Inherit the Wind

When I was twelve

I was in a school production of ‘Robin Hood’

Or something

And when the show was over

My Dad came up to me and said—

‘Son, you did real good up there

And I can tell how much you love it

But just so you know

You can either have Jesus in your life

Or theater

You can’t have both’

So…I chose theater

About twenty years later

I’m trying to get inside a theater

Because I’m acting in a play called Inherit the Wind

A play my father would not have approved of

At all

And outside, blocking the way

Are all these protestors

Religious zealots

With placards

And signs

Telling me I’m going to hell

You would have thought we were performing abortions

Onstage every night

I felt like saying—It’s just a play, you know?

It’s just a play

Beth was standing at the door of the theater

Looking at all of her actors

On the other side of the street

Wondering how we were going to get by

Without getting pulled apart

By the Christian wolves

These were the people trying

To shut our theater down

And what they didn’t know

Was that Beth’s Daddy was a preacher

And probably one of the most god-fearing people

You’re ever met

He did that stuff with the snakes

The speaking in tongues

The whole thing

And the same way my Daddy made me choose

Between the Lord and the theater

Beth’s father cast her out

When she was just a girl

So she had a real, well, I guess you could say

A distrust of religion

Which is funny

Because she also had a lot of faith

It just so happens she found it in her work

Not in a church or a Bible

Beth saw all of us standing there

Getting screamed at by crazy people

And you know what she did?

She walked right through them

I hate to say like Moses

Because it’s such an obvious metaphor

But that’s what she was

She walked through that crowd

Over to us

And said—

‘Everybody hold hands’

So we did

And we walked back through that crowd

With the screaming

And the pointed fingers

And curse words I’d never even heard before

All chucked at us by people of the Lord

And once we were back in the theater

Beth told us to go to the dressing rooms

And get changed

‘Beth,’ I said, ‘Where are you going?’

She looked at me like I was crazy

‘Where do you think I’m going,’ she said, ‘Somebody’s gotta go get the audience.’

That was my director

That was my boss

That was my leader

And I may not believe in much

But I believed in her

Because she believed that what we did

Was important

And so she went right back out

Into that lynch mob

And I really have to think

That if there is a God

Even he would have been impressed