Life was fragile in the old west. You could die from damn near anything and people did. From the simplest fever that turned into your last cough, to being on the receiving end of an errant bullet. Infant mortality was high and old age meant you were nearing your late 40’s. All of this put a man in mind of his own mortality and what could he do to make sure he eased out of it in a manner that gave him the best chance at whatever was next in store for him.

Everybody read the good book, those that could read of course, and those that couldn’t, got read to. But to really cement the deal one had to attend church. That’s where you made sure you got put on the right trail towards salvation and redemption. This was extremely important because you were alive for a while but dead a long time, and those with the ability to look forward at all realized you better get your ducks in a row if you were going to be one of those that made it to the pearly gates and had a ticket to get in.

As you approached those lofty heights of your late 40’s and later and saw that there was going to be an end to being here on this mortal coil you took steps, and those steps were making sure you attended church whenever you could. No matter how you lived your life up to this point you still had the chance of grabbing the gold ring piety-wise if you put some effort into it. Plus some times you just needed some preachin’. You went in, sat down and put all earthly thoughts away and proceeded to make whatever deal you could make to assure you wouldn’t be headed the wrong way and wind up where that no good, louse ridden, son of a very bad woman that stole your horse was going.

Cheek turning aside, you would work on that forgiveness thing if it meant easing your way to the right path. That was one of the benefits of churching. You could work through some of those things. And if you sort of shot the guy who stole your horse cause he really, really needed shooting, then of course you were absolutely in need of some preachin’ and if you were lucky you stayed above ground long enough to make up for it. After all what counts is what you are at the end.