THE ANTI-PASTOR

  It took me a minute to realize that pastoral is derived from pastor, coming from the Latin for shepherd. This all makes sense now. It also makes sense that I would be the anti-shepherd. I do not lead you through the thickets safely or pretend to protect my flock. I’m with you—not herding you. I take issue with the pastoral portrayal of the Catskills. That’s what got me writing this blog to begin with. I also find the metaphoric distinction of a “minister” or “pastor,” tending to a congregation of helpless, wooly animals, distasteful. It sets up a top heavy dynamic that is decidedly unequal and hierarchical. This is how problems arise in any organization pretending to be a democratic one of faith. Gurus, priests, rabbis, mullahs and cult leaders are all “pastors” in one way or another. I call bullshit.

  I am the Osti or “host.” Checking French Canadian slang for the meaning of Osti— “A popular French swear word in Quebec…..the French word for “host,” the round bread consecrated during the Eucharist….used like we may use “hell,” in the beginning of a sentence.” The hats and t-shirts say Osti de CLGM or “ The Hell with the Church of the Little Green Man.”

   I’ve been called “Osti” since I was a kid. My father and some of my nephews were and are also called Osti. My old man was notorious for getting us all goofy “Osti” t-shirts for family gatherings. We are the “Ostis.” Gimme an “O”…… None of us in the family had any idea of the Canadian curse word, the French holy bread, or that our nickname literally meant hell. We are almost entirely of Dutch and English ancestry. But I have plenty of friends who live in France. They tipped me off to the meaning of Osti. The fact that this nickname would dovetail perfectly with my choice of “profession,” is not entirely surprising. To be simultaneously portrayed as a eucharistic “host,” and shouted as a cuss word in Canada seems appropriate. I don’t question it. 

    To be an anti-pastor,  a good Osti (host) is to be actively engaged in promoting an opposite point of view….. our curse. It is the contextual not the didactic that drives me. I’m more interested in the sun dappled meadow, then what to do if the wolf appears. I’d say you’re on your own. That would be the pastor’s job—to portray a false sense of security—deliver on a promise that he has no authority to make. He wants you believe he can stop the hungry wolf. Plenty take the pastors at their word. “Deliver us from evil……. This is the body…”  Osti (Hell) you say.

I’ve posted every day since I started writing this blog. Time for a break. Stay tuned….