God and Girl is my first novel, written in 2015. I'll post it, a chapter a day, over the next few weeks.
It was late Saturday night. I had just gotten back from Ryan’s where our gang did its usual thing. I had asked Ellen if her Mom would mind dropping me off when she came to pick her up. Mom and Dad were in the den, in the dark almost, with only the light from our big screen TV. I said hello and asked were they having a romantic evening alone. Mom semi-nodded her head.
“If you want to call watching a debate about science and religion romance, then I guess we are.” Mom said.
“We are watching a rerun of the debate a few weeks ago between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, held at Mr. Ham’s creation museum in Kentucky. Mr. Nye is known as ‘the science guy.’ We found it on YouTube and for some reason your Mom acted interested and encouraged us to watch it.” Dad said.
“You can join us if you like.” Mom said.
“Maybe for just a little while.” I said.
“The moderator had just asked Mr. Ham how old the earth is and where did we come from, when you walked in.” Dad said. “Let’s listen.”
Mr. Ham’s answer and explanation was rather short. He said that “we can tell from Scriptures that the earth is around 6,000 years old. From analyzing and comparing various chronologies, and by examining the fossil record as laid down by Noah’s Flood we reach this conclusion. And, just as it says in Genesis, over a six-day period, six days just like our days that is, God created all life. He created the first man, Adam, from the dust of the earth. He created the first woman, Eve, from one of Adam’s ribs. God spoke, and it was done. All life was created. God created the fish, the birds, reptiles, mammals, and humankind as their own kind, their own separate species, fully complete. And no life has ever become a new species. Life came from God and not evolution as Mr. Nye will argue.”
The moderator then asked Mr. Nye the same question. “The earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. This date is confirmed by all the well-established science fields: Geology, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The universe started with the Big Bang. Scientists are still investigating this and what caused it. A recent discovery shows that life started shortly after the big bang occurred—just a few million years afterwards. Unlike the story in Genesis, life started much more slowly, and much simpler. Life started with a simple, single-celled organism and continued, again over millions of years, into a multi-celled organism, and on and on. Science shows that all life, all living things, and all life that has died, gone extinct, has evolved from a common ancestor. And whether we like it or not, we share a common ancestor with chimps and apes. The fossil record establishes this.”
Dad paused the video. “And now schools can no longer teach creationism but have to teach evolution. A theory that clearly destroys Genesis and what we believe.” Dad said.
“It seems there is a sound scientific theory for evolution. And, that is why it is now being taught in science class. Evolution seems to refute the creation story from Genesis.” I said.
“I don’t care what evolutionists say, God created the world and man and all living things. We didn’t evolve from apes. There is no other way to explain Adam and Eve. The Bible is clear. It says nothing at all to indicate that Adam and Eve were anything but human, just like us.” Dad said.
“Honey, I know this is all rather troubling. It seems science is attacking religion, our Christianity. At a minimum, it seems science is forcing religion to do its own research to determine how science and religion co-exist without destroying Adam and Eve and the creation story.” Mom said looking at Dad.
“Story, is that all Genesis is? Are you now like Ruthie, denying whether it is true, denying whether God created the universe, the earth, animals, plants and especially us? I can’t believe I have had so little influence on my family.” Dad said.
“Dad, could it be that we are misreading Genesis. Maybe Adam and Eve were not the first humans, or human-like beings. What if Adam and Eve are metaphorical, and that God gave them a soul, and they represent the first beings that shared God’s image, and that all the earlier humans and human-like beings were just part of the evolutionary process that took place. Kind of like God started life off after the Big Bang, with Him causing the bang, and the Genesis days of creation are very, very long days? Maybe we are just failing to properly interpret Genesis and the beginning of life.” I said.
“The problem, and there are many, is that Genesis is clear that God created a perfect place, the Garden of Eden, and there was no death until Adam and Eve sinned. No animals died, no life of any kind died before the Fall. Without sin, as described in Genesis, we don’t have Original Sin, and without Original Sin, all mankind since Adam and Eve are not sinners in need of a savior. Christ came to save all mankind from sin, from Original Sin, the sin they inherited from Adam and Eve. And, if there was no sin imputed to all mankind, then there is no reason for Christ to have come and died the horrible death on Calvary’s Cross. In short, Christianity falls without Adam and Eve. From what I know of evolution, which truly isn’t a whole lot, it appears there’s not much room for Christianity and God and Christ. Evolution argues there is no God, no Christian God.” Dad said.
“I agree, on its face, it appears evolution doesn’t need God, but I still want to believe there is much, much more we do not know—about both God and the Bible, and evolution.” I said.
“So, the Bible could be wrong, is that what you are saying?” Dad said.
“Well maybe, for sure it may mean we are misinterpreting the Bible. But, maybe we are wrong to believe that the Bible is totally without error.” I said.
“The next thing I expect you to say is that the Bible gets it wrong about Christian marriage, a marriage exclusively between one man and one woman. Then, you or someone, will start arguing that homosexuality is not sin and that two men, or two women, have just as much right to marry as one man and one woman.” Dad said.
“Maybe, I just don’t know anymore. One of my teachers recently said that we need to always keep in mind that ‘we know so very little.’ Maybe the church, the Christian church, doesn’t know as much as it thinks it does.” I said.
I could tell Dad was visibly upset. He had stood up and was pacing across the den.
“I never dreamed I would hear my own daughter, my own Ruthie, say such a thing. Do you hear what you are saying? You are letting the camel into the tent. Don’t you know that once we admit that the Bible contains some errors, even one error, we are sliding down the slope to the abyss—a place of suffering and a place of no return, a place of destruction. This is just what the gays want. Such an argument defeats everything I am trying to protect. Religious freedom will change forever. There will be no differences between gays and Christians. We will all be just one happy family.” Dad said.
“How do you know what the gays want? Maybe they just want to be treated with respect, the respect of being human, the respect acknowledged in our Declaration of Independence when it says all men have inalienable rights. Have you ever sat down with a gay person or a gay couple, privately, and simply talked with them as fellow human beings?” I said feeling like I was getting a little too bold and that I might soon get kicked in the teeth, at least figuratively.
“Ruthie,” Dad said with the loudest tone I can ever remember. “Have your stripes changed, are you now in bed with the homosexuals. I expect now you will argue that homosexuality is not a sin, that the Bible is wrong when it says that homosexuality is a sin, and that gays are just born that way.” Dad said.
“Dad again, I don’t know. We have learned in Biology class that that is a real possibility. Dr. Ayers was asked that question a week or so ago. She didn’t at all bring it up. But, she tried to answer Danny when he asked. Dr. Ayers said that there are several research projects across the world working on various hypotheses related to what she referred to as the ‘gay gene.’ She said that the scientific community is nowhere near arriving at a theory homosexuality is determined at birth by certain genes, or the non-functioning of certain genes, but she says there is some positive findings being made. So, Dad, again, maybe we truly know so very little.” I said.
“Honey, don’t you think it is time we have a talk about what is going on with you?” Mom said.
I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. Was Mom turning on me?
“What do you mean?” Dad said.
“Honey.” Mom said.
I wasn’t quite ready to be kicked in the teeth, but I was more than a little upset, maybe mad, at my Dad for his tone and his arrogance. I said, to myself, and to a surprised self, oh, what the hell. “Dad, if being in love with Ellen means I am a homosexual then I am a homosexual.”
Dad stopped his pacing, just froze, as though he had been shot in the head and in the heart. It seemed his whole body became stiff like a rock-lifeless, ugly. “What in the hell are you saying?” Dad said.
I had never, ever, heard Dad talk like this. I was dumbfounded to say the least. “You heard me. I am in love with Ellen Ayers. I have been in love with her almost from the time I met her. And, I am the happiest I have ever been.” I said.
“How long have you known about this?” Dad asked Mom.
“For several weeks now. Ellen told me, and I told her I would keep it between us until I felt it was time for you to know.” Mom said.
“Well, thanks for trusting me, for believing enough in me to give me the truth.” Dad said.
“Honey, I’m sorry if I have hurt you but I did what I felt the Lord was telling me to do.” Mom said.
“The Lord? Now, you use God as though he is a broom or a mop, just a tool for a certain job? What do you believe? I thought we had just thrown God straight into Hell, just flat out rejected Him.” Dad said.
“We are letting our emotions take over here. Honey, when Ruthie first told me that she might be homosexual I someway felt I had real and true wisdom come upon me. I felt that I should support her as a mom is supposed to support her children. I didn’t tell her that, ‘oh, alright Ruthie, that is just wonderful, go have a happy life.’ I told her that sometimes life is hard and that we must find out on our own what is right for us. I told her that I suspected that it wouldn’t do a bit of good if I locked her in a cage for the next five years. From my own growing up years I knew that teenagers especially, have a mind of their own, an undeveloped mind no doubt, but they didn’t respond so positively to preaching and demands, imprisonment and the like. The most important thing to me was to show Ruthie that I love her and that I will always love her.” Mom said.
I looked at Dad and he had softened somewhat, he was no longer stiff and hard-looking as a rock. He was standing in front of the TV with his eyes closed. Like he was praying. I kept on looking at him and I became convinced he was praying. In a while, he opened his eyes. I could see my real Dad, a man with soft and gentle eyes. He reached out his hands and arms to me and said, “come here baby.”
I burst up and over to Dad. He held me in his arms for, forever. Finally, he said, “Like your mom, I love you, and that will never change. But, unlike her, I won’t be so passive about your relationship with Ellen. I promise I will not lock you up, but I intend to come up with a way for you to learn more. You seemed to think ‘we know so little,’ well then, we need to learn. All I ask is that you be willing to talk with me, learn with me, maybe even go to a good Christian counselor. Okay?” Dad said.
“Dad, all I want is the truth. But, even if I have the truth and it says that homosexuality is not caused by a gene, but is really a sin, I do not promise at all that I will leave Ellen. Like I said, I love her. And, she loves me.”
“Honey, it is getting late. I suggest we all give this a rest for now.” Mom said, and Dad agreed.
The Pencil Driven Life 