Re-Writes..."Lack Of Trust"

“i’m getting kind of sick of this lack of trust that everyone shows the young people at church, but especially me. and it’s not just people that you don’t know. strangers with an opinion. it’s everyone. everyone who thinks their opinion matters. i mean, why does everyone think that they can tell me what to do? i’m twenty years old. but it’s not just an age thing. it’s an “i’m not your kid”, “i’m not a child”, “i’m grown and i can do whatever i want” thing. i hate the fact that nobody trusts the youth. especially when it comes to the interaction between the boys and girls, no, the young men and women. it’s a respect issue. don’t tell me that i can’t be alone with my girlfriend in a locked room. it may not have seemed proper or the right thing to do, but i don’t have to explain to anyone what we were doing. i don’t have to let anyone know anything. would they have told two people in their thirties or forties that they couldn’t have been alone in a locked room? i doubt it. like i said, it’s about respect. do they think i would turn the mothers’ room into my own personal make-out spot? come on, i don’t need the church for that. respect me enough to know, at least to think, that i wouldn’t do that. or the time all the young women in the church went bowling with their older “big sisters”. the plan was for the women to go out to eat, then got to stonehedge to bowl. but they didn’t know that john and i had decided to crash their little party. we got two pizzas for dinner and made our way to the bowling alley. when we got there, the girls were already there. but all the lanes were in use so they had decided just to go home. now imagine this, john and i, in a car with two empty pizza boxes in the backseat, and all the women, in a van, rolling eight, ten, twelve deep. i mean, there were women overflowing out of the van. and we had an empty backseat. but when we offered to take some of the women home, the older “sisters” refused, saying they couldn’t allow that to happen. the parents of the young women put the lives of their children into their hands. so we couldn’t possibly take any of the young women home, us being two young men, the possibilities of trouble were endless. like the ride home was going to explode into a giant gospel orgy. i can see it now. me with some girl, and she’s humming some fred hammond song into my ear, while i’m kissing her neck. john with somebody else. respect us enough to know that we wouldn’t do that. but they don’t. and i’m getting tired of it. i can be with whoever i want. if i want to be alone with my girl, locked away together in some room, then i can. if i want to take a young woman home when she needs a ride, then i can. without the talking behind my back or the disappointing looks. it’s all about respect. show me some.”

sometime in '00 or '01, i don't remember the exact date.