The Call of the Tent
This essay appears in the online journal of the Tennessee Humanities Council, Chapter 16.
A writer considers the meaning of sacred space
As a child in the South I would see them: giant tents erected on fairgrounds and empty fields. Great canopies of canvas filled with folding chairs and, at one end of the rectangle, risers for the choir, an altar, and sometimes a baptismal pool. Fliers tacked to utility poles announced the event for miles. Often the revival would spread over a weekend allowing more to attend and increasing the fevered pitch of response to the Holy Spirit come down to fill believers like spring rain pouring into barrels. I could feel the runoff in the squishy ground and the air of hallelujah. READ MORE…