HOW’S ABOUT SOME EASTER BUNNY HUMOR FOR ALL?
THE HUMAN RACE
BROTHER CAMPBELL’S SERMONETTES
ON THE BILLBOARD
When I ran across Brother Thomas Lee Campbell, the Church of Christ minister was 74. He had just climbed a rickety 12-foot ladder. He was standing on the ledge of a church billboard replacing one of his “sermonettes” in the City of Hawthorne, California.
For 18 years, the former Pepperdine University professor had been climbing that ladder weekly, introducing potential parishioners to philosophic humor on his billboard.
He gleaned his sermonettes from conversations, magazines, books and anywhere else in the universe he could find them. Here are a few, which might indicate that Brother Campbell was a guy who enjoyed life and, despite his religious convictions, had no fear of bringing a few laughs into a world where many have forgotten how to take things lightly.
We’ll begin with his favorite sermonette: “Need exercise? Try kneeling.”
“Biting remarks are often the result of snap judgements.”
“Biscuits and sermons are both improved by shortening.”
“A weak moment with the bottle can mean several weeks in the jug.”
“Don’t be afraid to swallow your pride — it’s non-fattening.”
“Obesity in this country is really widespread.”
“Anybody who says life’s a bowl of cherries is bananas!”
“Remember: Life begins not with a kiss but with a slap!”
“Seven days without prayer makes one weak.”
“Cars are not the only things recalled by their maker.”
“Being young is a fault which improves daily.”
“Bragging: loud patter of little feats.”
“Temper gets us into trouble; pride keeps us there.”
“Shortest traffic sermon: Keep right!”
“Every family tree has some sap in it!”
“God honors no drafts where there are no deposits.”
“Be sure the tune is worth playing before tooting your own horn.”
“Pity the child whose dad is more concerned about his golf swing than his offspring.”
“Kindness is the language which the deaf hear and the blind see.”
“Taxes are staggering, but they never go down.”
“Many things are opened by mistake — especially the mouth!”
“If you aren’t pulling your weight, you’re probably pushing your luck.”
“Life’s like an onion. We peel off one layer at a time and sometimes we cry.”
“A spouse with horse sense never becomes a nag.”
“First they thought the world was flat, then round. Now some think it’s crooked.”
During Brother Campbell’s ministry, which at the time had reached 56 years, he had seen a “great deal of happiness and sadness.” Religion, he noted, “doesn’t take away your problems. It just simply gives you the strength to face up to them and endure them.”
The trouble with the human race, he said, is we have a tendency to “magnify the faults of people many times over, but fail to consider their off-setting virtues. I’ve seen individuals who developed from seemingly nothing into tremendous giants of usefulness.”
Had he ever lost faith in God?
“No. Never in God. I’ve lost faith in myself, alright.”
How does he look at life?
“You can’t take people for granted. You have to look at them every day as a new person. You shouldn’t hold grudges against people you’ve known in years past because people change. They aren’t the same today as they were yesterday. That’s right, people do change! Continually.”
HAPPY EASTER TO ALL! HAPPY LIFE, TOO!
— Boots LeBaron —
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