Brother, I wouldn't have told that.

I went to a Baptist church growing up and anyone familiar with the faith is familiar with the testimony. A person stands up witnesses an experience in their life in which they changed for the better.

 One man stood and gave his testimony about how he and another congregate did not get along, but they had agreed to bury the hatchet and be supportive of one another. There was always a theme of being a better person or walking closer to Christ.

You always had a woman, usually young who would get up and do a squallin' testimony that rambled and as a teenager I would whisper to my friend the whole time. I never listened to the woman who has a name, but heck she would do again next time there were testimonials.

 My dad found that sort of testimony bordering on hysteria. You can see where the skeptic in me came from.

As a teenager, I was very devout. I watched a movie last night titled Wish I Were Here on cable. It is an excellent movie. The story was so genuine. The daughter's teenage angst about living in a modern world with old world beliefs taught in yeshiva was relatable. She might have been Jewish and I Baptist almost 50 years ago, but we were the same.





Rotten Tomatoes panned the movie. What does  Rotten Tomatoes know? I felt better after watching it. I could relate to someone having problems they can't solve. Yes, it had a fairy tale ending with a resolution to their problems. After all, it was a movie.

The title of this post relates to an old story about a man who gives such a descriptive and shameful testimony to the bad and embarrassing secrets he has. The pastor pats him on the back and says, "Brother, I wouldn't have told that."

I read a blog post, http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2014/06/judith-beheading-holofernes.html .
I learned about the story of Judith and with some research what the apocrypha text is. So I learned a bit more about my religion.

It doesn't hurt. I went to Ireland on a tour. They had a cup at spring that had holy water. I thought the cup was for drinking the water and tested the water. My sister was so embarrassed. How was I to know the cup was for baptizing folks. We dunk people in my religion.  That was one of my "brother, I wouldn't have told that moments".