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“Jaysis … what kind of preacher are you?!?”
– Cassidy to Custer while both are in jail, episode 1
Right around the year 2000, I was flitting about from church to church trying to find one that felt right for my personal tastes. A Los Angeles friend invited me to a Christian congregation nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. Timidly, I accepted the invitation one Sunday. I found myself attending the following Sunday’s service. And then the next. And the one after that. Within a few months I was happy to call that church home.
I’ll admit the methodologies of the church were foreign to me. There was a band, which was strange. (Raised Catholic, we didn’t have bands in the churches I attended as a kid. That was radical thinking back then.) The pastor of the congregation was pretty much in your face and held you accountable for things. And I’ll confess I went back after that first invitation because I was intrigued by the pastor who seemed a touch scary and over-the-top “televangelistic” to me.
But here’s the thing: That first time – and just about each and every time I went to church after that – I got some sort of message out of his sermons … and not messages pertaining to spirituality or of a religious nature. More often than not they were lessons of common sensibilities, things you could apply to the everyday situations in life. This was something new and enjoyable in a churchgoing experience. And while at first his proselytizing seemed grandiose and bombastic, I came to enjoy his way of preaching.
As it turned out, he and I became good and trusted friends, something somewhat of a surprise as I look back on it.
Which leads me to this week’s episode of Preacher, “Sundowner.”
Really … what kind of pastor is Jesse Custer, anyway? In some ways, Custer reminds me of that pastor I enjoyed and respected at the church tucked in those San Gabriel mountain foothills.
But what he wasn’t was a reflection of Custer. Not by any means.
Custer is selfish and sometimes drunken and often self-serving and tends toward using his position for his ulterior motives. He cusses and questions and controls. He shifts into pugilistic mode when the mood suits him (which is often when he’s imbibing) and really isn’t apologetic when he does so. While he might be self-serving, he’s also self-reflective and confused about how he goes about his affairs. Quick as a wink though, say the following day, he’s on a focused mission and knows exactly what he’s gunning for.
All this is a roundabout way of saying Jesse Custer is, indeed, one messed up pastor. Having Genesis inside his mind and toying with his thoughts doesn’t help matters much.
I said last week of his use of Genesis: Wasn’t it pushing ethical limits forcing someone into The Almighty’s Service against their will? What kind of man of the cloth throws his influences around on the unsuspecting, telling someone to serve God? Definitely a self-serving one, to be sure.
As a pastor, or in any profession for that matter, there are times you need to mind your Ps and Qs and project the qualities of an occupation so they exemplify its nature. Sorry … but Custer isn’t doing that anywhere near to the best of his ability. He’s transmogrifying the state of the position, bending it and altering for his use as he sees fit. That’s treading dangerous ground.
Additionally, he tends to pooh-pooh the exercising of any sort of caution when a mood overtakes him. Whereas he was fixated on his intent with Quincannon last week, he was careless with his words and actions this week.
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And the result? Eugene (Arseface) is in hell.
YowZah. Eugene is in hell, people.
I didn’t think anything was going to stir my mind from wanting to know the consequences of Quincannon’s actions at the conclusion of last week’s “South Will Rise Again.” I was dead wrong about that one.
I’ll ask again: What kind of preacher are you indeed, Jesse Custer? He may have reminded me of my pastor friend of not so long ago. But any similarities got tossed out the window long, long ago.
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I may be telling all this to nothing but dead ears, though. All you may be reflecting on is the kick-ass opening this chapter offered with Custer, Fiore and DeBlanc attempting to put some serious hurt to that Seraph …
What do you think of Custer and his actions? Start a conversation in the comments section below!
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