The Complex of Momma Boucher*

One of my favorite movies is Water Boy. In the movie, Bobby Boucher (pronounced boo-shea) is a highly qualified waterboy who is the authority on high quality H2O. Bobby was given the opportunity to play football (or as momma calls it "fooseball") and becomes the hero for the SCLSU (South Central Louisiana State University) football team. Unfortunately, momma has a complex. She feels that she was to control her son and keep him under her "rule". She does everything to shape his world, his perception of life, and ultimately his outcome. Her complex is simply this: whatever she sees is a threat to her control over Bobby, she calls it the devil. When Bobby meets a girl, momma says, "That Vickie Valentine, she is the devil!" When she hears of football, she decries, "That fooseball is the devil!" Later she calls Benjamin Franklin the devil and just about everything else the devil. She obviously gets carried away, but the reality is still there: whomever or whatever rivals her or challenges her dominance in her sons life, well, it has to be the devil. This scare tactic or fearful manipulation, though absolutely hilarious to watch on television, is a sad reality in our world today. Ironically, we are all "waterboy's". And people who have authority over us, who feel that they must have our "allegiance" to them, whether it be a church, denomination, or any other organizational affiliation in various forms and fashions have the "Momma Boucher Complex." For instance, if you are in a church and honestly disagree with the way something is done, to speak up and question the decision of the leadership, well Momma Boucher comes out from the pastor or leaders, "That boy, he is the devil!" If you don't conform the cookie-cutter Christianity where you as a pew-sitter are blindly asked to follow your leadership in superficial naivete, then you are the devil. To think critically and examine the ground on which Christianity today stands, then well, you are devil. If you look close enough, you will find the devil behind door number three, behind that tree over there, in that person who simply doesn't "amen" just because they are called on to. Today, we want followship based on fear not on Christ's commands. We lay down the axe of "Christian authority" whether in the church or somewhere else to assert dominance in people's lives; and if anyone is insubordinate or not a "yes man", well, then they are inevitably dubbed the devil. Is this what Christianity is supposed to be like? Is the kingdom of God a house of cards, that for anyone to bring a fresh wind would cause the cards to come tumbling down? Maybe what we need is a breath of fresh air. Fortunately, the movie has a good ending, and Bobby realizes that he cannot live his life under the heavy-handedness and domineering control of his mother, who since childhood tried to keep him from living life outside her permission. I only hope that those of us who are Bobby Boucher's of today won't be intimidated by the momma's out there who want to call us and everything else that simply wants to be true to God's Word and hold Christianity (including mommas - those in leadership) accountable to God and the faith which has been handed down to us. This complex is alive and well, and while we should show respect to those who lead us and feed us in the church and elsewhere, we should not shrink back from calling a spade a spade and a joker a joker.