stephenAmurphy.com

As many of you know, Oklahoma is very much a part of the “Bible belt.”

According to the 2007 State Membership Report, over 40% of Oklahomans identify themselves as “Evangelical Protestants,” and another 12% identify themselves as “Mainline Protestants.” To complete the numbers, about 39% do not identify their religiosity, a little over 1% lists themselves as “other,” and the final 4.9% are what I was raised, “Roman Catholics.”

Of course, besides the occasional Jesus sign, this really didn’t have much of an impact on my day-to-day life. Until the other day.

I was at a basketball tournament, and a fellow sports writer kept glancing at my chest. At first, I thought he was just noticing my massive pecs and was wondering how much he needed to hit the weight room to look like me. But then he walked up to me and asked where I went to school.

I looked down at my sweatshirt. I hadn’t realized I was wearing my “Los Angeles Loyolan” sweatshirt, and apparently the ‘Loyola’ part had gotten his attention. I told him LMU in Los Angeles. His eyes lit up. He was as excited as a kid during a snow day.

“Not many of us Catholics around, huh?” he said, as he slapped my arm.
“Uh, yeah, I guess not,” I responded.

He went on in great detail to talk about how people don’t observe the no-meat rule during Lent, as well as the details concerning all of the priests in the area.

Although I wasn’t particularly enthralled, and although I don’t even really consider myself “Catholic” these days (though I would identify myself as “Christian”), I didn’t have the heart to tell him. After all, he was simply thrilled to be talking to what he thought was a fellow Catholic.

I eventually excused myself to get out of the conversation. I usually know when I am over my head, and that point was loud and clear when he started cracking Pharisee jokes. Not even Sister Mary Beth would have approved of that…