I believe this was the year that an
attack was directed at the Portrait Players program and me. None of the actors
were blamed. In my opinion it was all rather silly, but very serious on the
part of the one bringing charges. What I loved about these “more righteous than
thou” Christian leaders was that none had the courage to talk to me. They went
right over my head to the president of the college. I guess they did not know
about or had ever read Matthew 18:15-16 “If your brother or sister sins,
go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to
you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two
others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two
or three witnesses.
Rest assured, they believed I had sinned.
We were invited during the school year to
visit Milden, Saskatchewan to lead an area youth rally. As part of the program
we hung out with the kids, played games and preformed several fun and
entertaining skits. For people to see, we needed a stage and so were given
permission to use the sanctuary platform. Apparently, one man believed the
sanctuary of this small church was the holy of holies.
I suppose it is important that I clarify
my own position on church sanctuaries. Simply put — they are just a room used
for worship and in some cases, other activities. Some churches even had the
sanctuary double as a gym. I believe that at Christ’s death the veil in the
temple ripped from top to bottom to open the temple to all the people. We were
not selling sacrificial animals, changing money or even collecting money for
ourselves. We may have gotten some money for gas, I don’t remember. That is not
why we went.
The issue was the result of a brief action
on the stage that involved Cheryl with her back to the audience sitting on the
back of Con who was on the floor on all fours. This was very quick. She sat
down and swiveled to the front, got up and walked away. End of major problem
for which some wanted me fired.
The offended man was an elder in the
church. He had a son who was a pastor in another nearby church and joined his
father in his horror at our performance. The son may have been on the school
board or not. He did take the issue on behave of himself and his father to Dave
Rambo and demanded that the college board of directors address the issue
immediately and remove this blight on the reputation of their beloved
institution. I was that blight.
It took a few days before I met with the
president. I actually knew of the problem before we even left Milden, as the
pastor was a supporter of Portrait Players and the father of Garry Tollefson.
The pastor was also was in trouble. “How could he allow such action in the
sanctuary?” He didn’t allow it as he didn’t know we were going to do it and I
never warned him of our impending “sin” as I never thought of it as an issue,
nor do I believe God did either.
Apparently, the president didn’t consider
it an issue either. He met with me to talk about it and that was the end from
the college’s point of view. However, it was not the end for the pastor son of
the church elder. I dealt with his anger toward me for years. It was still
there when I few to Canada to conduct my mother-in-law’s funeral some fifteen
years later and he was the pastor of her church. It was always like I did
something to him personally and he never even saw the skit. Such is life.
While writing about my times at CBC as a
student, I found published in the yearbook this photo of a girl sitting on the
back of another student in the college chapel during a meeting. Naturally, I
was horrified. This sin had apparently been going on years before,
Yes, times were different than today.
Sanctuaries were considered sacred. Keep your voices down — God might hear you
and be offended. Don’t run in the church — God hates running in His house. I
knew all of these things and did not set out to purposely offend anyone. I set
out to give a large number of youth a night of good clean fun and opportunity
to hang out with other Christians. From my eyes, we were a success and I am
grateful Rev. Tollesfon invited us to this great night of ministry.
1 comment:
Clyde, thanks so much for your positive comments about my father, Rev. Eddie Tollefson. He passed away in January 2017. He and this elder are now both gone, so I think I can speak honestly about what happened. He and I talked often about this incident. As you have indicated, the physical contact between Cheryl and Con was certainly the straw that broke the camel's back for this particular elder. However, there were other elements of our program that bothered him. If you remember, I did a monologue where I spoke as a very dirty faced salesman about the benefits of soap (designed to show the hypocrisy of Christians who talk the talk but don't walk the walk). He saw that sketch as mocking Christians (ironic how it applied in this particular situation). As well, there was a small sketch where a particular hymn was used and the words changed. This was disrespecting of Christian tradition. There was also a sketch about a Roman soldier at the cross that also bothered them. All of these factors played a role in this elder's condemnation of our program. But the biggest issue of all was the fact that this man and my father had not seen eye to eye for most of my dad's ministry there. This small rural church typically had young, less experienced pastors. The elder often took these young men under his wing and used that relationship to strongly influence the direction of the church. Since my father was almost 50 he was not so easily influenced. This frustrated the elder because he had lost some of his control. Therefore this gentleman was seeking any excuse to bring about my dad's departure. This event was the beginning of the end of my dad's ministry there. It was sad to see how the district leadership formed their own conclusions about this event and allowed it to bring judgment on my father. Unfortunately this elder was allowed to imposed his misguided perspective on your teaching career and my dad's ministry. I wonder how often this happens. Thanks, Clyde, for a great write-up. Garry Tollefson
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