God and Girl–Chapter 8

God and Girl is my first novel, written in 2015. I'll post it, a chapter a day, over the next few weeks.

“Good morning to all. Thanks for coming out to worship our Lord and Savior this glorious Sunday morning.” Dad said.

It was now my last day of summer vacation. Tomorrow, my 9th grade school year will begin. I have a feeling my old life is ending, my childhood even.  My race to adulthood will start. I am scared and excited.  Starting high school is not the pivotal moment here. I am speaking mainly of Ellen. She has walked into my life and already changed the computer in my mind and the heaven in my heart. Part of being scared is what I feel happening in my faith, my faith in God, and my faith in Dad.

This is scary because this has been my life so far. Was that my childhood? Were these things just a pacifier until I was ready to walk on my own?

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are at a key point in history, a major crossroads. Not since the days of slavery here in America have we, the church, and we Christians, faced such a threat to our religious freedom. We know that America dealt with slavery head on during the Civil War but also during the 1960’s. The result of the Civil War was legal freedom for slaves. But, it took over 100 years for real laws to provide real freedom to slaves. I’m speaking of the civil rights laws, including voting rights for blacks, in the 1960’s to truly make a difference for every black man and woman here in America.

Today, the tide is reversing. The law-making government is still in business. And now it is making laws to take away our civil rights and give so-called civil rights to homosexuals. Will these freedom-making laws start the next Civil War in America?

There is no argument that our Bible says that homosexuality is a sin. That is, if you believe the Bible. Let me ask you. Do you? Do you believe in an inerrant Bible?  Assuming we do believe in inerrant and infallible scripture, what difference does it make?  We have to ask ourselves, are we willing to die for our faith? In other words, the past is over, today is here.  Are we going to provide sufficient evidence for our persecutors, for our children’s children, that they could easily conclude we were in fact Christians?  This is where we are. We must decide if we are going to live out our faith, or continue to be satisfied being called a Christian, just showing up for church on Sunday morning.   Are we going to spend the rest of the week going about our daily lives without stepping onto the path where the enemy is steadily marching with laws, lasers, and loud chants that they will not be denied their right to marry?  Are we going to stand by the roadside and let the enemy steal a non-existent right to equal treatment under the law, including the right to be married by me right here in this church?

I said earlier today the tide is turning in reverse. Think with me carefully. Blacks are real people. They didn’t choose to be born black. They were born black because of God, because of God’s plan. They are of inherent value. They are just like we are. They are human. If we as whites have, as our Declaration of Independence says, inalienable rights, then blacks do too. For many reasons, blacks have been persecuted by whites.  We finally, after way too long a time, got it right. Yes, there is still racism, but much progress has been made to give blacks the respect they deserve. Now, don’t say that I am satisfied that blacks are treated today as equals with whites in every way. No, we have miles and miles to go. But, what was the catalyst that repositioned blacks to have the power to be treated as humans, equals with whites?  It was the law.

Note it is the law, American law, law as stated by the U.S. Supreme Court, that is now repositioning Christians and taking away our power, the power of religious freedom. The common argument out in secular land focuses on the homosexuals, the gays, that the new law is providing them with the right to be treated as equals. But, gays are not blacks. We have seen why blacks were being persecuted. Nowhere in scripture do you see that blacks are inferior, that they are not human, that to be black is a sin.  However, the Bible does say that homosexual behavior is sin. Ladies and gentlemen, we must stay with the Bible. Homosexuality is a sin. It is a behavior that a person chooses to engage in, like adultery or stealing.

What our government is doing, through its Supreme Court decision, is attacking our Bible. No, it is rewriting our Bible. It is saying that the Bible has it all wrong–that homosexual behavior is not a sin, that homosexuals have an inalienable right to be homosexuals, like blacks have an inalienable right to be blacks and be treated equally with whites. Our government is telling us Christians, that your day is over, that your beliefs are outdated and that things must change if we are going to progress.

Ladies and gentlemen, I see dark days ahead. The government, under pressure from the newly enlightened, will not stop their lawmaking with giving homosexuals a constitutional right to marry. I truly believe this is the tip of the iceberg. I believe your freedom to worship how you want is about to be denied, that public worship will become a thing of the past, that your only right to worship will be behind your bedroom door and silently in your heart. I believe that the Christian church as we know it is about to become the new slavery.   We Christians will be the new slaves. We will be told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Churches will no longer have their special privilege under our tax law. Our tax exemption will be destroyed.

What do we do? Do we sit by and let this happen? Or do we, like the early Christians, take a stand for what we believe?  Are we true Christians?

I have tried this morning to lay out my understanding of what is going on and what I believe is about to happen. Some of you, maybe many of you, will disagree. We can have disagreements over things that haven’t happened, things we might call speculations. But, friends, family, we absolutely know that the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that gays have a right, a constitutional right, to marry. This is not speculation. This alone should wake us up. This alone should motivate us to take a stand.

This is what I think we should do. I have been meeting and talking for several weeks with Doug Carter from the home office of the Southern Baptist Convention. We have delved deeply into what is going on. We have tried to come up with a response, a visible and vocal response to the Supreme Court’s decision. Here is what we propose.

We will organize a march from Boaz across the big bridge in Guntersville. Why a march? For one reason, it is symbolic. It symbolizes the Selma to Montgomery march led by Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965. That march was a march for black freedom. Let us never forget the opposition that those brave black men and women faced on that march and on the Edward Pettis Bridge when confronted by law enforcement and white citizens who used violence to try and turn back the marchers. But, they were defeated themselves, because of the faith and commitment of the black leaders and followers.

Our march will be for religious freedom, and we too may face opposition. I pray it not be violent opposition, but we must be willing to face even that. Hopefully, our church will not be alone on this march. We will be inviting every Christian church in the area to participate. We will also allow any other Christian church, those out of the area, to come and participate. What do we hope to accomplish? Exposure to begin with. But, the goal is to influence our nation and our leaders to return to Christ, to return to God’s law, thereby restoring religious freedom to this country, the very reason this country was founded.” Dad said.

In a strong sense, I am proud of my Dad. He is a man of conviction, a man of action. He is true to his beliefs. I am also scared. I can’t put my finger on it but all that Dad said in his sermon seems foreboding, like it is predicting something in my own life. A battle? My own battle? Hopefully, I am wrong. Hopefully, that feeling is just my stomach ready for Mom’s famous taco salad we plan to have today for lunch. How silly I am. That was the old me talking, the child in me refusing to die. Well, like it or not, my childhood days are over.

Mom’s taco salad was great as usual, even though I think I like it better with chicken instead of hamburger. Dad didn’t press things, hardly mentioning his sermon, although I did learn that Mom herself will be involved in helping organize Christian voters.  Mainly we talked about last minute things we needed to do to get ready for school tomorrow. After dessert, leftover peach cobbler from Thursday night, I came to my room. I needed a nap.

I lay across my bed, but the thoughts of Ellen flowed like the waves of water across Niagara Falls. I remembered last night’s talk about poetry and got excited that we would be together in Mr. Johnson’s Poetry class.  Journey to love was such a peaceful and satisfying phrase. I got up and sat at my desk and opened my poetry notebook to an empty page.

Where are you my love?

I am thinking of you.

Do you hear me?

Do you feel me?

How can I call you my love?

We have just met.

But, haven’t we known each other forever?

Wasn’t I there, silently, secretly, last winter when you were lonely, and longing to find me, longing to touch my face and kiss my lips?

Oh, my dearest Ellen, be honest with me, please have been honest with me last night by the fire.

Your words about a journey to love with me, with you, with us, were the start of our lives together.

I meant every word.

I pray you were wholly honest with me.

You have already changed my life and I have never held your hand, I have never lay in your lap and considered your blue eyes. I have never walked with you, swam with you, biked with you, but maybe I have.

Yes, my life has changed already by you smiling at me. You, all of you, the you that this world cannot contain, is penetrating my mind, it is shaking up old pillars of faith, I thought were immovable.

I am yours my dearest Ellen.

I give you every right to me.

I give you the right to love me. I give you the right to know me through and through.

I give you the right, us the right, to walk together, me with you, you with me, forward, hand in hand, arm in arm, heart in heart, no matter the fight, no matter the law, God’s or man’s.

I am reaching for you

my love,

reaching my hand

out to you.

Take it my love,

and let’s start our

journey to love.

Well, these words just came. Simple words, to some, silly words. But to me, words from my heart, words that I meant for sweet and lovely Ellen.

I rewrite my words, my poem, on good paper, heavy bond, and seal them up in a matching envelope, a white envelope, one of innocence and purity.

I will give it to Ellen tomorrow in poetry class.