of being reduced in size with sliding dividers. A bookstore. Some offices. A hallway with restrooms. In the restrooms, a stand up pisser and a shitter with swinging saloon doors. I shit you not. The only bit of character in the place. In the long expanse between the entrances between the two restrooms, a display case took up the length of the hall, and in it a map of the world, representing the Word of God going over the world. In the basement, a kitchen and a dining room large enough to hold about 200 people. The only other interesting part of the BRC was a long, almost steep ramp, the width of a loading dock and the length of a semi tractor-trailer, designed to allow people to congregate at the dining room door in the basement, but without having to enter the BRC. Basically, to keep people out of the BRC as they waited to be let in to eat.

I did not like the BRC, Sam I am. I did not like it, even with green eggs and ham. The building had no soul.

END
© 2005 Christian Cloud Abraham

Posted on November 20, 2005 in
Emotion: Disgust, Type: Creative Nonfiction