Black Hawk College - Sauk Yearbook (Moline, IL)

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it was very warm and some woman came down and dabbed my forehead, you know, collecting relics. I should have raped her right then. i As long as you're collecting, baby. l This, and then the people outside always want their picture taken with me or to have me go over and meet somebody. I don't mind this so much, but it's those who iust don't believe it. Like, any number of people from Washington have been up here and some are so angry that they won't even speak to me afterwards. This is a real strange thing to react so adversely to something, so you say, WeIl, what the hell did you come here for in the first pIace? SAUK: lsn't the fact that they react strongly-either pro or con-at least something, though? GRUBB: Oh, yeah. At least they're not indifferent but, you know, l've mentioned this before. But it seems to me that there are two things that typify extremist groups on both sides: On the both extremes, an extremist is absolutely in- tolerant of any of the viewpoints but his own. With these people, it isn't enough that they don't like the twelve o'clock Mass and express their opinion of it-they want it stopped. They don't want anybody to have it-it's an evil thing. They're absolutely intolerant of any other view- points. And then, two, they're completely devoid of any sense of humor, and that's too bad. Some of these people from Washington have heard about it-for awhile the in thing was to read Portnoy's Complaint, now it's switched-and the in thing is to go see Father Grubb's Mass, and that's a generalized phrase, see Father Grubb's Mass . People will call on the phone and ask, Do you have a twelve o'clock Mass? Yes, we have a Folk Mass every Sunday at twelve. Yes, but are you saying it? This bugs me. WeII, we haven't decided yet. We'lI flipfor it. SAUK: Have the older people adapted to it? GRUBB: Oh, a bunch of the older people love it. And the reason is that older people like to be where the action is. It makes them feel young to hang onto something, so they enioy it. SAUK: Have you ever been connected with drugs by the people around here? GRUBB: Last year it was rumored that I was the leader of the Quad-City drug racket. This one gal got on the Ruth and Fred Show and said, AII of Father Grubb's dear little friends will tell you he drops acid all the time. I said, No, I don't take acid. I know absolutely noth- ing about acid. I know nothing about 'double domes', 'purple flats', 'blue cheer', 'orange wedges', 'yellow sunshine'-I know absolutely nothing about these things. I think that the present mariiuana laws are ridiculous and that they should be changed. Perhaps it should be legalized, I think it isn't nearly as bad as it's painted. SAUK: Are there any special advantages in being a priest? GRUBB: I think being a priest has distinct advan- tages in working with people because, iust by virtue of the fact that you're a clergyman, you gain entrance to a bunch of places. Then, too, if you turn out to be halfway civilized and half- way normal to the kids-they're so surprised because they don't expect this from a clergy- man-they think you're much better than you are and they accept you. I think acceptance by young people comes by our own attitude. If they think we understand them-or perhaps it they think we're not trying to understand them, we're iust trying to accept them-I think they will accept us and that we will get along with them. And I think that one of the reasons that parents otten times don't get along too well with their kids is that sometimes parents have a positive knack for turning a kid off. I mean that they have an idea what he's going to say and whether he says it or not doesn't make any difference. The parents already know what he's going to say, so they don't even listen to him. I discovered this in giving a talk to a group of Episcopalian women. I gave an example about the two kids walking down the street and you couIdn't tell the difference, iust to illustrate a stupid argument. And yet this woman came up afterwards and said, I really agree with you. I, too, have wondered which is the boy and which is the girl. But I was saying iust the opposite of what she understood me to say. But I think this happens so often. SAUK: Father, do you think you are influencing young people to act like Christians? GRUBB: A lot of people have come to services now that have not come in a longtime. A number of boys and girls will come up to me after Mass and say that it's been three or four years since they've been in Church, and that they've really liked it. And I think that we are reaching them. The strangest thing about Christians-I have a buddy over here at the hotel who's a Negro and was a seminarian but he dropped out-no, they threw him out-of seminary because they said he gave one of the negative signs at invocation- whatever this is, I don't know-anyway, he went to the service and, when he came back, he told me that he dropped out of the Church and he's a martyr now, and he said that you can tell that the teachings of Christ are one thing and the behavior of Christians is quite another. I find Christianity where I find Christians. I have nothing against Christianity. It's the Christians I can't stand. lt's the Christian who has kept me in the ghetto. It's the Christian who has bought the houses and has charged me twice as much rent as a house is worth. lt's the Christian who puts me down. And, I think most people can get an idea of what Christian living can be. Again- you asked about this philosophy thing-once people experience what it is to have people care about you, to have people care what happens to you. Once you have experienced this, you don't want to be without it. And to talk about Christi- anity is one thing, but Christianity has to be ex- perienced. In fact, the way we teach anything is through experiencing a thing itself. lt's hard for us to overcome the absolute inertia of people and their love for their own independence. And they don't want to be involved, even emotionally, with anybody else, especially in the matter of religion. It's my God and l . Until we get this down, we're not going to really have a good Christian life or experience. SAUK: In your Mass, there's really no denomina- tion, is there? GRUBB: No. This one kid was in last December and he had been coming to the twelve o'clock Mass for three or four months. And I said, By the way, what religion are you? He replied, Yours. l didn't know you were Catholic, really. I-Ie said, I didn't say I was Catholic. I said I belong to your reIigion. This kind of surprised me. It is almost to the point where we think to be Catholic is not to be a Christian-which is really weird. l've never asked anyone, You want to take instruction and ioin the Church? Maybe I should do this, I don't know. But I think if they want to, then they will ask me. And, if they want to, I will give them instruction. But I don't get too carried away with trying to change people. This thing of using con1.P.52

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