WHAT'S IN A CHURCH'S NAME?

"...I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and are dead." (from Revelation 3:1)

One of my favorite films is "The Apostle" starring Robert Duval. In that film, Duval plays a Holiness minster seeking to do a significant work for God after having committed a serious crime. He founds a small church in a rural Louisiana town. The church has an unusual sign and an unusual name. The sign is an arrow turned upward, surrounded by small white lights. The sign proclaims the church's unique name: "ONE WAY ROAD TO HEAVEN".

There's a big move at present among evangelicals, Pentecostals, and charismatics to change the names of their churches from traditional names to names which are believed to be "more appealing". Many pastors believe the very NAME of a church will either attract or repel potential visitors. I notice it's particularly Baptist and Assemblies of God churches which are changing their names, eager to drop the label "Baptist" or "Assembly of God". The feeling is that the label "Baptist" conjures up images of wild eyed fundamentalists waving their King James Bibles and proclaiming that everybody is going to Hell. And, "Assembly of God" is believed to conjure up the image of Jimmy Swaggart crying or Jim and Tammy Bakker manipulating people to give them money, OR of hysterical holy rollers acting insane.

One MetroWest (i.e. Boston's western suburbs) Baptist church, for instance, changed their name about twenty years ago to "Chapel of the Cross". Just a few years ago, a large MetroWest Assemblies of God church changed their name to "Celebration International Church". (It is not my intent to cast any aspersions against these good churches; but merely to use their name changes as examples.) Such church name changes are happening quite frequently all over America. Ironically, while evangelicals are trying to change names, labels, and images, the theological liberals as well as the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are sticking to traditional church names. (The fairly liberal "American Baptist" denomination, for example, has no problem calling their churches "Baptist".)

A friend of mine is an active Member of a large church is in sin the process of changing their name from a traditional Protestant church name to a more inclusive, warm, and seemingly less threatening label. (I'd rather not name the specific church here.) He has not been in favor of changing that church's name, but even he admits the new name is attractive and that the church's leadership "has done a good job selling it."

In one sense, church name changes are not totally new. The church I pastored for many years, First Assembly of God of Framingham's ORIGINAL name from its incorporation in 1922 was "Pentecostal Church of Framingham." In 1961, the church's name was legally changed. At THAT time, "First Assembly" was a very popular name in the Assemblies of God. Today, such churches regret that the initials of First Assembly of God are "F.A.G." That name is now very unpopular! There's a big trend now toward using the name "Community Church." Ironically, forty or fifty years ago, a church called "Community Church" was usually a very theologically liberal church. I had an uncle and aunt in those days who attended "Community Church of Boston" which was very liberal. A lot of Assemblies of God churches now use "Community Church" in their names. I'm not necessarily opposed to that, but it honestly seems to me that such churches are trying to find a safe, nonthreatening name. One independent church that I know of dropped "Bible" from their name a few years ago. The church's leaders cited surveys saying people will not attend a church which uses the name "Bible". Conversely, First Baptist Church of Dedham, Massachusetts changed their name to "Fellowship Bible Church" and the new name helped with attendance.

Last Sunday, my wife and I became Members at Bread of Life Assembly of God in Westminster, Massachusetts. It's fifty miles from where we live in Webster so it's a long commute, but it's definitely the right church for us at this time. Bread of Life runs over 250 in attendance and is growing. The services are dynamic. The church's leaders have a lot of vision and a lot of faith. Many of the church's people are under age 45. There are a lot of children, teens, and young adults. (Jesus is called the "Bread of Life" in John's Gospel.) "Bread of Life Assembly of God" is a very traditional and some would say potentially offensive name, but it hasn't seemed to stop the number of people visiting the church, or "getting saved", or Baptized in the Holy Spirit, or "plugged in" to serving the Lord in greater capacities.

Parachuch organizations in the evangelical and Pentecostal realm are also changing their names. About twelve years ago, "Evangelistic Association of New England" became "Vision New England." Honestly, I've always thought "Vision New England" sounds like an optical supply company! Radio Bible Class became "RBC Ministries". Bible Institute of Los Angeles became "BIOLA".

Honestly, there WERE some problems with our old church's name "First Assembly of God of Framingham." Except for me, almost NO ONE called it that. Everyone called it "Framingham Assembly of God." A lot of our people wrote their contribution checks to "Framingham Assembly of God." I had toyed with the idea of possibly changing the church's name, but of course that's a moot point now because the church has closed.

What do YOU think? Would you NOT attend a church if it had "Bible" in its name? Do the labels "Baptist" or "Assembly of God" scare you? Do you find "Community Church" an attractive name? Do you think a church's name matters?

AN AGNOSTIC'S ARGUMENT

“The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.” (Psalm 119:51)

The word “agnostic” comes from the Greek. An “agnostic” is a person who doesn’t know if there’s a God or not and who doesn’t think it’s possible to know that. Unlike atheists who boldly and confidently proclaim, “there is no God,” agnostics don’t know and don’t particularly care.

A few days ago, national radio talk show host Michael Smerconish featured Vincent Bugliosi as his guest. Bugliosi, age 76, is the lawyer who prosecuted Charles Manson four decades ago. Bugliosi is an outspoken agnostic who authored the recently publishes book “Divinity of Doubt: The God Question.”

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I strongly disagree with Bugliosi. I’m not an agnostic. I believe in God with all my heart, and believe God is actively interested in our lives. Many years ago, I would have been angry and upset to hear such a broadcast. I would have felt it was dishonoring to God, His Word, and to Believers. But that’s many years ago. Today, at age 56, I’m not fazed by such a broadcast at all. The Bible itself predicts that such will be the case, in many passages, including I Corinthians 2:14 which reads:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Bugliosi’s book has certainly sparked anger and criticism. He says his biggest detractors have been atheists. You might think there would be a camaraderie between atheists and agnostics. In fact, they are very much as odds and typically don’t get along. Of course, a number of theists have been critical. Bugliosi himself has disdain for atheists and theists, but the group he has the LEAST respect for and the most frustration with are evangelicals or “born-again Christians.” (That included ME!) Bugliosi quoted several statements of Billy Graham’s, expressing contempt for Billy Graham’s beliefs. He proceeded to attempt to rip Billy Graham’s beliefs to shreds.

Bugliosi argued that born-again Christians’ beliefs are SO illogical and SO nonsensical as to be irrelevant and preposterous. In fact, when I heard Bugliosi’s comments, I wanted to shake my head and laugh! I Corinthians 1:18 says,
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.”

Incidentally, as is typical with skeptics and critics, Bugliosi’s Biblical knowledge is not as accurate as he things. He claims the Bible in the time of Noah limits man’s life span to 120 years. IN fact, in context it meant the flood would happen in 120 years, NOT that man’s lifetime is limited to 120 years. Bugliosi like a lot of people seemingly wants to call God into his study, sit God down, lecture God about how selfish and illogical He is, and then send God way with His tail between His legs, as it were.

WHAT ARROGANCE!

By man’s standards, God is not logical. By man’s standards, having people spend eternity in Hell makes absolutely no sense. But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and God’s ways are not our ways (see Isaiah 55:8-9). I “received Jesus Christ as my Personal Lord and Savior” on July 21, 1970. Over the past forty years I’ve experienced “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” (to quote that old ABC sports program) many times. Forty years after “getting saved,” I do not regret my decision to commit my life to Jesus Christ.


Just before letting Bugliosi go, Michael Smerconish asked him if he is “hedging his bets” ... if he (born a Roman Catholic) still attends church “just in case.” Bugliosi does not.

Yes, Vincent Bugliosi’s comments did not upset me. IN fact, they made me feel MORE CONFIDENT in my faith! So, thank you Michael Smerconish and thank you Vincent Bugliosi!

LORD OF THE FLIES

"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beel'zebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" (Matthew 10:25)

Many will recognize that, "Lord of the Flies" is a novel by William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a desert island and the social situations and circumstances that play out as a result. It was also made into a film. What you may not realize is that "Lord of the Flies" comes from the Biblical name "Beelzebub" also sometimes rendered as "Baalzebub" or even "Baalzebul" or "Beelzebul". "Beelzebub" means "Lord of the Flies". It is one of many titles of Satan...the devil.

It's pretty universal that most people dislike snakes, but I'd say even more people dislike flies. I think, for example, of videos we have all seen of suffering children in third world countries with flies all around them. It's pretty awful. I have a couple of fly stories for you, if you can handle them:

The first is pretty mild. There was one annoying fly who got into the apartment where I live last week. One fly. One. And it was seemingly everywhere. I'd be in the bathroom taking a shower, and the fly would be flying around the bathroom. I'd be eating breakfast, and there would be the fly. I'd be watching a video, and that pesky fly would be right there in the living room. I'd be laying down to sleep with that one fly buzzing around. This went on for days. On Sunday, the fly was buzzing all over the apartment. It flew into the half bathroom on the first floor and I closed the door, at least trapping the fly in that little room. Now for a little tip about how to kill flying insects successfully. It's water in a spray bottle. I have killed many a pesky yellowjacket that way. You take one of those laundry spray bottles and fill it with water. Spray the yellowjacket or any other insect with the water; keep saturating the thing. Eventually, it will become so waterlogged that it CANNOT fly and will fall to the floor. Then STEP ON IT! I went into that half bath with a spray bottle and soaked that fly. Wherever it went I soaked it. It fell to the floor. I grabbed a hunk of toilet paper, grabbed the fly in the paper, dropped it in the toilet, and VOILA: there was that black fat annoying fly spinning around and flushed!

Now, the next fly story is pretty gross. A few years ago when little First Assembly of God of Framingham was still open, I'd been away for awhile. When I came home, elderly volunteer Secretary Claire Grimes told me she'd found a bunch of little bugs that looked like "brown rice" in one of the bathrooms downstairs. She'd mopped the floor and gotten up as many as she could. That sounded really strange to me. I went to that bathroom, and to my surprise, I also saw perhaps hundreds of what did look like tiny pieces of brown rice moving around. I got some bug killer and sprayed the floor. I got paper towels and cleaned up as many of them as I could. I also found some on the rug and other places and killed them. A couple of weeks later, on Labor Day, I stopped into the church for something. I needed to go downstairs to where our sanctuary was in that little building. I was surprised to find maybe 30 flies buzzing around in the sanctuary. I then went into each bathroom on that level. No kidding. There must have been 300 flies in the little bathrooms...150 in one, and 150 in the other. It looked like something from a bad Alfred Hitchcock movie! This was the LAST thing I wanted to deal with on a Labor Day afternoon! I got my aerosol can of bug killer and sprayed each bathroom heavily. After about five minutes, 99% of the flies were on the floor, dead or dying. I got paper towels and trash bags and cleaned them up. Then I wiped down the floors with water. Over the next few days, I would walk around the church building looking for flies. I killed probably an average of 20 flies a day around the building for each of the next four or five days. Then they were pretty much gone.

It is interesting that Satan is called "Lord of the Flies". You know that old song, "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" Well, I say, "Flies, what are they good for, absolutely nothing." Obviously, Claire's brown rice were really maggots. Before that, we had smelled a bad smell like a dead animal in the building. There was probably a dead mouse or something, maybe in a wall or under the floor. A fly laid its eggs in there and you know the rest. Demons come in the way flies do. They attach themselves to what is spiritually dead, dying, and disgusting. They seem little, insignificant and annoying AT FIRST. Then one day you look and as the song from Sweeney Todd says, "Demons are prowling everywhere nowadays!" You've got trouble and you need to get right with God, and resist the devil and he will flee as the Scripture says.

Looking back, maybe the flies in that church building were a warning to me. There was a spiritual undercurrent happening that took me and other leaders by surprise, and the next thing you know we were overrun and the church was closed. It's all something to think about. I did not allow ONE fly to last more than a few days in my residence, and frankly even a few days was TOO long. I don't want to put up with any devils and demons of Hell for one split second! And I never want to be clueless and having flies multiplying around a dwelling I inhabit or far worse, to allow the forces of darkness to "come in like a flood". Now, I do know the Lord raises up a standard against them...like my can of Raid. But it should never get that far.

Demons and flies. We can allow no place for them! As Christians, that means 100% commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Word of God. And, if anyone reading this is not sure where you stand with God, you need to MAKE sure. Don't hesitate to contact me!

SURVIVOR'S GUILT

"Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
And he killed James the brother of John with the sword." (Acts 12:1-2)

That passage from the Book of Acts speaks of James the brother of John. James and John, the Sons of Zebedee, were not only among the Twelve Apostles appointed by Jesus, but were among the three key men being trained by Jesus to lead the Church for the First Century...specifically, Peter, James, and John. It had to have been a real shock when James was killed. There was no miracle to stop his being killed. There was no raising from the dead. He was one of the early Church's "big three",and it happened rather early in the history of the Church. I wonder how the Church at the time felt, and I especially wonder how his brother John felt. In fact, John lived for decades after this to be a very old man. John was the only one of the Twelve Apostles to die a natural death. Do you suppose John the Son of Zebedee experienced what is called "Survivor's Guilt"?

The topic of Survivor's Guilt is on my mind today because of a television news story I heard this morning. People in Monson, Massachusetts whose houses were NOT destroyed by the tornado feel guilty because their houses are O.K. and many of their neighbors'and friends' are not. Jim Braude from New England Cable News described walking down one Monson street last Friday. He said he was amazed because on the same street you'd see some houses where the roof was blown off and some windows were blown out; you'd see some places there all that existed was a pile of rubble where a house had once stood; and you'd see SOME houses which appeared to be normal and untouched. That's the irony of having a community hit by an EF-3 tornado. (The tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri was much larger and much more powerful. There, whole neighborhoods were completely wiped out.) Hurricanes typically DON'T leave the kind of random destruction that tornadoes do. Back in 1992 when Category 5 Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida, the town of Homestead was pretty much 100% devastated. Everybody's houses were badly damaged. It was an equal opportunity disaster. I can well understand that if I lived in Monson and my residence was unscathed by the twister, I'd feel uncomfortable, and, well, kind of guilty.

I have a Survivor's Guilt about my brother Eddie's death. Eddie was only eighteen months younger than me. We essentially grew up together. We each learned to ride bikes around the same time. We played with the same group of kids. We were at Dean S. Luce Elementary School together. I remember us being in the same swimming class when I was 8 and he was 6. I was never as physically fit or athletic, so although we were two years apart, I had already flunked the Beginner class once or twice, and it was Eddie's first time. I even remember Eddie compassionately telling Mrs. Harrington the swimming instructor, "Bobby's afraid to do the dog paddle". In a way I wanted to shoot him, but he was honest, and just didn't want me to have a bad experience. By the time we were young adults Eddie could take any engine apart and put it back together again and I could barely tell a Phillips head screwdriver from a slotted one; I could speak in public and write almost effortlessly, and these areas were very difficult for Eddie. Eddie excelled in Math, and I was still counting on my fingers! But it was Eddie who struggled off and on with substance abuse, and who collapsed in late June of 1983 and died about two weeks later. I inherited my father's automobite memorabalia collection. It WOULD have gone to Eddie had he lived. I had three kids and today I have a grandson. Eddie never lived to have kids. You might be surprised at how often Eddie is still in my dreams at night and how often he crosses my mind. There's a very real Survivor's Guilt that I have about Eddie.

Some modern psychologists teach that virtually all guilt is bad. They see religion and the Bible as repressive and denying men and women's, well...HUMANITY! They see premarital and extramarital sex, as well as gay sex as no big deal. They see lying as a necessity, and heavy duty swearing as emotionally healthy. I don't agree. A lot of guilt is GOOD. It confronts us that there's a better and higher way to live; and I believe as a Christian that it shows us how far we all fall short and why we need the grace, mercy and love of God to save us. But some guilt IS bad. To be depressed and tormented because you survived a terrible event...or because your house was unscathed and you neighbor's was destroyed, IS not healthy.

Instead of Survivor's Guilt, we need more of a Survivor's REFLECTION. There is nothing I can do about Eddie's death at 27 in 1983. Nothing. It's beyond my control. But this and other deaths can remind me how SHORT life is. At Eddie's death, one man remarked to me, "Whether we die at 27 or at 72, life is very short." It's true. Rather than sit around contemplating our navels and feeling guilty, we need to make the most of every day and make a postive impact on our world every day. If our house was not destroyed, we can help someone whose house was destroyed and we can be extra grateful for our own house with its termites, and deteriorating staircase and leaky basement. It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

Do you remember that Old Testament story of David and Bathsheba? There's much about that which has been preached about and dramatized. But there's a part of the story you may have forgotten. Bathsheba conceived a child from her sexual encounter with David. She gave birth nine months later. But the child was very sick and in distress. David was distraught. He fasted and prayed for the baby to be healed and live. He prayed like he'd never prayed before. The child died. David's advisors and closest friends were concerned that David would not be able to handle this death...that he "might go off the deep end" as it were. But David, in 2 Samuel 12:23 made a profound statement. He'd gotten cleaned up, eaten, and cheered up a bit. David said, "One day I will go to him, but he cannot come to me." David wasn't torn apart by Survivor's Guilt. The baby was in the Lord's hands in eternity. One day, on the other side, David and his son would meet again. David went on to live a productive life.

I imagine that teenage girl whose mother died in that bathtup may struggle with Survivor's Guilt. But her mother certainly did not give her life to save her so she'd spend the remainder of her life distraught and guilt ridden. Mom would want that girl to live a productive, joyful, and full life. I hope and pray she does that! It would be the greatest tribute she could give her mother.

Every day is a gift from God. Much of what happens in life is hard to understand, and much of it will never make sense in this life. Why DID my brother die so young? Why DID Monson get so devastated by those tornadoes? Why not Webster or Framingham? And for that matter, why was much of Joplin, Missouri destroyed by that tornado and not Springfield, Missouri where my daugther, son-in-law and grandson live? We can never be sure of tomorrow. But we can recognize each day as a gift from God and go forth, NOT in guilt, but in gratitude.

WHAT WOULD EUGENE A.BARIL DO?

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." (Romans 13:1)

This past Saturday's Boston Herald featured a story about a Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles worker at the RMV's administrative building in Quincy who was fired for practicing deplorable customer service and bragging about it in his "tweets". The guy was like the Biblical judge from Luke's Gospel who did not fear God nor man,and tossed profanities around like a longshoreman. (Oops, I guess I owe an apology to the longshoremen.) The story can be found at:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1342870&srvc=rss

I caught just a tiny bit of Michael Graham's radio show on BostonTalks 96.9 WTKK today, but found it interesting that Michael stressed the irony of Registrar Rachel Kaprelian firing the guy when she herself has essentially bragged on the air that the RMV no longer mails out reminders of when driver's licenses are about to expire and essentially said the RMV does not have to practice good customer service. I am too far away to check Knollwood Memorial Park today, but once again I suspect my father, Eugene A. Baril is turning over in his grave.

My father was in law enforcement for thirty years, and served from 1956 to 1982 with the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Dad started out giving driving tests, later investigated fatal accidents, and spent the last thirteen or so years of his career as a Supervisor at the Registry's old 100 Nashua St. Boston headquarters. I remember (humorously) that when we'd go with my father to shop at Murray's Clothing Outlet in downtown Norwood back in the 1960s, the stores old Jewish proprietors, Murray and Sammy, would come walking up to him, smiling and smoking, and asking, "Gene, When they gonna make you Registrar?!"

My father would have made a good Registrar! If he were here today and of sound mind, here is some of what I think he would say about the Massachusetts RMV:

First, I know this is sexist, but he would be dead against having a female Registrar! To Dad,the Registrar needed to be a man's man, and a leader.

Second, he would be furious about "civilians" giving driving tests. A friend of mine recently told me his daughter went for her license test and it was a JOKE. All she had to do was drive around the block and get her license. My father, dressed in his uniform, would have people turning around on steep hills, backing up in "impossible" spots and all sorts of scary stuff. He failed a lot of teens, but those he passed truly had a handle on driving.

Third, this might surprise you, but Dad would NOT oppose lowering the age for Learner's Permits to 15 and a half. Dad tended to believe the younger the better when it came to learning to drive. He would definitely feel the idea of some to make people to wait until 18 or even 21 is a big mistake.

Dad was old fashioned. He would NOT have liked the on-line registration renewal stuff. Dad would have liked people to have to come in to the RMV for license and registration renewals,BUT he would NEVER have favored closing RMV offices. He'd have favored ADDING them. And, I suspect he would have LIKED the fact that several AAA locations (including Framingham) now offer RMV services.

As far as disgruntled employees "tweeting" profanities at work and ignoring customers, that would never have gone over. This is not politically incorrect, but to use one of his expressions, he would have said that someone should "mop the street" with such an employee!

Well, it's all a fantasy. Eugene A. Baril passed away in 2000, and the RMV in Massachusetts can be, well, disappointing, to say the least.

Incidentally, you can see a photo of my Dad at:

http://www.mass.gov/rmv/history/

"WHAT, NO DUNKIN' DONUTS?!"

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)

Yesterday, I received a pretty intense phone call from my daughters Amy (Baril) Julian and Rachel Baril. Rachel is currently visiting Amy in southwest Missouri. Despite the fact that both are well into their twenties and Amy is a mother, when as a Dad you receive an intense call from your offspring, well, to paraphrase the old E.F. Hutton ad, you listen!

Last year, Rachel went out to spend a week with Amy and David, and phoned me with the intense and very sad message that Amy and David's very wonderful Jack Russell Terrier named Sam had been hit and instantly killed by a car. So, THIS year, I was not sure what to expect, and I kind of took a deep breath inside.

"There's NO MORE DUNKIN' DONUTS!" they announced with all the fervor they'd have had as elementary school kids if I'd told them we weren't going to the beach after all, or something like that!

You have to understand that in New England (particularly Massacahusetts) Dunkin' Donuts is an institution! Every community of just about ANY reasonable size has at least one Dunkin' Donuts. Many of the larger communities have five or even ten Dunkin' Donuts locations. Today, the big attraction there is not the doughnuts. The doughnuts, in fact, were shrunk by D.D. a few years ago, and are more like dough-NETTES. They're airy and small. But it's the coffee and accessories that are the draw. The coffee is very good. Ice coffee is very popular in New England, even in winter. There are the bagel and croissant sandwiches. There are the Coolottas. It's very difficult for any New Englander to go for more than a few days without "hitting" a Dunkin' Donuts.

The one difficult thing about visiting in Springfield, Missouri is there is not one Dunkin' Donuts in the whole city of 160,000. When I was in Bible College there in the 1970s, there WAS one Mister Donut on Kearney St. Back in the 1990s, Mister Donut merged with Dunkin'Donuts, but that location did not survive. The only Dunkin' Donuts within a hundred miles of Springfield was on the "main drag" in Branson, Missouri, 45 miles to the South. Branson is a great place to visit. There are all kinds of shows and attractions. It's been called a "family style Las Vegas" or "Second Nashville". One of our favorite attractions is Silver Dollar City with its Marvel Cave. But perhaps our favorite was Dunkin' Donuts. It was NOT popular with the "locals". In fact, if you were in Branson during winter, there'd be a "Closed for the Season" sign at Dunkin' Donuts. The Branson location catered to tourists from New England, New York, New Jersey and other northeast locations. The last time I was there, I noticed a Cheverolet coupe with New Hampshire plates in the parking lot. You'd walk in there and hear the tourists with their Boston and Rhode Island and Bronx accents and feel at home. I remember ordering an ice coffee there. The kid who served me gave me a weird look. That may have been the only ice coffee he'd served that day. (They pushed the hot coffee at that location.)

Amy and Rachel were on a day in Branson, and went to Dunkin' Donuts only to find it's GONE. There is now some independent doughnut shop in its place.

The Missouri Ozarks are NOT a big "coffee and doughnut" location. Breakfast for the natives of that region would much more likely be biscuits and white gravy with a hot coffee; or maybe some grits; or something like that.

I still think with the right marketing campaign, Dunkin' Donuts could successfully penetrate that geographic area. Ice coffee was unknown there until McDonald's there introduced it at their locations a few years ago. While it's not as popular there as in New England, its sales are OK.

Well, I gotta love Dunkin' Donuts. It's hometown (world headquarters) is Canton, Massachusetts where I grew up!

And, I realize with all the tragedies we've seen in the news lately, "No Dunkin' Donuts" is not on the level of the destruction from tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri, or in Monson, Massachusetts for that matter. And, this piece IS a bit tongue in cheek, but when you've got your heart set on Dunkin' Donuts, and it's gone; well, for any native New Englander, that's pretty much going to ruin your day!