All In The Name Of Shhhhhhhhh!

Confess? Confess? Me Confess? What about you? Man! Christians give me the creeps and I’ll tell you why! I got my first bad taste of them while in my 20s… I confess that Christians have sometimes been indifferent to the differences in people. I confess that in the hope of getting as many people as possible into the Church, Christians have sometimes treated people like a product on a factory assembly line: filled up and closed… From The Five Sins Of Christianity, co-written by The MishegasMaster & The Rev.

There’s a lot one could say about yesterday’s world premiere of The Five Sins Of Christianity in a Chicago park, all in the name of Shhhhhhhhh! Confused? Let me explain.

A few months ago, my friend, The Rev. approached me and asked me to help him out. I said sure. Always willing to lend a hand to my friend The Rev. when he told me of his intentions however, I knew I was up for the challenge, which simply put was to get his flock from his ministry to understand the sins that Christians can sometimes unknowingly commit.

Easy enough, I told myself initially, but with most projects, I procrastinated until the deadline approached, which was originally Monday, May 29, Memorial Day. When The Rev. told me he decided to push back the due date to Tuesday, July 4, Independence Day, I was relieved and had a little more time to produce a quality product.

The first piece I produced for The Rev., was a seemingly innocently yet quirkily strong rant about Shhhhhhhhh! Once The Rev. heard it and asked me if I thought my intended audience was supposed to be white, I felt like such a dope. Even though The Rev. liked it, it wasn’t what he wanted, so it was off to the creative process all over again.

What The Rev. was after was the sins that Christians commit and me, yours truly, The MishegasMaster, had a particularly unique role in this, for I certainly don’t believe in Christianity nor Shhhhhhhhh! But what I was able to give was my perspective as an outsider looking inward to it all.

Besides all that, my friends, The Rev’s flock consists of homeless and jobless men those The Rev. ministers on the streets of far North Chicago. The Rev’s been gigging at this for approximately five years, hardcore for the last three years. What he does and how he does it, is amazing. Most of The Rev’s ministering takes place near the park where The Rev. lives.

He can usually be seen some weeknights and most weekends out in the park, handing out religious tracts and working the sidewalk, the same way a good salesman pitches the product, in this case, the words according to the gospel of Shhhhhhhhh!

On Sundays, The Rev. holds religious services for about an hour or so in the park before the men go off and do what they do for the day.

We continued to work on the project, tweaking and twonking it. Another meeting and then we decided to rehearse Independence Eve. In between this time, we exchanged phone calls and emails, with further edits and brainstorming sessions. More tweaking and twonking, more editing, more re-writes. I called for the rehearsal because I knew we had to work this and The Rev. wanted to get the message out properly.

More tweaking and twonking. We broke for dinner and then back to work. Later, I requested that The Rev’s wife, Mrs. Rev., sit in our rehearsal. Another edit. Another re-write. We parted that night in hopes that our mission we be accomplished.

Tuesday, July 4th in Chicago was a perfect day, blue skies and lots and lots of sunshine. It was as if Shhhhhhhhh! had ordered it up special for The Rev. and I.

I arrived in the park about 1pm. The music was pumping, as was the park, abundant with people. I spotted The Rev. mingling with his flock. I sat down on the grass with Mrs. Rev. until The Rev. & I were ready to get the show on the road.

A lot of emotions flowed between the time of our performance, The Five Sins Of Christianity and afterward. Accusations of missing shoes, thievery, anger, crying, laughing, conversing, eating, hugs, dancing and most of all fellowship, between myself, his flock and of course The Rev. and Mrs. Rev.

In between all of that, further north on the beach a rescue mission of a missing little boy was taking place. Eventually, they found him safe and sound. The child grew bored and went to visit his aunt a mile away, but didn’t tell his mother, resulting in a nightmarish scenario for the next hour or so, with Chicago police scouring the Lake Michigan waters via scuba divers and a helicopter, along with Chicago Park District lifeguards.

In that group I was with yesterday, I’d say that the rescue mission had already begun to take full effect.