The country has been uneasy for some time, long before our ruler attended an inspection of the National Cathedral and disappeared from the public’s sight. No, he didn’t disappear magically like in a plume of smoke; but upon exiting the cathedral- pale, lips drawn into a pencil thin line, tightly clutching what appeared to be a very old document- he refused to give any comments to the outstretched microphones, (this in itself was extremely worrisome as he was magnetically drawn to media attention); he just went home to the house we tax payers provided for him and hasn’t been heard from or seen since. No interviews with journalists, reporters or foreign dignitaries, nothing. No explanation, nada, zilch. He even pulled his next in charge and several others into the void with him! Then slowly law enforcement and military officials were invited in on the one way admission ticket. Who is running the land right now! Well, that’s a rhetorical question as we weren’t sure of that status before the mysterious sequestering of public figures. It certainly wasn’t the people since their voices ceased to matter elections ago!
Rumors were flying, some founded on eyewitness accounts, of seeing major religious figures entering the capital gates with armed escorts. They were never seen leaving. Had the devil's triangle migrated from off the coast of Florida? Was there an underground rail road taking passengers to …..Canada….Mars? What was going on in there? The blinds were pulled; the regular public tours were cancelled. We were desperate to know. The rumors of missing religious personages intensified on Sunday simply because pulpits were filled with substitutes; substitutes who gave no inkling of where the official ministers were because even they didn’t know! More speculations surfaced, and boy, can the paranoid come up with some doosies! My personal favorite was the theory of a high stake national chess game. Just shake your head and roll your eyes like I did on that conjecture. Nothing more said on that!
Without fear of retaliation crime increased, subtle crimes, crimes that would only be considered prohibited in a theocracy, not a democracy like we had (I say that with my tongue in my cheek.) Church attendance dropped (if you could tell that was possible), mostly because after nights of sexual carousing blended with alcohol and drug usage society’s party goers had no zest for Sunday mornings. However activities increased in abhorrent organizations, organizations that espoused hatred for non members, non members being anyone who didn’t support their views, people with small brains and smaller hearts that made the Grinch look like the Messiah filled the membership roles. Al Qaeda, the Ku Klux Klan, Neo Nazis’, White Supremacy, Black Panthers to name a few, all these groups enjoyed a free reign of terror. People either joined the groups because they honestly shared the beliefs or because they didn’t but were afraid of reprisals for not joining. This also led to many joining conflicting groups just to be on the "safe" side.
On top of all this the land intensified its personal rebellion. Yes the land. Where once lush green fertile soil lay there was now sand and rocks, irrigation ditches were parched cracked wrinkles on the surface of the ground visible from satellites circling the globe, ponds were sunken holes crawling with scaly reptiles and snakes looking for moisture. Where no water flowed or grass or foliage grew, cattle, hogs and sheep starved, dropping to the ground with desiccated lips, bloating in the sun. Goats and cows fortunate to survive stopped producing milk. A relentless fiery sun that aided the dehydration process emitted ungodly heat causing spontaneous fires that couldn’t be doused; remember water was now a scarce commodity, in fact ocean front properties were now miles from the coast! Farms were boarding up their windows. Ranchers sold out, or were repossessed. Newspapers stopped photographing images of ma and pa kettle being evicted because it was a daily occurrence and no one could muster up any sympathy. Grocery stores were closing for lack of inventory. Food banks closed. It was a dreary awful picture. Bleak. Scary. Apocolyptic. And weirdly, above all other things, bees had gone into hiding. It was a bodiless mass extinction. Bees. Gone. Who’d have thought anyone would care? Some theorized, (again shake your head and roll your eyes) that the rapture had occurred, starting with the smallest species and was working its way up!
Then one day finally word came out of the capital! We all stopped what we were doing (basically learning new survival techniques and preparing funeral plans) to listen to the news broadcast that preempted every channel on network T.V, cable, internet podcasts, Pandora. You name it, it was interrupted! No target audience would be missed. Instructions were given for every citizen in the country to tune in for coverage of the national Leader’s upcoming speech latter in the day at a time when everyone should be home from work and school. Businesses that ran at night were advised to close for the night if they could. Businesses that had to stay open for the public were advised to have their televisions on and time allowed for employees to view the national announcement. Something big was coming. And with such a buildup it didn’t fail to pique the interest of all.
That night I gathered with my friends at church, the same church we had been meeting at for years to pray for our county and its leaders. We had a large screen HDL set up on stage so we could collectively view the telecast and support each other with more prayer in case of emergency. Our membership numbers had taken a beating (literally and metaphorically!) over the years. One of the main reasons for the nose dive were the church burning hate groups that targeted Christians, the other reason for our decline was the contagious communicable apathy that had spread over the “now” generation.
Suddenly,there he was on screen, the most powerful man on earth, the leader of the free country; or so we assumed; he was passably recognizable, but not presentable. He wasn’t wearing a suit, just a crumpled slack and crinkled faded white shirt with his tie hanging loosely around his neck. He must have been going for the gaunt look as his chin and upper lip were unevenly unshaven. And his eyes? They looked….sad…no haunted. Was this the result of a weeklong high stake national chess game? I’m glad I play solitaire. This wasn’t the man the nation had elected; the nation, not us, not us Christians, we didn’t vote for the man and warned those who did there would be consequences. Of course no one listened. The Christian voice stopped meaning things decades ago.
Mr. Leader was accompanied by all the country’s missing: ministers, senators, congressman, lawyers, evangelists, mayors, governors, and military officers appearing just as unkempt. The broadcast started with an explanation of some books and documents that had been discovered in the national archives in the National Cathedral that had been destined for recycling. Mr. Leader then began to read them. We were flabbergasted. We knew what he was reading. We read what he was reading every Sunday. Oh, not the same passage every Sunday, but from the same book. He was reading from the Bible! On public airwaves! On every possible airwave! He was going to piss some people off big time, mostly the majority of his amoral constituents, the ones that voted to remove every cross, Christmas tree, nativity scene and copy of the Ten Commandments from public property. He then read from our earliest beginnings as a nation where the bible had served as text book and counselor for many of our elected officials. He recited how many state constitutions had placed among qualifications for office a belief in Jesus as lord! State constitutions! He then read passages that previous National leaders had placed their hands on when they were sworn into office.
Then Mr. Leader went on to .....we couldn’t believe what we were hearing....explain that according to what he had read, and confirmed by consulting experts, (he nodded towards the evangelists and ministers) the country’s woes had been brought on slowly by ....(some members in the pews sucked in their breaths)...our gradually wandering from ....GOD! There he said it! The breath holders exploded sending a wave of air that almost toppled the big screen TV off the stage! Mr. Leader said “God” out loud with millions of witnesses who would conceivably be voting him out of office next election. I was beginning to see him differently…and warily. This could be a trick; it had to be given his record and that of the country’s. Was this an elaborate smoke screen for some oncoming deception that Leader was capable of?
Mr. Leader went on to outline changes he expected to enforce over time, starting immediately, actually starting days ago when he and those present with him went into a state of fasting and supplications. Amendments were going to be put into effect that restored “public” prayer in schools (even though any Christian student could bow their head and pray at will) and replacement of the Ten Commandments in federal buildings. Those in my group that had sucked their breaths in earlier now simply passed out. The list of changes went on and ended with, “And if anyone doesn’t like these changes they can kiss my….Bible. There are other places they can live, like the Antarctica, plenty of room for expansion there.” There was nothing fuzzy about Mr. Leader’s opinions this time. No need for some narrator to follow the speech with a commentary on what took place; everything that had been said was clear and solid. For once there was no ambiguity.
There now would be zero tolerance for hate groups and their “freedom of speech” rights would be denied because it was usually supplemented with violence and that would be against the law. Imagine that, violence against the law. What about that sounds insane? Mr. Leader explained we were going to follow the golden rule; Do unto others as you would have them do to you. And, he reasoned, if hate groups burn and destroy others property, they must approve that as acceptable behavior when directed towards them so all their facilities were to be razed by the military! Boy, was he doing some tree shaking, now let's see where the nuts fall!
Church attendance increased that Sunday as shell shocked individuals coerced their family and friends to come and seek answers. People who had joined several hate groups to be on the safe side were now sitting in church pews. And no, they didn’t just add church membership to their list of activities to hedge their bets. They were seeing firsthand the result of a praying remnant. The remnant of true solid Christians who had been praying for national recovery the last few years had been blessed with a national revival of epic proportions. Be careful for what you pray for! Church buildings were no longer less than half filled, they were now finding it necessary to erect large screen TV’s in the parking lots to catch the overflow, or offer several sermons daily. Daily, not weekly!
And the land’s rebellion? Rain visited us after that speech. I mean "right" after the speech. The heavens opened and water fell from the skies saturating the parched land, caressing the soil, cooling the air. Uncontrollable forest and prairie fires were doused, rescuing hundreds of homes. Grass and crops sprung up. Flowers and colorful bushes dotted the countryside. Beasts of the field were watered and fed. Cows started producing milk, the bees came back on the scene, and honey flowed from tree stumps and caves, making us once again a land flowing with milk and honey!
Leviticus 20:24
Deut. 28
2 kings 23
Ester 8:11
Ester 9:1-15
