“I’m Doing All Right by Myself…”

I’m reading Flannery O’Connor. In her classic story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” there’s this exchange:

“If you would pray,” the old lady said, “Jesus would help you.”

“That’s right,” The Misfit said.

“Well, then, why don’t you pray?” she asked trembling with delight suddenly.

“I don’t want no hep,” he said. “I’m doing all right by myself.”

Boy, if that’s not a picture of our unchurched culture! But I’m afraid it too often is a picture of the church culture, too.