May 3, 2021--Come to Jesus

Melvin Shapiro, who had recently turned three, asked his mother for five dollars.

It was very early Sunday morning and Cynthia, who looked forward to sleeping in on Sundays, tried to ignore her son. And though this was an unusual request--he had never before mentioned or asked about money--precocious Melvin was always coming up with unusual requests.

For example, at the Bronx Zoo a few months earlier, he asked his parents if he could stand close to the bars in the lion house in the hope that a lion would pee on him, which would make him, he said, feel special.

And, he asked his father, Paul, when he would let him drive the family Oldsmobile. 

It was a serious request.

All this from a three-year-old.

Though Melvin didn't ask again that morning about the five dollars, it was still on his mind the following week when he again roused his mother with his unusual request.

This time she didn't turn away, thinking she needed to get to the bottom of what was going on, or Melvin would wake her every Sunday. He was not only unusual, but also persistent.

"Why, darling, do you need five dollars? You already get an allowance." 

"I don't need it," he said, "He does."

"He?"

"The man on TV." 

He climbed onto her side of the bed so she could put her arms around him. Which she did.

She yawned, "The man on TV?"

"He needs money. Five would be enough."  He raised his hand and began counting his fingers. Though just three he was already good with numbers.

Cynthia, now fully awake, remembered they allowed him to watch cartoons on TV Sunday mornings. Melvin distracted this way made it easier for them to get more sleep.

"Is it Farmer Gray?" 

Paul groaned, "He's not a farmer. He wears a suit."

His farther fell back into a deep sleep. Mumbling incoherently.

There was no more talk about money for at least a month.

But then, while rousing for Sunday breakfast, Melvin asked if they thought Jesus was still alive.

"Jesus? Who?" Half out of bed, his father snapped to attention. He asked Cynthia, "Who's filling his mind with these ideas?" She shrugged, knowing there would be no more rest that day. "I hope not one of the Italians."

The Shapiros were observant Jews and lived in a Jewish  neighborhood in Brooklyn, though at least a third of the residents were Italian-Americans. There were few incidents. They lived together peacefully, basically by ignoring each other. Though everyone, Italians and Jews, looked forward to the time they could afford to buy a small house on Long Island or New Jersey and move there in search of better schools and more people who were of "their kind." 

"Did he die for us?"

"Where are you learning these things" his mother asked. She tried to remain calm.

"From the man on TV. He said he did. Jesus did."

"Did?"

"Die for us. They put him on a cross. The Jews did. Just wearing his underpants. He died so we can live."

"I don't want to hear any more of this," his father uncharteristically shouted, "Do you hear me? What's his name? Tony something or other. You know who I mean" Paul turned to Cynthia. The one who's already six-feet and shaves."

"The man on TV said we have to love each other to save our souls."

"I told you no more of this," his father said.

 What's a soul?"

"Never mind, darling. We can talk about this another time." She was the family peacemaker.

Melvin began to whimper. 

Cynthia whispered to Paul, "The TV is converting him to Christianity."

"It must be Oral Roberts," Paul said, "He has a Sunday morning TV show. And he's always asking for his people to send him money. That's where the story about your five dollars comes from."

I thought about them the other day. They were graduate school friends. The story about Melvin is true. 

Rona was talking again about Trump and his followers. How they are being recruited and brainwashed through the Internet.

I reminded her about the Shapiros.

"I remember them," she said, "It's the same thing. Preachers like Oral Roberts used TV; Trump uses the Internet to turn people into white supremacists. If I were paranoid I'd think the Russian are the ones brainwashing Americans to help Trump and thereby bring down America."