FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Almost two weeks have passed since Nola, John and I stepped out into the balmy Alabama midnight air at Birmingham Airport. They have been weeks of adjustment and establishment. They’ve brought their challenges, but above all their blessings as we have settled into a welcoming Christian community and a somewhat “old world” culture.

As misguided as first impressions can be, they are nevertheless real – our early perceptions of a new situation. There are two that stand out in my mind as I reflect on our first weeks here in the USA.

The first is an impression of a politeness and respect that we seldom see in our own country today. I first noticed this in the airports we encountered en route to Birmingham. Nola and I were greeted as “Sir” and “Ma’am”, and people generally went out of their way to point three weary travellers to the next departure lounge or check-in site.

But it’s been reflected in other ways as well, particularly in driving on the roads. As potentially dangerous as it is for us to have to drive on the other side of the road herein America, there is a sense in which we feel safer driving here than we do in Auckland. People are less erratic, less in a rush to get where they want to be, less “out for themselves” than we are used to. I know that’s not going to be true everywhere in the US, but it is in our experience so far in south-east Birmingham.

We’ve noticed this politeness also in shopping centres and food markets. Near collisions in supermarket aisles (we tend to push our grocery carts on the left hand side still!!!) are met with a gracious, “Oh pardon me”. People stop, step back, wait, and allow us to move on – feeling like the bumbling clod-hoppers that we are. There’s no angry words and still less, no rough shouldering past people. Deference and respect are the common things we see. In this we can’t help but recognize traces of the genteel South that we’ve read about. And as aware as we are that this gentility can be superficial and selective, it does nevertheless appeal and seem consistent with the love that Jesus brings.

Second, we have been struck by how much more commonplace it is to speak openly of Christianity and religion than it is in New Zealand. We had our introduction to this the morning after we arrived. While finishing a late breakfast we were visited by our near neighbour and the owner of the lovely “house in the woods” in which we are staying for these next six months. Within minutes, our new friend Jim Roberts was sharing his life story and his deep commitment to a God of providence who has purposes in every event – including our coming to stay as their neighbours. The openness and theologically-informed character of his conversation struck us as highly unusual.

So too did the conversation we couldn’t but overhear later that day from the foursome sitting at the table next to ours in the Cracker Barrel Restaurant. As they devoured their southern fried chicken and green beans they discussed the distinctive role of teaching elders in the church and the special qualities such men needed to lead with impact – hardly the type of eating-out conversation we would meet with in the average restaurant in New Zealand.

This, we know, is part of life in America’s “Bible Belt.” Locals tell us that it is just a remnant of a disappearing culture, but it’s still very noticeable to us all the same. From a distance it’s easy to dismiss it as superficial posturing, little more than a surface veneer of religiosity. But to do so is unkind. No doubt such “religious shop-talk” can become trite and superficial. But it can also be evidence of, and create an environment for, true godliness. And I for one wish we had more of it in our starkly secularized New Zealand.