Chapter 2
Natonito and Bathsheba were enjoying a wonderful afternoon in the Directrix�s palace, and in order not to get too bored, they decided to invite Wilfred and Beth to a lunchtime conversation about matters of church and state. After all, Natonito liked little more than to discuss matters of great importance with other people to fine tune his own sharp intellect. Dinner parties with dull people frustrated him to no end and bored him senseless.
�Welcome, Doctor Smith,� Natonito said.
�It is good to be here when I do have to keep track of my feisty little charges,� Wilfred said, smiling. �It is good to see you too Mrs. Albright.�
�It is good to be able to relax here on a hot and humid summer afternoon,� Beth said.
�Enjoy the tea for a bit until the servants bring out the chicken fingers and bread,� Bathsheba said. �It feels like the swamps of Bravia around here.�
�I assume there is a purpose besides friendliness that leads you to call me,� Wilfred said. �After all, we are Bravians. When we call a meeting, it is for a purpose.�
�Yes, there is a purpose for this meeting,� Natonito said. �I am concerned about the Church, and I want you to be my representative in meetings of the Council of Elders.�
�Why is that?� Wilfred asked. �What sort of nefarious business do you suspect the Church to be involved in?�
�There is something insufferably cliquish about the clerical establishment. While they often lack great intellect and experience in the world of business, they are rigidly self-righteous, and they act without an adequate system of internal control to keep the power out of an inner circle of potentially corrupt clerics. Even if the clerics are not corrupt, the lack of control means there is no way to tell between a good apple and a rotten one,� Natonito.
�So you want me to spy on the chief clerics of the Empire?� Wilfred asked.
�Well, I have plenty of spies. What I need you to do is provide a visible reminder of the interest I have in making sure the Church is free of tyranny and corruption. Those who fancy themselves the shepherds of God�s people must be held accountable for their positions. After all, he who seeks the preeminence takes on added responsibility, and upon those who rule is the greater condemnation,� Natonito said.
�My husband always seeks to guard what was committed to his trust, avoiding the profane and vain babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge,� Beth said.
�My wife is always quick with a wise and comforting word,� Wilfred said with a smile. �Are there any specific proposals you want me to mention when the Council of Elders next meets?�
�I am concerned that the leading clerics are set against allowing laymen to positions of responsibility. Even though most of the clerics know very little about modern technology, they set themselves in charge of marketing the church to the populace through methods that worked back when Armstrong was young,� Natonito said.
�You mean the head of Ambassador Seminary?� Wilfred asked, puzzled.
�No, his father, the late great HWA,� Natonito said.
�That must have been almost a century ago!� Beth exclaimed. �The son is old and still spry enough to have to be chased out of massage parlors.�
�The miracles of Viagra,� Natonito commented. �Anyway, you are right Beth. The Church is ruled too much by graybeards who have refused to accept the pace of change that is moving through the world. I fear that unless we get some youth in the higher circles of power that the true way may be imperiled because the Church leadership cannot relate to the young. There need to be some qualified laymen to work in areas where the clerical leadership is frankly incompetent.�
�Well, what are we to do?� Wilfred said. �Splinter up even more and divide into more than the 200 odd sects we are already split into? Are we to be like the grumps and proclaim the truth of a long-dead regime in the face of heresy without fleeing temptation? Are we to follow decrepit old men who proclaim their own apostolic claims while stealing the Lord�s money? There must be something we can do.�
�Why must the clerical leadership be so stubborn?� Bathsheba asked.
�They have staked their life in the Church, and consider all power and position their prerogative as God�s representatives on earth. Instead of being servants, they have sought to be lords. Is not God our only Lord?� Natonito said.
�Him only shall you serve,� Beth said.
�Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer,� Wilfred said. �You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast. I often wonder if people lose sight of themselves once they receive that power that the ministry can hold. It is difficult to possess great power without succumbing to the endless opportunities to be corrupted. We are tainted to the extent that we are powerful, unless we can bridle our tongue and control our deepest and innermost drives. Surely you know that well enough, don�t you?�
�More than you can imagine,� Natonito said. �That, more than anything, is the chief benefit of popular and limited government. When individuals are given great freedom, their success or failure lies in their own determination and in the morality of other individuals. Barring illegal and unethical combinations in restraint of the market, no one individual can amass enough power to dominate those around him. While the folly of the populace cannot be overestimated, I would rather trust in the folly of a hundred million, provided there were enough wise men to check it, then in the wickedness of a hundred wise men with nothing to check them. So long as the people themselves do not succumb to the basest desires and so long as there are shepherds to guide them and leave them, we need not fear being overrun by wolves. I tremble for my nation, though.�
�You believe the people are wicked?� Beth asked.
�I think he does,� Bathsheba said.
�Yes, I do believe the people are wicked. They have followed the wrong people, and so filled the earth with violence and perversity. When other nations hear of us, they cannot can not help but use words like �decadent� and �fallen� to describe our moral state,� Natonito said. �I fear we are sick to the core.�
�Do you know a cure?� Bathsheba asked.
�I do not know of a cure beyond the return of our Lord and Savior,� Wilfred said. �Not that it is much comfort now to the majority of people, who struggle against unseen tides, not comprehending that they are the puppets in the puppet show.�
�The marionettes never see those that pull the strings,� Beth said.
�Where do wars and fights come from among us? Do they not come from or desires for pleasure that war within us? We lust and do not have. We murder and covet and cannot obtain. We fight and war. Yet we do not have because we do not ask. We ask, and do not receive, because we ask amiss, that we might spend it on our pleasures,� Wilfred said.
�I knew from the beginning that this would be a dour conversation,� Natonito said.
�But you felt you had to have it anyway,� Wilfred commented.
�Yes,� Natonito said. �I knew it was important that we discuss these matters, and quote half of the Holy Book while we were at it.�
�The chicken is here,� Bathsheba said.
�That is good,� Wilfred said. �Theology always made me hungry. There are three things that one discusses at great peril. The first is politics, because people often fight and quarrel about the whims of the day. The second is sex, because people are rightfully jumpy about what goes on in their bed and in their head. The third is religion, because it deals with the world beyond us that we must chalk up to faith, since our limited life span and sensory capabilities make it impossible for us to deal with more than a few scattered grains of all the sand in the oceans. Even the wisest among us cannot comprehend more than a tiny fraction of all information that is available. Even should one devote his or her entire life to the study of facts, the task would be insurmountable. And yet we should all strive to be the best that we can, for we have no choice but to undertake impossible ventures, and no better option than to do our best anyway.�
�Well said,� Natonito said.
�Yes, that was a good little speech,� Bathsheba said.
�And he said it off the cuff,� Beth smiled.
�I have but one question to ask you,� Natonito said.
�And what is that?� Wilfred replied.
�Do you want to be my representative on the Council of Elders?� Natonito asked.
Between bites of chicken, Wilfred replied. �Of course I would, though it does put me in an awkward position.�
�I understand that,� Natonito said. �But I could not think of anyone better for the job. Anyone willing to face Imperial bullets to deliver messages, and to brave death as a spy to research an old history book, has to either be a person of extreme bravery or foolhardiness. Either way, I did not think you could turn down this opportunity.�
�Are you always this shrewd a judge of human character?� Wilfred said with a wry grin.
�He does his best,� Bathsheba said. �Besides, where he lacks, I have in abundance.�
�No husband is ever too wise to learn from his wife,� Natonito said.
�And no wife is ever wise enough to learn from her husband,� Beth said.
�So God created them male and female,� Wilfred said.
�Well, it was not so bad of a chat after all,� Bathsheba said.
�No, it was quite lovely,� Beth said.
�We got a lot of important business done while scarfing down fine Bravian chicken,� Wilfred said.
�I wonder how many chickens die to feed my appetite,� Natonito said in mock contemplation.
�They say you are what you eat,� Beth said.
�Yes, but there are few animals braver than the chicken, no matter how weird that sounds,� Wilfred said.
�To the chicken,� Natonito raised his glass.
�To the chicken,� the other three people replied, raising their glasses.
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