THE SEX REBEL OF JESUSLAND, mini-chapter 83

83. REVEREND REDBURN

“Reverend Redburn?”

“Yes, Eve?”

“May I speak to you in private after church?”

“Well, I have to go to my Patriot Board meeting, but I think I can fit you in. How long do you need?”

“I don’t really know.”

“Let’s see how it goes. I always have time for my favorite singer in the choir.”

“I don’t want to take up too much of your time regarding this, do I?”

“Don’t worry about it, Eve.” The Reverend Redburn chuckled. “I’m the new Chairman of our Patriot Board, so they can’t start without me when they’re in the mood to hammer a few unpatriotic souls.”

The Reverend Redburn preached one of his calmer sermons that morning, and Eve was glad of it. She didn’t want fire and brimstone to be poured on the wound she had before the Lord. The Reverend told his congregation that they could thank the Lord that they were now part of a good Christian nation after centuries of secularism, and that they should draw power from their success – “Did you know that more than 60% of today’s email spam is Christian-themed?” – but that it was vital for them to remain vigilant. “Satan still walks among us. The man who was going to be our president still languishes in Muslim captivity.”

After the sermon, she went up to him. “Reverend?”

“Yes.” He looked at his watch. “Good, I ended with a few minutes to spare. Let’s go downstairs to my office.”

His office had a row of black and white photographs of great black men, from Booker Washington to Martin Luther King. Behind his desk, above his chair, hung a photograph of Jesus on the cross, a rather daring photograph for the Reverend, since it was from the famous Christian photographer Richard Marsh’s daring but sensitive crucifixion series, featuring various actors as Jesus, which had come under criticism from some churches, but which the Bureau had refused to prosecute when Marsh was brought up before his Patriot Board by his own church. The Bureau had overruled that Patriot Board’s attempt to hammer an unpatriotic soul. Some higher-up Blessed had a taste for art. Of course, there was a rumor that the particular Blessed who had intervened was a member of a rival church, and was just scoring points off that particular break-away branch of Catholics represented on that Patriot Board. Anyway, the controversy died down and today Marsh’s Crucifixion Series was highly prized.

“So what is the problem?”

“Reverend, I wanted to know something. A friend of mine has committed a mortal sin. I want to know if I could forgive her.”

“What has she done? Did she sin against you or your friendship?”

“No. She sinned against society.”

“Are you at liberty to tell me her sin?”

“I don’t want to be in a position where I feel I have to inform on her. I don’t want to get her into trouble. I just want to know if I could forgive her.”

“All sins can be forgiven if the sinner truly repents.”

“What if the sin is really bad?”

“How bad is this sin?”

“Some would call it murder.”

“Is this friend of yours a female?”

“Yes, Reverend.”

“Don’t tell me more. I don’t want to be in a position where I have to report on someone who should be reporting to me that someone has committed a sin.”

“That’s why I came to you, Reverend. I know you are a man of forgiveness.”

“There are some sins that cannot be forgiven unless the sinner truly repents. And one way in which the sinner can truly repent is to give themselves up and confess their sin to the authorities instead of to their friends.”

“This sinner does not want to go to jail.”

“I question how much she values your friendship if she is willing to put you in a position where she confesses her sin to you and expects you to forgive her when she is unwilling to make a true confession, which should be to society as a whole. She should go to her Patriot Board.”

“So you think I should not forgive her regarding this?”

“Not if she wants to keep her sin a secret. She has to confess to the Lord, who here on earth is represented by her church, her pastor, her family, her friends, her society. How long are you going to keep her secret?”

The Reverend looked at her sternly.

“Don’t get me wrong, but all I wanted to know was if I could forgive her.”

“That’s not really your problem, Eve. Your problem now is that you have to tell someone in authority about her. You have to help her confess to society. Do you want to tell me now?”

It had come out all discombobulated. She wanted to know if she had committed a forgivable sin, and the Reverend was turning it around into something else, into a Patriot Board matter of informing on a friend, although he, as a Patriot Board Chairman, was couching it as a way in which to help the friend. She felt the stir of a small rebellion in her.

“I believe I would like to give her a chance to focus on doing it herself first.”

“Well, you give her that chance. And let’s speak again next Sunday. This is a serious matter. She has to give herself up first. Only then we can start thinking about forgiveness.”