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| Holy Ghost Disturbed Church, Bonita, Louisiana. |
Not to make light of the name, but it disturbs me there is a church called "Holy Ghost Disturbed Church." Hopefully, someone can reassure me that the reality of this church is different, but I can only think that this little church envelops its flock in sadness and despair.
Another passerby conjectured the name might be related to the waters of the river Siloam (aka Shiloah), but I don't have the Biblical literacy to suss out the connection, despite my research. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
To tell you the truth, the church's name reflects somewhat how I feel when I take trips North and South. Doesn't matter if I go through Missouri to Arkansas to Mississippi to Louisiana, through Missouri to Tennessee to Mississippi to Louisiana, or through Missouri to Arkansas to Louisiana. There's a lot of poverty to be driven past. It just doesn't seem like we, as a country, really get the extent of our poverty.
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| Holy Ghost Disturbed Church, Bonita, Louisiana. |
The village of Bonita (population 335) is a satellite of Bastrop (population 11,000), which is about 20 miles south of Bonita. Bastrop, by the way, was founded at the end of the 1700s by a Dutch con man.
Bonita and Bastrop are in North Louisiana. Which is not like South Louisiana at all.
Supposedly, an angel would come by the Pool of Siloam occasionally and trouble/disturb the water. Whoever would get into the water first when this happened would be healed. Hence, lame people would crowd around the pool hoping to be healed. Jesus approached one such man at the pool and asked him if he wanted to be healed. He said he did but there was no one there to help get into the water. Jesus neither confirmed nor denied the alleged healing powers of the water, but healed the man himself. My understanding is that in the historic Black/African-American Church, inclduing the days of slavery,this story came to repsresent not only God's healing power of physical ailments, but also that God was going "stir things up" in a way that would lead to emancipation/equality. In fact, there is an old "Negro Spiritual" tilted "God's Gonna Trouble the Water." The Holy Ghost is an old name for the third person of the Holy Trinity, who is not an angel, usually referred to as the Holy Spirit today. Yes, the name is confused and confusing.
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