A month ago, I wrote about a comment my Pastor’s wife made about not being able to swim. She made a passing remark, “I don’t swim, so I stay away from the water. . . ”

Today, the Pastor made more than a passing comment. He made a long joke about not being able to swim. He was funny, too, talking about how folks wanted to throw him in the lake at the Church Picnic, but since he couldn’t swim, he had no bones with kicking someone’s behind for trying to throw him in. He even made jokes about drowning. “I didn’t know he couldn’t swim. . . ” Everyone, including I, were laughing.

But, having read the latest drowning study, I was disturbed by the attitude that you can protect yourself from drowning by just staying out of the water. That is what makes it highly unlikely that children of non-swimmers will ever learn to swim. How are you going to use the strategy of avoiding water on yourself and not your child?

The truth is, many non-swimming parents forbid their children from taking swim lessons. I don’t think my Pastor falls in that group. But he does influence those in that group. I just wish he wouldn’t joke about something so life and death.

A few years ago, our pastor announced from the pulpit that we as a congregation need to get in shape. To do something about that, the church offered a discount on YMCA memberships. I wonder what would happen if he announced that we as a congregation need to learn to swim. He could singlehandedly reverse the Black drowning rate in our city.

Just food for thought. Maybe I should tell him. . .