21 September 2007

The Patsy

I mentioned that I sat on a panel Thursday night at Michigan State University as a part of a program led by some Christian ministers entitled Join the Conversation—a dialogue about faith and spirituality.

Toward the end of a long night (in which we talked about theodicy, creation, evolution, theism, atheism, war, non-violence, ethics) one of the panelists ended the discussion with this story.

This is my recollection of his account.

When I was a boy, I remember responding to the story of Jesus without realizing it. I was watching a dramatic production entitled “The Patsy” starring Sammy Davis Jr. In the film, Davis plays the lone minority in a regiment full of white soldiers. Davis is ridiculed, mocked and despised. The soldiers tell him to go and get striped paint, and Davis goes to get it. When he comes back he’s jeered. The tell Davis to get a left-handed monkey-wrench, Davis goes but has no lock securing one from the commissary. He is, the quintessential “patsy.”

Towards the end of the production, the soldiers decide to play a mean trick on Davis. They take him out to the grenade field and hand him a grenade that is not operable. Davis, however, does not know this. One of the soldiers pulls the pin and all the soldiers, who’ve gathered for the tom-foolery, scatter like birds, leaving the young soldier all by himself.

They look back and see something they had no language for. Davis is lying prostrate on the ground using his body as a human shield while screaming, “Don’t worry guys, I’ll save you. I’ll protect you. Run!”

“And that was my first introduction to the gospel,” said this converted follower of Jesus who was now sitting next to me almost fifty years later.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The Patsy" was aired February 21, 1960 as an episode of General Electric Theater on TV. I can't find a copy on DVD or video. Confusing matters is that Jerry Lewis did a show called "The Patsy" and Sammy Davis Jr. sang the theme song!

Great job Sunday.

Anonymous said...

Josh,
Greetings from Newcastle! One of the most interesting things i've learned here is that you can never know a person by just looking at them. There tends to be a certain "blind mirror" approach to dressing when it comes to the youth culture here... What I mean is, most of them look like they went into their closets, picked out the first five things in there and put them on; ignoring which decade they came from, the color of each garment, or even the repetition of articles. The funny thing about this is that one woman stopped traffic the other day, walking around in slochy robin hood boots, electric blue cropped tights/leggings, a yellow skirt, a red top, TWO jackets of different patterns, and so much make-up that i'm not even sure what color her skin really was. Most of the british here see the happenings and distrubances, but then turn away not really disgusted, but then again, not very interested either. When this woman answered her phone, her accent was what surprised me most-- she was American!

As far as Microsoft Word and recognising words goes, i'm pretty sure Microsoft is not the be-all-end-all as far as words and whether or not they exist. The Oxford English dictionary updates itself regularly, and i'm sorry to say, they shame Microsoft, which only updates, what, every seven years? And those updates are rushed, the release dates are pushed back, and the loose ends are never tied up... I could go on and on about Microsoft, but I won't. Anyway, in two blogs recently, you've mentioned words that Word doesn't recognise. I know you know better than to rely on machines. People change everyday and our laguage even faster. Ten years ago, people thought Chaldeans were some form of algea that grew in ponds. At least now most of us know what Chaldeans are, right? Corny, ironic, joke: Word isn't quite so PC, is it?

Anyway, it's midnight here, and i'm off to bed. Let the elders know i've made it safely and that I miss the Rochester church so very much. The Church of Christ here is too far away to get to on a regular basis without going broke, but I still have the podcast to look forward to!

Josh Graves said...

Cassie,

Great to hear from you. I passed your note on to the elders. I'm glad you are doing well. Please keep in touch!