Every few days over the next several months I will be posting installments of a novel about life, death, war and politics in America since 9/11. Through the Darkest of Nights is a story of hope, reflection, determination, and redemption. It is a testament to the progressive values we all believe in, have always defended, and always will defend no matter how long this darkness lasts. But most of all, it is a search for identity and meaning in an empty world.
Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb, we did not know our mother’s face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father’s heart? Which of us has not remained prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? ~Thomas Wolfe
All installments are available for reading here on Docudharma’s Series page, and also here on Docudharma’s Fiction Page, where refuge from politicians, blogging overload, and one BushCo outrage after another can always be found.
We’re leaving for Washington D.C. tomorrow, but before we go I feel obliged to have a word or two with the head hypocrite in charge of the Freedom in Christ Evangelical Church. I’ve had to look at that church and the messages on the sign in front of it ever since last September, when we rented this house across the street from it so Shannon could start writing her book. In six months, I’ve yet to see any indication that the proprietor of that establishment has even the slightest clue what freedom means, or what Christianity means either.
The previous message on the sign, God Bless America and Our President, and the latest one, Preserve the Sanctity of Marriage, are typical of the weekly themes, which have been far more in harmony with Republican ideology than with New Testament theology. Shannon always tells me the False World must be resisted, that every effort made to expose it matters, so I’m going to make the next few minutes matter.
I walk across the street to the church and go inside. In the vestibule there’s a table with stacks of brochures on it urging parishioners to support passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I picked up one of the brochures and walked into the church. “HEY! ARE THERE ANY CHRISTIANS HERE?”
This produced results. A man appeared in the narthex, saw me, summoned a wary smile, and walked towards me up the aisle. “I’m Pastor Whitcomb, can I help you?”
“I doubt it, but let’s give it a try. I’ve been looking for a Christian for a long time, but I haven’t had much success. They seem to be pretty scarce. Have you seen any?”
“You’ve come to the right place.” He smiled proudly. “There are more than a thousand Christians in my congregation.”
“How many of them are adulterers?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m concerned about the sanctity of marriage, Pastor Whitcomb, so I’d like to know what you’re doing to prevent the adulterers in your congregation from destroying the sanctity of marriage.”
“I don’t–”
I handed him the brochure. “You’re blaming gay people for the high divorce rates of heterosexual people. Why are you doing that?”
“Homosexuality is a sin.” He noticed my Kerry for President button. “Oh, you’re one of them, I see.”
“Yes, I’m an American, and I came in here to–”
“Are you gay?”
“No, I’m not gay. Are you gay?”
He laughed. “No, I’ve been married for 22 years and have three children.”
“Have any of your children chosen to be gay? That’s how it works, right? People choose to be gay.”
“They . . . my children are most certainly not gay, they’re all married too.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear they all decided to get married instead of becoming gay. But what if one of them has second thoughts? What if one of them decides to become gay and starts undermining marriage all over the place?”
“My children . . . it’s . . . you don’t understand.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand, you’ve gone on this rampage against gays without any justification at all. It’s sickening. You’re sickening.”
“Despite your rude behavior, sir, and your mischaracterization of this issue, I’d be happy to explain why preserving the sanctity of marriage is so important. It’s one of the holiest sacraments of the church, and it is under threat today. So it’s my duty as a Christian to defend it.”
“Against who?”
“Against those who are undermining marriage.”
“How can you possibly think that a gay man or woman is any sort of threat to the institution of marriage? If two men or two women love each other and want to get married, how does that undermine the marriages of heterosexual couples? How does that harm marriage itself?”
“Well . . .”
“It doesn’t. But adultery does. It’s an epidemic in this country, two out of every three husbands have committed adultery, one out of every two wives has. How many adulterers do you suppose are in your congregation, Pastor Whitcomb? Three-hundred? Four-hundred?”
“That’s not–”
“You must know adultery threatens the marriages of tens of millions of Christians, it’s rampant right in your own church. So why aren’t there any brochures out in that vestibule asking your parishioners to take public action against adultery?”
“It’s not–”
“At the very least, you and everyone in your congregation should take a long hard look in the mirror before you start blaming gays for the travesty heterosexuals have made of marriage in this country.”
“As I said, homosexuality is a sin, the Bible teaches us that-”
“Is adultery a sin?”
“Of course.”
“Then why aren’t you supporting a Constitutional amendment prohibiting adultery? If you’re so worried about the sanctity of marriage, why aren’t you doing that?”
“I’d really like to discuss this further with you, but-”
“But you’re too busy demonizing gay people.”
“That’s–”
“The truth. That’s what you’re doing. You demonize gays, but you have no problem smiling down from your pulpit at several hundred adulterers every Sunday.”
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave my church.”
“This isn’t your church, it’s the House of the Lord. I have as much right to be here as you do. So I think I’ll stay for awhile yet.”
Whitcomb glanced nervously at his watch. “Perhaps we could discuss this some other time . . . I have a sermon to prepare for Sunday, so . . .”
“No problem, I can help you with that sermon. Your parishioners are in dire need of a long sermon about adultery. And as long as I’m here, I’ll help you write one about George W. Bush and his war crimes too. Tens of thousands of human beings are dead because of him. He’s ordering the torture of human beings, he puts them in cages in Cuba, his economic policies steal from the poor and give to the rich, he’s about as far from being a Christian as it’s possible to get. Let’s write a sermon about that, you and I.”
“You should be ashamed of slandering President Bush, he’s a born again Christian and a man of God. He turned away from sin when he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, pastor, that born again Christian you’re so proud of hasn’t turned away from sin, he’s the Commander-in-Chief of Sin.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“Denying it is nonsense. How can you defend that criminal? How can you do that, in this House of the Lord, of all places?”
“President Bush is a–”
“He’s a criminal. He’s a liar, a torturer, a hypocrite and a warmonger. Did Jesus of Nazareth torture people? No. He was a victim of torture. Did he lie? No. He was a victim of lies. Was he a hypocrite? No. He was a victim of hypocrites. Did he ever tell people, ‘verily I say unto you, blessed are those who start preemptive wars’? No. He preached love and peace and compassion for the poor and the powerless, so the wealthy and powerful arrested, tortured and executed him for it.”
“The Lord died to redeem us from our sins.”
“He died because posturing hypocrites like you murdered him. If he was preaching love and peace and compassion and forgiveness here in America today, you’d denounce him as a dangerous extremist, you’d call him a socialist, you’d warn your congregation that he’s a friend of the terrorists.”
“No . . .”
“That’s exactly what you’d do.”
“Where do you get these crazy ideas? I’ve never heard such crazy talk in all my life.”
“You listen to crazy talk every day from that born again Christian in the White House you admire so much. He’s the one who babbles nonsense, he hasn’t said anything coherent since he put his hand on a Bible and lied his way through his oath of office.”
“You should be ashamed of slandering such a decent man.”
“Bush and his Republicans are the moneychangers in the temple, Whitcomb. They’re corrupt to the core. Why can’t you see that? Why can’t your congregation see that? Why can’t the fifty million idiots who keep voting for Republicans see that?”
“Republicans are defending family values, they’re protecting the lives of the unborn, they–”
“Since when is war a family value? Since when is greed a family value? Since when is robbing America blind a family value? They don’t give a damn about family values, the only thing they value is power.”
“Why are you filled with such hatred for the President and Republicans?”
“Why can’t you see what they are? In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus asks, “Have you no inkling yet? Do you still not understand? Have your brains turned into stone? You have eyes and do not see. You have ears and do not hear.”
“I’m not going to listen to any more of this. Are you going to leave, or am I going to have to call the police.”
“You’re pathetic.”
“I’m a–”
“You’re a disgrace, that’s what you are.” I left him standing there, walked outside, and saw Shannon pull into our driveway. She got out of the car as I came back across the street, and gave me an appraising look as I walked up to her.
“I hope you didn’t lose your temper, Jericho.”
“I never lose my temper, I always know exactly where it is.”
Shannon smiled. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“You think I need to calm down . . .”
“Yes, I think you need to calm down. I also think I’m falling in love with you.”
“I . . . you’re . . .”
“I know you loved Sarah, I know you always will. I’ll understand if you . . . if you tell me–”
“Going for a walk sounds good.”
We went for a walk.
A long one.
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Looks like you are going to fit a lot of issues into the book. 🙂
of new ways to say ‘this is better than those before’….
bravo!!
this scene is incredibly emotionally satisfying.
but i thought jericho would be telling Shannon he loved her. i didn’t expect she’d let it fly like that. good on her!
hey R8!!! good one!
night owls on the west coast in my morning. if i get up with ej for breakfast during the week at 7am, it’s 1am EST and therefore 10pm PST. cool!
what’s the time diff with ND? one hour? it’s 9:45am here, so where you are it’s 2:45am and, in NY, it’s 3:45am
this kind of complicated thought ought to help stave off dementia for a while…
I know we are all enjoying it but do you have plans for a wider audience?
I really pegged you wrong Rusty….. I thought for the longest time you were a very very smart rabble rousing type
but as often the case I did not give you credit for being multi-dimensional and soulful. Sometimes being wrong is the coolest thing.
I totally loved the exchange between Jericho and the Pastor — tremendous dynamics on the part of Jericho — the Pastor, well, he is like so many faithful mindless administering God’s word, simply reciting and repeating words of the Gospel and that suffices, as far as they’re concerned. The Pastor didn’t really hear Jericho — just knew that he was a source of annoyance to him.
So glad that Jericho decided to take a nice, long walk!
(P.S. Many thanks for your comment in mine!)
I just read this great latest installment of “Through the Darkest of Nights” then I saw this on another blog: McCain’s Past Infidelities, Ongoing Sanctimony Haunt him in Town hall Meeting in Tennessee. Though the questioner’s belief system sounds similar to one of Pastor Whitcomb’s flock, you can see the beginnings of comprehension of the inconsistency of those long-held beliefs in this question to McCain:
Yeah, “if we’re going to be consistent”, the Mchypocrites might want to start with working on their own failings, before seeking out and exploiting what they think are other’s failings.