Stranger in a Strange Land

Patricia Paiwonski pointed her finger and suddenly was a priestess clothed in holy dignity and mystic symbols. «God wants us to be Happy. He filled the world with things to make us Happy. Would God let grape juice turn to wine if He didn't want us to drink and be joyful? He could let it stay grape juice … or turn it into vinegar that nobody could get a giggle out of. Ain't that true? Of course He don't mean we should get roaring drunk and beat your wife and neglect your kids …He gave us good things to use, not abuse. If you feel like a drink or six, among friends who have seen the light, and it makes you want to dance and give thanks to the Lord for His goodness — why not? God made alcohol and God made feet — He made 'em so you could put 'em together and be Happy!»

She paused. «Fill 'er up again, honey; preaching is thirsty work — not much ginger ale; that's good rye. And that ain't all. If God didn't want women to be looked at, He would have made 'em ugly — that's reasonable, isn't it? God isn't a cheat; He set up the game Himself — He wouldn't rig it so that the marks can't win, like a flat joint wheel in a town with a fix on. He wouldn't send anybody to Hell for losing in a crooked game.

«All right! God wants us to be Happy and He told us how: “Love one another”! Love a snake if the poor thing needs love. Love thy neighbor … and the back of your hand only to Satan's corruptors who want to lead you away from the appointed path and down into the pit. And by “love” He didn't mean namby pamby old-maid love that's scared to look up from a hymn book for fear of seeing a temptation of the flesh. If God hated flesh,why did He make so much of it? God is no sissy. He made the Grand Canyon and comets coursing through the sky and cyclones and stallions and earthquakes — can a God who can do all that turn around and practically wet His pants just because some little sheila leans over a mite and a man catches sight of a tit? You know better, hon — and so do I! When God told us to love, He wasn't holding out a card on us; He meant it. Love little babies that always need changing and love strong, smelly men so that there will be more babies to love — and in between go on loving because it's so good to love!

«Of course that don't mean to peddle it any more than a bottle of rye means I gotta get fighting drunk and clobber a cop. You can't sell love and you can't buy Happiness, no price tags on either… and if you think there is, the way to Hell lies open. But if you give with an open heart and receive what God has an unlimited supply of, the Devil can't touch you. Money?» She looked at Jill. «Hon, would you do that water-sharing thing with somebody, say for a million dollars? Make it ten million, tax free.»

«Of course not.» («Michael,do you grok this?»)

(«Almost in fullness, Jill. Waiting is.»)

«You see, dearie? I knew love was in that water. You're seekers, very near the light. But since you two, from the love that is in you, did “share water and grow closer”, as Michael says, I can tell you things I couldn't ordinarily tell a seeker — »

The Reverend Foster, self-ordained-or ordained by God, depending on authority cited — had an instinct for the pulse of his times stronger than that of a skilled carnie sizing up a mark. The culture known as «America» had a split personality throughout its history. Its laws were puritanical; its covert behavior tended to be Rabelaisian; its major religions were Apollonian; its revivals were almost Dionysian. In the twentieth century (Terran Christian Era) nowhere on Earth was sex so vigorously suppressed — and nowhere was there such deep interest in it.

Foster had in common with every great religious leader of that planet two traits: he had an extremely magnetic personality, and sexually he did not fall near the human norm. On Earth great religious leaders were always either celibate or the antithesis. Foster was not celibate.

Nor were his wives and priestesses — the clincher for rebirth under the New Revelation included a ritual uniquely suited for growing closer.