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Show Acting Alone Page 4Q9 In his zeal for the Double-Pronged Earthly and Unearthly Good, he had been forced to do some pretty unadmirable, even unconscionable things of late. He had, for example, personally overseen the creation of what many people, with good reason, would call a monster: that young political theorist, that omnivorous, gluttonous, manic consumer and castigator of everything subverted in print who'd just phoned a moment ago and informed the Elder of the completion of what he euphemistically, chillingly referred to as the "encampment mop-up." But if Elder Cicerone hadn't taken the political theorist in hand early on and bent this unusual boy toward his own purposes, then one of the other councillors certainly would have, maybe even the evil Councillor of the Parable - and the Elder shuddered to think of the horrible potency of that pair in combination. The plain fact was that certain church youth were marked for special Christian service from the very moment that they correctly answered in the negative the two initial questions put by locally elected "bishops" to all missionary hopefuls: Are you or anybody in your extended family Democrats? and, Do you think that a man can adequately serve Jesus without one day getting married and siring as many children as possible for the church? Some youths from the very start seemed to possess not only this requisite right-mindedness, but special energies as well. They were able to retain a remnant of human personality clear through the difficult indoctrination process and still remain dependably true to Christ and His church and the missionary program. Certain of them even possessed just enough controllable charisma and, shall we say, thespian skills, to allow them to lead their fellow automatons with something resembling initiative and psychic energy. Still others, God knows, |
