Persecution 2

The police sergeant sat at his desk surrounded by other police officers.
"I need someone to keep an eye on that homophobic cult at Piddledon Farm," he said.  "I need someone to go under cover."
"I've got a crush on one of the pastors," said Maria.
"Don't be daft, Maria," said one of the men.
"No, she's right," said the sergeant.  "That's a good way to get really close to someone in the sect.  Fall in love with one of the pastors.  Goodness knows what a church minister might admit to his girlfriend.  Excellent idea."  Maria filled in an online form on the church website.  She received an email from someone suggesting that she join them for a Thursday night friendship meal.  Maria arrived at the big farmhouse.  Sarah opened the front door.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello, I'm Maria."
"Hello Maria.  Do you want to come in and sit down?"  Sarah led Maria into the lounge.  Pastor Brian was reminded of a certain verse in one of the four gospels.  Mark chapter 10 verse 21.  "Jesus looked at him and loved him."  Brian was looking at Maria and couldn't possibly have loved anyone more.  It was like the feeling he had had for his wife when he first met her.  Brian wondered when the last time was that he had actually had such a strong affection for his wife. Now to look after this dear little woman and see that she was properly provided for.
"Would you like something to eat?" he suggested.  "There's baked potatoes, vegetables, beans of various kinds, all in the kitchen.  I'll show you."  He led Maria into the kitchen.  Maria took a plate and helped herself to a baked potato and some kidney beans.
"No cake," she said, "I'm trying to lose weight."
"You'll have to tell me about your diet," said Brian.  "I'm suffering from middle aged spread. "  He was almost twenty years older than Maria.  "Your diet certainly seems to work for you."
"Would you like a drink?" she asked.
"Coffee," he said.
"Sugar?"
"Sweetner," he said, wondering what Maria's hands would look like as she took the top off the jar.  Maria made herself a tea.  Brian got himself a baked potato, surrounded it with baked beans and melted some cheese onto it. 

 

Brian suddenly felt the urge to lead Maria into a small room with chairs and a table, away from the other Christians.  It was time for some serious one to one tuition.
"How much do you know about Christianity?" Pastor Brian asked.
"Not much.  No one in my family has ever belonged to a church."  Brian smiled.  Maria would need many hours of instruction.  He picked up his micro computer which was on a shelf under the coffee table.  He looked out of the window at the cars in the car park.
"We're going on the darknet," he said.  "They always park the cars in the certain order.  When they're parked in that order, the registration numbers spell the address of a darknet site."
"Why do you have to go on the darknet?  Aren't there Christian books on ordinary websites?" asked Maria.
"Not like these ones.  They're uncensored and unedited.  Modern Christian books have to be generally acceptable to all the world's religions, and all that rubbish."
"Why is that rubbish?"
"People have no idea what they believe anymore.  You know the Christian book I read last week?  'Why is Faith in Leeds called Looking For God in the City?  It's because we haven't found him yet.  We are always changing our minds about God but trust that he is there at the end of the pilgrimage.'  The same writer thinks that all religion is just the transcendental renewal and rediscovery of everything that makes us truly human.  What sort of rubbish is that?"
"Have you found God, Pastor?"
"Indeed I have.  You must be born again, Maria, in order to enter his kingdom."
"How do you become born again?"
"This guy can explain it."  He pressed the screen on his microcomputer.  An elderly man in a blue suit appeared on the screen.
"What is sin?" asked the man.  "There is so much sin in our society today that people are unaware of.  Our children are taught, at school, that anything goes.  Any sexual behaviour between two consenting adults is absolutely acceptable.  Forget about God's laws.  Forget about what the Bible says.  Now we have a society where one person in ten has a sexually transmitted disease.  Marriage is part of God's plan.  What would Jesus say to this?  I think he would say, 'Repent, I will set you free.  You will see that what I have is better than this.'  If each of us was the husband of one wife, there would be no sexually transmitted diseases, no unwanted pregnancies, a lot more love and a lot more peace in the world."
"Do you believe that?" asked Maria. 
"Yes.  I know it's harsh.  I don't think it's easy."  Brian began to wonder how difficult being the husband of one wife would actually be for him.  "Marriage is God's best.  Life is simpler if you obey the commands."  Brian secretly wondered to himself if a life of sin and debauchery was complicated but more enjoyable.  "There are 52 programmes in this series," he said.  "It takes a year to go through them all.  Do you want to come 3 times a week and we could go through them all in 4 months?"
"Would that be convenient?" asked Maria.  For Pastor Brian, it would be extremely convenient.
"You can come on Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night."

 

Pastor Brian had invited Maria to come with him for a walk in the woods.  He drove about 15 miles.
"Maria, have you ever thought about being baptised?"
"What is baptism all about?"
"On this walk, I'll show you a lake that we can baptise you in, but first you'll have to attend a baptismal class on a Sunday night for seven weeks."  Brian drove on to an industrial estate and parked on a quiet road in between 2 lots of double yellow lines.  They walked off into the woods.
"Pastor, do you take all your baptismal candidates for a walk in the woods, or is it just me?"
"You're not the first and you won't be the last.  It's boring when your wife won't join you in the ministry.  If you were a pastor's wife, you'd help him in his ministry, wouldn't you Maria?"
"What sort of ministry do you want to do?"
"I want to be like Father Farage on the darknet.  Preaching against homosexuality.  Saying that Jesus is the only way to God and that muslims are potential terrorists.  Good old Father Farage.  Tells it like it is.  My wife doesn't accompany me when I do baptism training.  In fact, I don't think we see each other much at all now.  She's a very good wife and a very good mother but we just don't love eachother anymore.  We're drifting apart."  They walked on for several miles into the woods.  It was a fine day.  "Come this way, Maria, I'll show you the lake where we baptise people."  The lake was a half a mile along a different path.  There were a few fishermen sitting on a small pier, casting lines into the water.
"Is this where you do it?" asked Maria.
"Yes.  Wonderful that the church can baptise people in such beautiful surroundings."
"Pastor, can I ask a question?"
"Please call me Brian."
"Brian, is it a sin to love somebody, if you care about them very dearly?"
"No.  I don't think it is a sin just to care about somebody."
"Is it ever a sin to love somebody?  What if a couple were gay?  Would it be all right for them to love eachother?"
"In the beginning the Lord made them male and female."
"But would it be a sin for two men to love eachother?"
"It wasn't the way it was meant to be, not to love eachother in that sense."
"Do you think some of them could never be anything else?"
"We must have patience and understanding.  There are people in this church who have committed sexual sins, including homosexuality, including adultery.  We are understanding."  He led Maria away from the lake, further into the woods.  "You see Maria, life is complicated.  The Bible gives us certain standards.  They're for our own good.  But they're difficult to live up to.  Sometimes people sin.  Sometimes people just can't help it.  That's why the church doesn't always practice what it preaches.  Divorce is a hard thing, it's bad for everybody.  But sometimes it happens.  Sometimes your marriage becomes like Hell.  Sometimes you fall in love with somebody else.  You don't plan it that way, and people don't plan to be gay.  I understand if people fall into sexual sin, believe me Maria, I understand."

 

The police officers sat together in the main office at the police station.  A webpage that looked like a CV with a photograph appeared on a big screen.  The photograph showed a man in bright green priestly robes.
"The Amazoogle profile of a Catholic priest," said the Sergeant.  "Gary Farage.  Grandson of the politician Nigel Farage.  Ordained as a Catholic priest in 2031."
"Mentioned by the pastor that I have under surveillance," said Maria.  "He is a preacher on the darknet.  You can find the address of his darknet site if you look at the cars in the car park at Piddledon Farm.  They are always parked in a particular order.  When they are all there, the registration numbers spell the address of a darknet site.  I took a picture on my mobile phone."  The cars in the car park at Piddledon Farm appeared on the big screen.  "Let's see what Father Farage has to say for himself."  Maria looked at the car registration numbers and furiously typed the long website address into her phone.  She then searched for Father Farage and saw a long list of sermons on subjects such as Terrorist Religion, How AIDs Came to Los Angeles, God and Gays.  She clicked on the sermon that was marked God and Gays.  A video appeared of Father Farage in his bright green priestly robes.
"In the beginning the Lord made them male and female.  Yes he did.  He didn't make them anything else, did he?  Doesn't the very nature of the human body teach you that men and women were designed for eachother?  Male homosexuals have a very painful form of intercourse that causes all sorts of medical problems.  The men in our society are feminised.  I used to be slightly bisexual.  I had too many female friends.  I did feminine jobs.  I had femine hobbies.  I fulfilled feminine roles.  God has healed me.  And if you are gay, God can heal you."
"This warrants further investigation," said the Sergeant.
"Angie and me can go to his church and pretend to be lesbians," said Zola.
"Why me?" asked Angie.  Everybody laughed.
"You're not homophobic, are you Angie?" asked Maria.
"No.  Definitely not.  I've got nothing against gays at all."
"Good.  We thought you knew," said Maria.
"Knew what?"
"Zola's in love with you," said one of the men.  Angie looked at Zola.
"Just as long as you realise the feeling isn't mutual.  What we do is strictly work."
"We have to make it realistic," said Zola.

 

Angie and Zola hired a flat in another part of the country in order to become members of Father Farage's church.  Father Farage was surprised to see two new faces in his Sunday congregation.
"Do you come from this parish?" he asked.
"We just moved here," said Zola.  "How do we become Catholics?"  Father Farage looked shocked.  That wasn't something people asked every day.
"You'll be under instruction for a few months.  I need to explain to you what the Catholic faith is all about."
"Father, there's something else you should know," said Angie.  "We're lesbians."
"That can be sorted out."
"Can it?" asked Zola.
"In this church we encourage same sex friendships and we set people free from childhood experiences.  That's how you heal homosexuality.  Anybody who tells you anything else about healing homosexuality doesn't know what they're talking about."

 

Father Farage later invited Angie and Zola into his office for some prayer about their homosexuality.  Two other members of the church were there, one man and one woman.
"These are my healing team," said Father Farage.
"Hello Zola, I'm Paul."
"I'm Stephanie."
"Have you ever heard anyone pray in tongues before?" asked Father Farage.
"No," said Zola.
"We speak the languages of the Holy Spirit," said Stephanie.  "Don't be alarmed by it."  Paul, Stephanie and Father Farage began praying loudly in tongues.
"I can sense a very strong spirit of rejection in you, Zola," said Stephanie.  "You were rejected as a girl."
"Yes.  The other children used to tell me that I looked like a boy.  I was 25 before I realised that I didn't."
"You haven't got a demon living inside you," said Paul, laughing.  "We don't just set people free from demons in Jesus name, we can set them free from all kinds of things.  In the name of Jesus, we just break the power of anything the other children ever said about Zola as she was growing up."  All three of the healing team began to pray in tongues again.  Angie interrupted them.
"A hundred years ago, if a child was left handed they would tie his left hand behind his back and force him to write with the other hand.  That's what you're doing."  She stared at Father Farage.  "I think you need some prayer to set you free from the childhood experiences that made you heterosexual."

 

Angie drove Zola to a church member's home where there was a Thursday night girl's group.
"Why is this a girl's group?" asked Angie.  "Is this some other way Father Farage is trying to make sure that the women in his church are entirely heterosexual?  Can't have too many male role models.  Can't become a leader in the boy scouts in case it makes you masculine."
"I wonder if he's right," said Zola.  "I really felt something when they prayed for me."
"Zola, I don't care if you did, and I don't care if you do fancy me.  It's nothing to be ashamed of.  It's what you are."  They arrived at the house.  The group leader opened the door.
"Hello.  I'm Dorry," she said.  "Do you want to come in?"  The three women sat down beside eachother in the lounge.
"I'm Zola.  I think all the religions in the world are basically the same.  What do you think?"
"They're all completely different.  Muslims have got a totally different way of understanding prayer.  You won't see a muslim prayer book with little photographs saying pray for the muslim families in this war zone.  Muslim prayer is singing the Quoran in a language they don't understand."
"Is that any different to praying in tongues?" asked Angie.
"That's not something we do all the time.  Orthodox Islam just hasn't got that far in it's understanding of prayer.  Buddhists don't believe in God or Heaven or Hell.  They believe in reincarnation and karma."
"Do you think they could come around to our way of thinking?" asked Angie.  "Muslim prayer books haven't got little photographs of refugees in them yet, but they might have one day.  If you sat down with a Buddhist and talked to them, you might find that they believed in a God who made everything."
"That's wishful thinking," said Dorry.
"That's the religion of the Antichrist," said one of the other women.  "One world religion.  All talking to eachother.  All harmonised.  And we'll be sent to prison because we believe in Jesus as our saviour and resurrected Lord.  There ain't no other religion that calls him Lord."

 

Maria was on duty and was walking down the high street in her uniform.  Brian suddenly saw here.
"Maria.  Are you a police woman?"
"Yes, I am.  All those months I was a member of your church I was an undercover cop.  Brian, I can understand if you feel hurt or betrayed."
"It's not that.  You look lovely in that uniform."