America 1982

Martin returned to Zach's living room, which was temporarily used as a campaign office and dormitory. He had just taken out two cans of beer from the refrigerator and was about to hand one to Tommy, and then discussed with him in detail how he would serve as the campaign manager if the bill was split 28-20. How much money can you get.

But before she could speak, she saw Page and the crew leader Nick, each holding a thick stack of books, walking in from the outside.

This caused Martin's brain to shut down for a moment. Even if Page, the hateful-looking bald old guy, took out a hundred stun machines, he wouldn't be surprised at all, but...helping with the work of moving books? How can it be?

This made Martin feel that there must be some major event in the world, because no matter how far away he hid from this kind of hard work, Page would go out of his way to find him and tell him to do it.

"The President of The Gambia fulfilled his damn promise! He sent troops to occupy the United States? So..." Martin's face was filled with disbelief and excitement. He grabbed his beer and looked at Page:

"So the good times are finally over for white ghosts in America?"

Tommy swept away the clutter on the card table in the living room. Page and Nick walked over and put the pile of hard-covered books on the table. Page patted the cover of the top book and explained to Martin: "Nick said that the owner of these books specifically emphasized that these classics are not allowed to be touched by unclean people. In my concept, the word unclean is equivalent to black people, including Gambia."

"Thank you, Nick." Tommy looked at the camera crew leader Nick, whose face was full of curiosity, and thanked him.

However, unlike the previous expression of despair because Tommy did not cooperate with the filming, Nick's face was full of curiosity at this moment. He put the books on the table and deliberately turned his head to look at the names on the spines of the books from the side. It can be seen from the patterns that these are Christian-related classics, but except for one "Old Testament", he has never read any of them, and even said that he has never even heard of their names.

"The Seven Letters of Ignatius", "The First Letter of Clement", "The Epistle of Panama", "Refutation of Abian", "The First Letter of Enoch", "The Letter of the Shepherd of Hermas", "The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles"...

Nick considers himself more of a Protestant than most Americans who only pray to God when they are shocked or in crisis. At least he will go to church at least once every two weeks as long as time allows, and he also joined The well-known Christian youth community organization "Vibrant New Youth" prays together, has meals together, does volunteer work, etc. It sounds a bit exaggerated, but the fact is that Christians like Nick can be considered true believers. After all, most young people They are no longer interested in spending time praying together in church and enriching themselves with scriptures. They prefer to anesthetize their empty souls with drugs or drugs.

But as an orthodox Protestant, he had never heard of the names of these books.

"A guy dressed like a Ku Klux Klan guy, like a thief, gave these books to me and told me not to let unclean people touch them." Nick resisted the desire to touch the books and told Tommy asked.

When Jeff was speaking to the veterans in the nursing home, Tommy took the time to go to several churches in Miami, and then asked him to help him go to Panama. He gave him a phone call and asked him to help get some books back. I drove to Panama and saw a white young man wearing a white robe in a small church. I secretly handed him a pile of books.

"Don't pay attention to that guy's nonsense. This is not a valuable classic. It doesn't have high collection value. It's just that it's difficult to buy it all quickly in a short time." Tommy sat at the table and opened his seat: "These are all from Florida. The book collection of Sean McDaniel, the senior pastor of First Christian Baptist Church in Panama, was secretly lent to me by his son, the intern pastor who was also an alumnus of my fraternity.”

"First Baptist Church? I've never heard of this denomination." Neil showed a suspicious expression.

Then he suddenly realized and said: "It is the non-mainstream religious organization you said you wanted to contact? Or, in other words, a cult?"

Then he immediately distanced himself from the pile of books. After all, for an orthodox Christian like him, it was best to keep a distance from such theories that were contrary to orthodoxy.

"No~ Of course not~" Tommy saw Nick's reaction and immediately explained with a smile: "Of course it is not a cult. It belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention. It is a small branch of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is some of the original Southern Baptists. The believers believe that the sect has degenerated, so it is just an independent branch sect. It is slightly more extreme than the Southern Baptist Convention, and some people call it the White Robe Baptist Church."

The Martin people next to him were already dumbfounded. They were stunned for a while before speaking: "More extreme than the **** extreme Southern Baptist Convention? The White Robe Baptist Convention?"

Page walked over and took away a can of beer from Martin's hand: "You can understand that compared to the ordinary KKK, when people from this church organization burned black people to death, they not only wore white robes, but also held Bibles and wore crosses."

The Southern Baptist Convention as mentioned by Martin is the largest Christian Baptist denomination in the United States and the second largest Christian denomination in the United States after evangelicals.

"Damn it, it's the exclusive sect of white racists!" Martin recovered and cursed loudly.

Black people in the southern United States hate the Southern Baptist Convention deeply. Although it has been more than a hundred years since slavery was abolished and it is now a fucking civilized year of 1989, the Southern Baptist Convention still stipulates that member churches and member families must have an alliance. country flag.

Another term for its infamy: America’s last bastion of racist white Christians.

Tommy took the remaining can of beer from Martin's hand, opened the tab and took a sip: "No, it's another small branch of a Christian sect. It doesn't discriminate against black people. It has many black members. Everyone is very kind. Although they are all We are poor, but everyone is like angels and approachable."

"Then why... you have to make so many preparations. If you are really approachable, you can just... go and meet directly." Nick didn't believe the words that came out of Tommy's mouth: "I know you often quote "The Bible, you may know how to preach doctrine better than many pastors...but ordinary pastors may not have access to these religious classics, let alone ordinary believers."

"What do you imagine the leader of a Christian cult looks like?" Tommy put down the beer in his hand, took the first book, and asked Nick with a smile.

The question thrown by Tommy made Nick think deeply. After more than ten seconds, he hesitated and said: "People like Jim Jones of the People's Temple?"

"Boss, I have a question. He...does I know the person he was talking about?" Martin asked Tommy decisively after listening to Nick's description of the cult leader.

This description cannot be said to be too similar to that of his damn boss Tommy Hawke, except for the difference in name and religion. It can only be said to be exactly the same.

Tommy drank beer, leaned back in his chair, and said in a relaxed tone: "Martin talked about a very important issue, that is why he felt that Jim Jones, whom he had never met, was very similar to me. He had never met him. Jim Jones, he only met me, why is this happening? Because he knows me, understands me, I don’t give a damn if there is a God, Jim Jones is the same kind of person, that’s just for people like us to take advantage of Props, in the eyes of people like us, there is no difference between God and Trojan."

"Jim Jones believes in God. He has been attending church regularly since he was thirteen years old, and he will not be so disrespectful to God like you." Nick said with a dissatisfied look on his face: "You should remain in awe of God."

Tommy shrugged: "He did it for the pastor's wife. He had sex with the pastor's wife when he was thirteen years old. He went to church that day just to make sure the pastor was busy, and he just happened to take the opportunity to go to the pastor's house to comfort the mature woman. Juicy wife, I was forced by my mother to go to church with my brother when I was five years old. But when my little bird grew hair at the age of twelve, I changed my mind and started going to church on my own initiative with my two best friends. Guess why, because the wife of the pastor of the church near my house is so beautiful... Two went to spy on his wife having an affair with the electrician, and one was a lookout at the church. Yes, life in the country without money to subscribe to a small movie channel is So boring."

"And if Jim Jones truly feared God, he would not have hybridized the Bible with atheistic communism to create his People's Temple. Did I say that? If he didn't have the opportunity to study at Stanford University, I am all going to study in seminary. Thanks to my mother, I have worked hard on Christian classics. You will not be my opponent in religious debates, and your understanding of Jim Jones is not as good as mine. If I don’t make money to study He went to seminary instead of Stanford, and now he may be serving as a pastor in a church, preaching while having sex with kids.”

Seeing Nick's ugly face, looking like he was ready to punch himself at any time, Tommy lowered his head and thought for a moment, then raised his head and asked: "Only God can make me stay in awe of him. It's a pity that he didn't come here, and he stayed here." Believers in this world are not worthy of our worship. I'm afraid that if I kneel down and raise my butt, they will suddenly appear behind me. Do you admit it? Those people have this ability to teleport, and they will be in front of you the next second. Holy, the next second he’s standing behind you, anointing that thing.”

"That's not God's fault." It took Nick a long time to squeeze out this sentence.

Even as a devout Protestant, he could not find a reason to defend those unscrupulous priests or bishops. Those bastards deserved to go to hell.

"Going back to the original question, if the leader of the cult I want to meet is like me, relying on a Bible to make ends meet, having no faith in his heart, being greedy, vicious and lustful, why should I read these esoteric and obscure classics to prepare my lessons?" Tommy patted the books and said to Nick.

Nick let out a sullen breath: "So, what does a cult leader look like?"

"Gary Duney graduated from high school at the Mennonite Central Christian School in Ohio. In college, he studied at the fundamentalist Moody Bible College, majoring in biblical theology, and as a graduate student at the evangelical Wheaton Theological Seminary. College, studied Greek writing, and later studied ancient Hebrew exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary, which is under the control of the American Presbyterian Church, and received a doctorate. He is a former professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, the former United Bible Societies, and the former chief evangelist of the American Bible Society. Translator and editor, a large part of the scriptures in the world that are now held in the hands of believers in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, Abrahamism and even Islam were compiled by him." Tommy put his finger on Knead the area between the eyebrows a few times:

"Now, he is the founder of Way of the Second Coming Church in Florida, a fringe Christian organization that is rejected by almost all mainstream denominations."

Nick was stunned for several seconds before coming back to his senses from the long series of introductions, and then asked incredulously: "What did it... or that Gary Duney do to be rejected by all mainstream sects? "

"Nothing, it's a very simple thing, he said..." Tommy paused for a few seconds, shook his head slightly, and said with some emotion:

“Listen to God and do what is right.”

Nick looked at Tommy in confusion: "This sentence sounds okay. As a believer, you must listen to God's words and do what you should do."

"In the opinion of Dr. Gary Dooney, if believers really want to listen to the word of God, all the patriarchs, popes, bishops, and priests of Christianity, Catholicism, and other bullshit religions in the world should admit that "New "Covenant" is a false book, just a tool for them to walk in the world in the name of God. Gary Duney said the same thing as you just said about me, that you should remain in awe of God, but those big figures in the church think what I said makes sense. , God is the same tool as Trojan, God has no say in how to use it, they have the final say."

Nick took a breath, and almost instantly, cold sweat broke out on his back. He didn't even dare to question what Tommy said, because that Gary Duney has been a system player since high school. Studying Christian theology and even serving as the chief editor of the American Bible Society shows that his understanding of all Christian classics and history exceeds that of all Christians in the world. He is a recognized expositor of the Bible, a classic that has been passed down from generation to generation.

In other words, when the three major Christian sects, including the Orthodox Patriarch, the Catholic Pope, and the Archbishops and Grand Presbyters of the various Protestant sects, spread their doctrines, the version of the Bible they used was most likely compiled by this man. If he said that the New Testament is an apocrypha, it must be the answer he got after countless tests, and the answer is very likely to be true.

But the more terrifying question is, why can’t those senior leaders of the Christian church accept this reality and choose to persist in lies?

Just like Tommy said, if you accept it, the loss will be too great, and even the entire Christian system will be turbulent and divided. But if you don't accept it, it means that those high-level officials really use God as a tool to gain profits...

"I... stay away from me, Tommy, you scare me more than the cult leader now. I just chatted with you for a few words for the first time, and I am about to question my beliefs... Oh my god~" Nick He took a few steps back, exhaled a few heavy breaths, and said a little irritably.

"I see your eyes flickering, you are wavering, Nick." Tommy looked at Nick with a half-smile: "You are a Protestant, right? If you are the great elder of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, after learning this What will be your first reaction after hearing the news?”

"Kill him, otherwise..." Nick put himself in his shoes and thought about it. If he were a big shot in the church and if he gave up hypocrisy, the answer he would give would be so direct and brutal.

If such a senior Christian scholar is allowed to live, he will be a huge hidden danger to the top leaders of all Christian systems.

"You have no chance to become a great elder, Nick." Tommy laughed: "Unless you want to see Gary Duny become the second Jesus, otherwise, according to his influence in the world's religious circles, you must not Kill him."

Nick hesitated and said: "So..."

"They suspended his work of exegesis, gave him the qualification to preach, and asked him to prove all this. Then they defined him and the true teachings he insisted on as a cult, and slowly destroyed him with the hands of ignorant believers. ." Tommy shrugged:

"It's interesting, right? The world has no idea which of those devout believers who wear crowns and those who are slandered as heretics is a true believer who fears God, and which one is a terrible heretic who deserves to be exiled to hell. Just like many people have been reciting the Bible for decades, but they can’t even tell the truth from the falsehood.”

Martin listened to the argument between Tommy and Nick. At this time, he went to get another can of beer, opened it and took a big sip, and then summarized the conversation:

"I lack the fear of God." Tommy opened the first book:

“But I sincerely respect this cult leader. When I discovered the existence of this organization, I wanted to know him as much as possible and be honest with him instead of trying to deal with him with slickness and sophistry. This is the greatest respect I can give him. "

I hope I can finish the book in one go this time~ So far, I can stop coughing by taking medicine and atomizing it every day~ So I will start coding again soon~