Why young Teddy Roosevelt was afraid of church

[marc]

Picked this tidbit up from David McCullough's Mornings On Horseback, which I'm currently reading.

When "Teedie" Roosevelt was very young, his family attended an old church in Madison Square in New York.  Suddenly young Teddy became very frightened of the building, and became terrified to the point of being violently ill whenever his family took him near the church.

When he was questioned, the boy told the family that he was afraid of the Zeal that crouched in the shadowy corners of the church building.

His mother asked him what a zeal was, and he said he didn't know, but he thought it was like an alligator or a dragon.

His mother looked through a concordance to figure out what he was talking about, and finally found John 2:17:

"And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."

_____________________

A less funny postscript to this:  Teddy suffered from severe bronchial asthma, which often has a subconscious psychological trigger. Nearly all of the date-recorded attacks he suffered as a child were on Saturday nights and Sundays.  It is speculated that the intense fear caused by this early childhood event could have been the trigger for these attacks.

[Petals]

That is quite interesting, Marc.  It's funny how kids' minds work, isn't it? 

[marc]

...unless, of course, there was a real zeal-creature....

[browsing]

Picked this tidbit up from David McCullough's Mornings On Horseback, which I'm currently reading.

When "Teedie" Roosevelt was very young, his family attended an old church in Madison Square in New York.  Suddenly young Teddy became very frightened of the building, and became terrified to the point of being violently ill whenever his family took him near the church.

When he was questioned, the boy told the family that he was afraid of the Zeal that crouched in the shadowy corners of the church building.

His mother asked him what a zeal was, and he said he didn't know, but he thought it was like an alligator or a dragon.

His mother looked through a concordance to figure out what he was talking about, and finally found John 2:17:

"And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."

_____________________

A less funny postscript to this:  Teddy suffered from severe bronchial asthma, which often has a subconscious psychological trigger. Nearly all of the date-recorded attacks he suffered as a child were on Saturday nights and Sundays.  It is speculated that the intense fear caused by this early childhood event could have been the trigger for these attacks.

fascinating...