Mr. Palmer has given up on trying to pretend that everything is normal, and is now walking down the aisle. He is clearly in no hurry; in fact, he looks rather reluctant to be here at all.

Ashley’s parents have seemingly taken my parents’ words as sign to take their leave. They both rise from their seats and walk past my parents into the center aisle. There, however, they both come to a stop, facing the rest of the congregation.

It’s at this point that Mr. Palmer arrives. “Ah, you two. I should have known,” he says solemnly. “I thought I made it clear that I wished to discuss certain matters with you after the service… but if you are so intent on having a discussion now, I would like to come before you as your pastor and hear what is bothering you.”

Ashley’s parents turn and face one another. They stare at each other so intensely, that I get the impression that somehow the two are communicating via telepathy. Then, Mr. Davis gives his wife a small nod, and she turns back towards the others and begins to speak.

“To the Parkers, and to the congregation at large, I would like to pose a riddle. First of all, I know that you are clear and outspoken in your belief in the value of human life. Your stance is that you are pro-life: You believe that life is precious, and that it is worthy of protection, starting from the very moment that a sperm fertilizes and egg, and continuing up until the fateful day in which our souls depart from our bodies at last. Very well, then. So, consider this. What would become of Zoe, had nobody come to her aid? My fear is that it would’ve ended like a story I’ve heard countless times. A child who is forsaken by her own parents has few places to go in the world. If they are lucky, like Zoe was, they will have friends or other family members take them in. Otherwise, they are effectively homeless, living in shelters, or couch surfing, or sleeping in the back of a car, or in the park of a large city. You get the idea.

“It’s a terrible fate to befall on anyone. Put aside, for a moment, whether or not you believe that homosexuality is an inherent moral wrong. If children are a gift from God, whom we are morally obligated to bring to term, otherwise we shall disrespect the blessing of the Lord; doesn’t it naturally follow that we are obligated to take our children from birth up until adulthood? Upon what basis would we be justified, then, in rejecting this blessing? If the child is gay, shall we say to the Lord, ‘This child you bestowed upon me is not mine, and I want nothing to do with it!’ No. Sexual orientation, as science has found, is a state of nature, that cannot be altered once set. Therefore, the child, as God knew them in the womb, is given this characteristic by Him… for what reason, we do not know. But that much is clear. This is the word of the Lord: ‘There are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made so by men, and there are eunuchs chosen to be so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.’ To suggest that to simply be born in a certain manner is to be more sinful than any other person, is to speak blasphemy, for it is a rejection of God as the Creator of life. And so, what, at the end of the day, morally distinguishes the actions of the Parkers from the actions of the Yips? Nothing. Absolutely nothing!”

Mrs. Davis stops speaking, breathing deeply. The congregation, by this point, is totally silent. All eyes are on Mr. Palmer to see how he’ll react.

“Hmph,” he begins. “So you say that we ought to accept one’s vices, if they are predisposed to that vice? There are those in the world who are born to be genetically predisposed to alcoholism. Shall we leave the alcoholic to his debauchery, up until he has killed himself via alcohol poisoning?”

Mrs. Davis shakes her head. “That’s a bad metaphor, and you know it. One who is predisposed to alcoholism does not suffer from this until taking the first drink.

“And by the way… I’ve heard about your schemes for what to do with Zoe. And let me tell you, those institutions don’t exactly have a track record of success.”

“So I’ve heard,” Mr. Palmer says disdainfully. “But you ought to double check your sources. It sounds rather to me like you are basing your knowledge in the wisdom of the world, and not in faith.”

“Just because it’s of the world doesn’t mean it’s wrong!” Mrs. Davis snipes back. “We use science to inform our faith- that is how it has always been.”

“Well… after gleaning so much about your personal worldview, one thing has become clear to us,” my dad says. “Everything that we feared about your household’s downward spiral is true. We shall, henceforth, be taking any action necessary to save our daughter.”

For a brief moment, fear flashes across Mrs. Davis’s face. But then, her scowl returns. “Save her, huh?” She retorts. “You have yet to get any good reason why you kicked her out to begin with! If you wanted her back, you would’ve stopped by weeks ago. But go on, play the hero for your audience. Go ahead and come by our house. We’ll be prepared to settle things like Texans.

“And Jared… don’t even bother trying to officially exile us.” (Jared is Mr. Palmer’s first name.) “We’re not coming back here. You have the word of the Lord printed in every pew, and you proclaim His holiness with your lips. But in the back room, I see the devil sitting, smoking a cigar. And in my dreams, I hear the Lord’s booming voice, saying ‘Get the hell out of there!’ This house of worship has morphed into a heart of darkness.”

Mrs. Davis seems like she’s finally done. She’s ranted for so long, that she’s gone red in the face. But then, she jerks her head towards her husband, as if to say, “It’s your turn.” Mr. Davis clears his throat.

“Gregg, do you have something to say too?” Mr. Palmer asks.

“I do,” he says.

“Alyssa and I have come here with naught more than a question; an idea for your consideration. The reception we have received can be likened to a group of children with fingers in their ears.

“Have you all not experienced the dark night of the soul? For it is the believer who feels weak and insecure in faith who will cling to what is comfortable and familiar. We wish to hide the world from our sights, by surrounding ourselves with only that which is clean, pure, and holy. But should a Christian fear the world? For it is we who were chosen to go into the world as workers. Is a doctor afraid of the hospital, or of his patients? Is a teacher afraid of the school, or of her students? What good is a worker of God who fears the world and despises those who walk without faith? We are called to be the salt of the earth. What good is it, to the stew, for salt to stay within the salt shaker? I fear that Christians in this country have become complacent in power. Christians were not meant as a group to wield social and political power; we are tasked to turn the other cheek, and give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. In the beginning, we had nothing. We were hated and persecuted. And so it will be in the end, before the Lord rises again. And in countries across the world, we are still hated, murdered in droves by Islamic terrorists or Communist governments. And yet, here in the United States, things are different. We are not only free to practice, but in fact, it is Christians who dominate our social power structures. And yet, when that power is threatened, we will cling to it by any means necessary. When the schools set a non-religious academic agenda, we claim we are persecuted. When retail stores say ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas,’ we claim we are persecuted. When we are asked to tolerate others who are not like us, we claim we are persecuted. Have you not the self-awareness to see how utterly commiserable you have become? Ah, the trees and the forest, how often must they be in competition for our attentions! The Holy Land has not been ours for millennia. When we are ordered to be the salt of the earth, are we to still believe ourselves a city on a hill?

“It has been frequently noted over the course of our congregations that the generation who is coming of age today; that generation which our children belong to; has rejected our faith in unprecedented high numbers. This is rightfully a concern; but are we to draw the conclusion that this phenomenon is wholly caused by a failing of this generation? That an institution thousands of year old is on decline, because today’s youth are simply more selfish, more undisciplined, and more hedonistic, than any other young generation in the history of society? It is a bold claim to make; and, conveniently, one which requires no action on our part to amend, for it is of no fault of our that the young generation of today have naturally less moral character than any other, or is raised to have less moral character than any other by those outside of our ranks. What shall we do, then? Well, how often in our personal relationships is the pointed finger a symbol of deferred responsibility? Consider that we, as an organization, have cultivated a culture of apathy and contempt towards those among us who are the most forsaken; the most destitute; and the most impecunious of all. But did not the Lord say that any beggar, any vagrant stripped of a home, may yet be an angel in the clothing of men? It is written, “As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” Consider the parable of the harvest. The workers sow the seeds into the earth; which shall flourish, and at the harvest, the farmer shall use those who have born good fruit to multiply the harvest exponentially; and determine Himself which fruit bears bad fruit, and therefore is better thrown into the fire; and yet we are workers whom, though our duty is to sow seeds, we instead go into the fields with hatchets, to butcher those crops which are yet to be ready for the harvest; because we are willfully blind to the wondrous fruits of which shall someday come of those crops; we hack and slash not with divine insight, or impartial cogitation, but with a sense of self-preservation of that which is personally comfortable and familiar. What good are we then, to the farmer? How can a field of workers, through centuries of intellectual inbreeding, grow hostile towards its own accredited duty? And so… we will seek greener pastures than here.”

And on that note, they finally leave, seemingly having said their piece.

For a while, there is stunned silence. I take the opportunity to get back to where I was supposed to be sitting before.

Well, that’s about as exciting as things ever get around here. My brain is swimming, trying to process everything that just happened. What did Dad mean by “any means necessary” to get Zoe back? Does that mean we’re going for the nuclear option? Also, what even was like, half of the shit Mr. Davis said? Whatever it was, it was pretty awesome. I guess I got what I hoped for from earlier. We’ll see what Mr. Palmer says after he gets back up to the podium…

When he does, he spends a few moments adjusting his glasses, and then slowly turns his face upwards to face the congregation.

“As you have no doubt just heard, there is a family among us who seems to have left our ranks forever. As pastor, it is always my hope that I shall be able to resolve disputes among our members peacefully; in this case, I was unable to do so. We will continue our service as planned today, but first, I would like to take this moment to reaffirm to you all the unique position we are in as Christians. We base our lives solely off of the wisdom of God. Those outside of these walls, all that they have is the wisdom of the world. Whenever you walk into a bookstore, now, there are rows upon rows of so-called ‘self-help’ books. That speaks volumes about how empty life is for those who abandon the values of God. There is only one thing that will bring us true fulfillment in life, and that is if we come together, united as one church, to spread God’s word through the world, armed with the full armor of God and the shield of faith.”

So that’s his response. I’m pretty sure that Ashley’s parents quotes like, at least five or six different passages of scripture during their tangents, though. There were probably more than that, that I just didn’t recognize. So this whole “wisdom of God vs. wisdom of the world” thing… is it just a distractor? Or did their words really fall upon deaf ears?

Suddenly, I remember what Mr. Davis said back at the beginning of his part of the sermon… “a group of children with fingers in their ears…” I can’t help but to laugh out loud at this, causing me to be shushed furiously by my mom. Well, one thing’s for sure. Right now, I don’t feel like I’ve won much of anything.

So, what do y’all think? Did my parents do the right thing, getting rid of my filthy, filthy sister? Do you agree with Mr. Palmer, that being gay is bad, but my parents shouldn’t have immediately reacted with anger? Or do you side with Ashley’s parents, who think that the church has lost its way, and it needs to re-think how it treats marginalized groups? You can probably guess pretty easily who I agree with… Wait, who am I talking to?