The Cult 2

Gabriel entered his room. He took off his mask. Half of his mask was black and the other half white. He was tired. He wanted to sleep on the bed.

Knock! Knock!
It's open. Come in.

It was Deborah.
"I saw your show. It was quite peculiar, Gabriel. Do Asian women really dream such things?"
"Which tattoo are you talking about?"
"The women who dreamt that her baby was the Universe. The women who almost had an endless orgasm during the night."
"That's what she told me."
"Do you believe it?"
"I don't know whether it is true or not. But she imagined that her orgasm was the Universe coming out of her."
"What a wish fulfillment!"

"Deborah, how does God come out of stillness?"
"When two forces are equally strong and no motion can occur, God comes through as the first cause of the Universe."
"So he does."

Gabriel closed his eyes. He wanted to sleep. forget everything. lose himself and stop asking questions. no point.

"You don't believe that God is all powerful, all knowing, and all Good. Do you? There would be no free will if that were the case."
"He allows evil. Like the Prodigal Son. He allows people to experience life without God. Then, that person can choose to return to God and God forgives. Out of love of our nature, he allows evil."
"So if I go around having sex as many men as I please and kill as many people as I please and then, I ask God for forgiveness at the moment before I die and I accept Christ as my saviour, I get to spend the rest of eternity in heaven? How fair is that to the older son, the one who is always trying to do his best for God."
"It's not fair, but it's the freedom God gives us."
"So if Charlie Manson accepted Christ near the end of his life, he would go to heaven. If Hitler had accepted Christ at the end of his life, he would go to heaven? How fair is that to the victims? What would the victims say to Hitler or Charlie Manson in heaven? Would they cry and forgive these monsters and realize that this was indeed the higher plan of God?"
"I really don't know."

Gabriel was really tired and wanted to sleep. Deborah lay next to him.

"What's the point of being all-powerful if you cannot exercise your power at the most evil moments of history?" she asked.

"Did you like my show?" Gabriel asked, trying to change the subject.

"I did. I never knew that Asians had such deep emotions."
"We hide it."
"Doesn't everyone."
"It's shame."
"That one tattoo of an old Asian woman knitting her flesh onto herself was rather..."
"banal."
"Yes."

Gabriel and Deborah both fell asleep. Gabriel could hear Deborah's heartbeat. He wondered whether the sound of a cricket could match her heartbeat. Then he fell into a deep sleep.