Hopkinsville Goblins

As every fan of science fiction knows, the universe is a vast place, with terrors both subtle and gross, and wonders to freeze the soul. There are a billion billion stars out there, and some monsters come from places darker than the blackest woods.

That was the case at the Sutton farmhouse in 1955, in the wild expanse between Kelly and Hopkinsville,Ky. Legend has it that the Suttons' guest, Billy Ray Taylor, had stepped outside to fetch water from a pump when he saw lights in the sky.

Being from the big city, Taylor had never seen such a thing before, and assumed they must be those "stars" his friends had been puling his leg about, although these moved through the sky and appeared to land in the middle of the cornfield. (Stars are bright lights that country folk say come out at night once the sun has set. Science fiction writers have run with this idea further, and suggested that stars are like the sun, but more remote and may even have life-sustaining planets like our own orbiting them. No one has explained why the sun should be only star ever visible in big cities, but we'll indulge this silliness a little further.)

Not long after, the house was set upon by a dozen or so small, green and glowing creatures with spindly legs and clawed hands. Bullets soon flew, and those that found their mark echoed with a metallic pa-ting! until the strange visitors from another world left the way they came.

In the morning, the Suttons found notes the aliens had been carrying with titles like "Cure for Cancer and All Human Diseases," "New Agricultural Techniques Guaranteed to end Famine," "You Won't Believe the Simple Trick this Girl Used to Lift her Entire Nation out of Poverty" and "Generals Hate This Combat-Free Solution to War. None of them was readable.

The Suttons, who had fired 57,000 rounds of ammunition, quickly were hailed as true American heroes by the NRA and given jobs by FOX.News to discuss the "liberal menace from outer space."

As every fan of science fiction knows, the universe is a vast place, with terrors both subtle and gross, and wonders to freeze the soul. Some monsters come from places darker than the blackest woods.

That was the case at the Sutton farmhouse in 1955.

ETA: The encounter is depicted in the stage musical "It Came From Kentucky."

Understanding the wounded heart of God

I wonder sometimes about God's attachment pattern.

He claims he wants a close, loving relationship with us, and frequently describes an ideal where all know and are fully known, where our dignity and identity are affirmed, and when we pull away, he pursues.

Think of the Garden, when he comes looking for Adam and Eve after they break fellowship with him; or the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where the father goes out looking for the son who wandered away, and then for the self-righteous son who won't celebrate his brother's homecoming. These are all examples of a healthy attachment style. He wants to be close, but recognizes our moral agency. He asks respectful questions to understand our choices, but doesn't press the issue beyond what is comfortable,

In practice, he's extremely dysfunctional. You can talk to him for hours, asking the same question over and over, and never get an answer. He says he wants a close relationship, but then have you seen how he treats people who care about him? And on those rare occasions when he does speak to someone, off they go to get psychoactive medication so they don't have to go through that again.

I have a friend with a fearful avoidant attachment style, but at least I understand that because I know my friend's story.

Sometimes I just want to hold God close, let him cry it out, and ask "Who hurt you?" but if I did that, he'd probably just tell me to go to hell.


Copyright © 2019 by David Learn. Used with permission.


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