Don’t ask me what brought Grady Nutt to mind. I couldn’t tell you, unless the recollection was sparked by some daily thought or desire to see a different world from the one we live in today.

Grady Nutt was an entertainer who wrote books, made recordings, was much in demand as a speaker, and made TV appearances on The Mike Douglas Show and Hee Haw. A TV sitcom was in the works for Grady at the time he died in a plane crash in 1982. As it were, he had just finished a speaking engagement in Cullman, Ala., and was flying out when the crash occurred.

See, Grady Nutt was a “Christian humorist.” Born in Texas, Grady took the all-religious route as far as education: Wayland Baptist College, Baylor University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. And he still had a sense of humor. Today, some might call that “grace.”

Now, for many “Christian humorist” probably sounds as strange and archaic as “wandering minstrel,” “alchemist,” “soothsayer,” “giant killer” or “dragon slayer,” “professions” whose times have passed. Maybe it’s just me; maybe there are yet some Christian humorists out there. Maybe it’s just that the face of Christianity today seems so grim, taut and scowling that it’s easy to assume that nobody in the community of faith is laughing or has a reason to do so.

Religious nuts seem to want to exclude, restrict, shout you down, circle the wagons and pretty much have a closed fellowship. Religious nuts are always preaching to the choir. A religious Nutt, however, tries to include people, finds a reason to smile at our differences and common weaknesses, opens doors to human fellowship, and has a message for everybody, not just the sanctified, robed choir members. Religious nuts are pretty much, well, afraid. They’re afraid of everything. A religious Nutt, however, assumes that, come what may, there is a providential guidance. A Nutt is a whole lot less uptight than a nut.

Go ahead, call me a nut, but I prefer to be called a Nutt. Only a nut would call a Nutt a nut.

Bob Morgan is a retired, award-winning journalist and an author.