Summer’s nearly gone and now we’re in those in-between days
filled with those little black bugs that bite like fire and an
endless stream of political mailers to be delivered. Changing leaves
and falling rain. I came home from another day on the postal routes
and sat on the porch to rest and to play with the little cat Leto
who’s often waiting for me to return.
The cat was clambering over my lap when Gunner pulled into the
driveway in his noisy pickup truck. Leto bolted under the porch to
hide.
“That’s a new cat, isn’t it?” Gunner called out as he
approached.
“He’s relatively new,” I affirmed. The strays come and go as
they please. We feed them and play with those that are friendly
enough to approach. “I haven’t seen you in a while, Gunner.
What’s it been? A month? A month and a half?”
“Listen. I’m busy with other things, Carter. I’ve got a job
and a family to raise. I can’t spend all my time correcting you and
your pigheaded heresy.”
“Porcinecephalous, eh?” I grinned.
“Cut it out, Carter.” Gunner sat down on the porch next to me
and continued. “You criticize Trump and his administration a lot
for someone who calls himself a Christian.”
“Yeah. I suppose I do. But I was critical of Biden, and Obama, and
W. as well.”
“Then it’s just as I thought,” Gunner laughed. “You won’t
submit to any government. I remember that you told me once that you
were kicked out of seminary. It’s that way with you. You are
rebellious at heart. You refuse to submit to any legitimate
authority.”
I didn’t say anything in response to his challenge. I just made
pss, pss, pss, noises for Leto under the porch.
“Yeah,” Gunner smirked. “I knew it. You’re just another of
those liberals who can’t respond when he’s confronted with the
truth. You’ve got no viable way to respond. Just another…”
I interrupted him just then. “No. I’m just trying to figure out
which is applicable here. I don’t want to get down in the mud with
you. I’ve had a long day and I was enjoying the cat. So the
biblical instruction, ‘Do not answer a fool…’ seems to be the
way to go.”
“Typical,” Gunner snorted. “You should try reading that Bible
you keep claiming to know. It actually says, ‘Answer a fool, lest he
think himself wise.’”
“Well,” I sighed. “If you insist.” I paused briefly, then
said. “Do you think you’re the first to accuse me of that kind of
thing? Do you think you’re the first to lay those charges at my
feet? Be serious.”
His smirk widened and he laughed again. “So you confess that
you’re an anarchist.”
“Well, maybe I am an anarchist. But it’s more of a Leo Tolstoy,
Noam Chomsky, Peter Kropotkin kind of anarchy and not the Johnny
Rotten, Sex Pistols kind of anarchy.”
“Use whatever legitimization you think will cover your pride, but
what you need is to learn to submit to authority. Like Joseph in
Egypt. Like Paul in prison. Like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. Look at them. They lived in an evil empire, but they didn’t
rebel. They served in the Babylonian court. They didn’t raise a
fist. They obeyed.”
It was my turn to scoff. “You’re not the first to accuse me of
being rebellious, but you are the first I’ve heard use Daniel and
his friends as an example of obedience to empire. That’s a pretty
wild take. Even for you, Gunner.”
Leto poked his head out between the steps and looked at me. I
reached out to stroke his head but he ducked back under.
“Romans 13,” Gunner said.
“What about Romans 13,” I asked.
“Let
every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power
but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God,” Gunner
quoted. “Anyone who rebels against the government is rebelling
against God. And you have a rebellious heart.”
I
could see that Leto wasn’t going to come out from under the porch
so I looked around. I saw Gunner’s truck in the driveway. “Gunner.
You’ve got a couple of flag decals on the windows of your truck. An
American flag and a Confederate battle flag. I know you’re a
patriotic kind of guy. We’ve talked about that. But the leaders of
those nations began with rebellion, yeah? Especially the Confederates
– the rebels. By your definition, they would have been rebelling
against God.”
“That
was different,” he stammered.
“Yeah.
It probably was,” I said. “Tell me, Gunner. How did Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah – or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, end up
in the furnace? Which act of obedience led them to that? Or Daniel.
Tell me how he ended up in the lion pit. I’m not sure what you’re
reading, but the book of Daniel in my Bible is start to finish about
resisting empire.”
“That’s
different,” he said again.
“And
one more. What’s on Thomas Jefferson’s seal? Rebellion to tyrants
is what?"
“Obedience
to God.”
I
looked again for the cat, but he was either gone or hiding far under
the porch. “Back to Romans 13,” I said. “The only thing I owe
anyone is love. Love fulfills the law, even when tyrants rule. And
love resists evil. If I’m an anarchist, I’m an anarchist because
of love.”
I
could see that this line of argument hadn’t set well with Gunner.
He looked at his watch and slapped his thighs. “I told you I was
busy, Carter. I’ve gotta get home to have dinner with my family.”
He stood and walked down
the porch steps and back to his pickup truck.
And
I watched him go.
Previous Conversations:
An Imaginary Conversation with a Real Troll (the first of the series)
I Will Not Fight the Argument (the second)
Supermarket Wrestling (third conversation)
Do You Even Pray (the troll returns)
All Means All (A fifth conversation)
The Doctrine that Cannot Be Challenged (sixth conversation)
Toward Sodom - (a halfhearted seventh conversation)
Millions of Years of Death (the eighth conversation)
Truth with Untruth (the ninth conversation)
Bulls, Dogs, and Villains (the tenth conversation)
The Righteous Forsaken (the eleventh conversation)
A Sabbath Garden (conversation number twelve)
Doesn't Doctrine Mean Anything to You? (conversation thirteen)
Real Christian Men, Real Christian Marriage (conversation fourteen)
Allah Azeem (conversation fifteen)
