The President

by Parker Hudson

  “Or look in 2 Kings 22 at what happened when Josiah, the young king of Israel, found God’s Law, which had been lost in the temple ruins, read it for the first time, realized how they had been violating God’s will, wept, tore his clothes, and led the nation back to a long period of following God’s will and of worshiping him.

  “Or earlier, in Joshua, at the end of that book. The people had been punished for forty years for worshiping a golden calf, instead of the true God who saved them from the Egyptians. After they then successfully took the Promised Land as their inheritance, Joshua called the entire nation together and told them what Moses had already made clear: they could serve other gods, and break God’s will, which would lead again to his anger and to their ruin. Or they could serve God and his will, and the Promised Land would remain theirs forever. He gave them the choice—in fact, he had the whole nation vote.”

  “Vote?” William asked.

  “Yes. Look at the end of the book. They voted to serve the Lord, and Joshua challenged them to keep their word. And in the New Testament there are so many examples you could almost say the whole text is really God’s revealed Word about how to have victory over destruction by believing in his Son and receiving the blessing of eternal life.”

  “So the key is the individual heart,” William said. “One man can’t wish another man into God’s kingdom. Each heart must turn on its own. But, particularly from what you mentioned in the Old Testament, it does appear that the rulers had something to do with it.”

  “Yes,” Michael agreed. “It’s interesting. It’s as if the ruler of the nation set the right tone. The state of his heart was reflected in the laws and the practices of the people. He often had to fight with the entrenched leaders of the day who wanted a different path. But, again, it was the people’s behavior that ultimately decided God’s reward or punishment. Look at Moses, Israel’s great leader; yet his people worshiped a golden calf. Then other leaders turned the nation around, like Josiah. There was an interesting interaction between the nation’s leader and the people. God searched the hearts of the people, but without godly leaders who read and ruled according to God’s law, the people didn’t have much of a chance.”

  “It’s funny,” William said. “That sounds almost exactly like what Joe Wood told us last week about families. Without the parents—and he was really addressing fathers—reading and willing to teach God’s laws for living, how can any family expect to survive today?”

  “That’s a good connection,” Michael said. “Families and nations are a lot alike. Each has a leader. The individual members can flourish or wither. Each prospers with a biblical foundation for behavior. Each tempts disaster without the Lord.”

  “We’ve really had a heavy discussion tonight. And, hey, we haven’t even started your lesson yet!”

  Michael smiled “It’s late. I think we’ve actually already done quite a lesson. Here, let me write down those references for you, and a few more. And, William, about the vision you keep having: it sounds very real and very possible to me. I encourage you and Carrie to pray about it, as Elizabeth and I will do. Ask God to reveal more to you, if it’s his will. Pray and study his Word, as you’ve been doing. Be open to his leading, and learn to live by faith. He says that if we will just seek his kingdom, he’ll take care of all the other details in our lives. That’s really pretty amazing, when you think about it, and gives me lots of comfort when everything seems crazy.”

  “Thanks, both of you, for coming tonight,” William said. “I feel at the same time both overwhelmed by all that he is and also somehow strengthened by him as well. Yes, Carrie and I are praying more, and we’ll continue. Now, can the four of us pray together?”

  THE ADRIATIC SEA—The U. S. Network interview with the Harrison family aired at two in the morning local time off the coast of what used to be Yugoslavia, and Hugh stayed up in order to watch it in the wardroom on the U. S. Armed Forces satellite link from the states.

  As the show began, Teri Slocum opened the forward port door to the wardroom and quietly sat down next to Hugh; he had mentioned it to her at the start of their deployment, and she had noted it on her calendar. Since midnight rations had concluded two hours earlier, they were the only officers in the dimly lit space.

  They talked quietly during the commercials, and at the end of the show, Hugh turned down the volume and said, “Boy, that was great seeing Jen and the kids, even if it was a little strange watching us being interviewed.”

  “You’ve really got a wonderful wife and beautiful children,” Teri said, turning slightly toward him in the chair.

  “Yes,” Hugh replied, obviously moved by seeing them again, “God has blessed me with a wonderful family. I miss them a lot...and we’ve got five more months to go.”

  “Mmm. In the interview you didn’t sound too much in favor of the new crew arrangement on the ship, though you were diplomatic enough not to say it outright.”

  “I guess it showed, huh?” Hugh said. “Well, that’s the truth. I’m not But I’m trying to roll with the punches and wait to see what happens.”

  Teri’s eyes, close to his, reflected the light from the television, and Hugh, sitting close to her in the dimly lit space, suddenly felt very much at home sharing his thoughts with her. It was as if a chapter in their relationship was over; physical attraction was no longer the main driving force. It was still very much there, but now it was in the background. Maybe it’s because I’ve been praying, Hugh thought. It was as if she were suddenly a really good friend. No, more like the attractive younger sister of his best friend—the tension was there, but it now acted to energize the periphery of a far deeper relationship, one which combined friendship and playfulness with respect, protection, and concern.

  He looked into her eyes, and it was if she shared his understanding, their shift to a deeper, less sexual, but more profound relationship, in that single moment. They held each other’s eyes as the understanding passed between them. Neither said a word, but they both felt it, and each eventually smiled.

  “So, should I get off at the next port?” she asked demurely.

  “What? And leave me with all your women to deal with!”

  “Should we all get off?”

  He hesitated, and his expression grew more serious. “Teri...yes and no. I’ve told you many times it’s not about you or your division’s capabilities or readiness. And the same goes for the homosexuals. They’ve shown that they’re very capable. It’s just, again, that we’re different. There’s tapes inside us—I’m a man, you’re a woman. I react in a certain way to things you do, and vice versa, I guess. Frankly, and I know this is going to blow your mind, but since I’ve been reading the Bible, it seems to me that God—yes, God— created us for different roles. Not one better than the other. But, and don’t go bonkers on me, I truly believe there are servant leadership roles for men, and servant leadership roles for women... So if you really want to know how I’m starting to feel, then here it is: I think you can handle a missile shoot just fine, no question; and I can probably nurture children. But the God who made us designed roles for us—they’re pretty obvious if you just look at us— and we violate those roles at some real risk. It’s not that it can’t be done. The question is whether it ought to be done.”

  Despite the early hour and her fatigue, she listened attentively and thought for quite a while before she answered. “Hugh, this may blow your mind, but in my quietest heart of hearts, I probably agree with you, or at least with most of what you said. When I’m totally honest with myself, I have to admit that I’d like to marry a wonderful man and have a family and raise our children—just like it seems you and Jennifer are doing. It’s just that...well, that right man hasn’t come along, and I worry a lot whether he ever will. And while I’m waiting, another part of me is really intrigued by what we’re doing here, now, serving the country and being the best I can be. So it’s tough. Real tough.

  “The part of me that’s worried about not finding a husband pushes me to do
more and to be more, in case I’m left completely out of the family thing. And yet I know the irony is that in that push, that rush for doing, and for total ‘equality,’ the process almost seems to make it harder to find a husband, which was the real goal in the first place. As a group we women may be scaring all the men off. So—and I know this is a pretty deep thought for three in the morning in the Adriatic Sea—it’s, like, what seems rational for one woman, seeking to do everything I can, turns out to be irrational for all women as a group, because men either run the other way or forget how to be men. It’s very, very frustrating. Almost all men have run, of course, except the few wonderful ones like you, I mean,” she ended with a warm smile.

  He looked at her but didn’t say anything for a while. He was starting to feel the late hour. Finally he said, “You’re right, of course. It is very difficult. I don’t know what I’d do if I were a modern woman—how I’d cope. The problem seems to be that as we’ve focused so totally in our society on the individual and his or her rights, which is all we hear about, that we’ve created a brave new world in which the customs and habits that used to support individuals, in a collective sense, no longer work.

  “So you and every other woman live with the real possibility that you won’t ever find a husband; or even if you do, he’ll divorce you and leave you with two kids. So you need to be an individual with skills and rights to protect yourself when he does. The ‘triumph of the individual’ appears ultimately to be a lot of miserable individual men, miserable individual women, and miserable individual children. What an irony! But the question for tomorrow, or maybe later this afternoon, my beautiful female philosopher, is how to solve this problem. Perhaps we can tackle that after three hours sleep.”

  They slowly rose together, and Hugh turned off the television.

  “I enjoyed talking tonight,” Teri said.

  “Me, too. Shall we meet again tomorrow night?”

  “It’ll have to be on the bridge. I’ve got the midwatch as the JOOD.”

  “You junior officers have all the fun. Well, good night, Teri.”

  “Good night, Hugh.”

  RALEIGH—“What happened tonight, Graham?” Mary asked, as they sat together in their den with the sound of Sarah slamming her bedroom door still reverbrating in their ears.

  “We’re finally unmasked on national television as misguided Christian fundamentalists threatening the White House, and we just lost our little girl. Otherwise, it’s been a great evening,” Graham answered from his chair at the end of the sofa.

  Both of the Prescotts thought back on the two hours since supper. At the dinner table Mary had asked Sarah about her health grade, and neither parent had been prepared for the angry eruption from Sarah, reminding them that she was old enough to make her own decisions and that she’d decided to try the computer once and that it had been nothing to worry about. The rest of the meal had been tense, and once it was over she tried to go immediately to her room, but her father had asked her to tell them about her decision.

  Mary and Graham were stunned to find that Sarah had participated seven times in the virtual reality sex education program and that she intended to finish the section. She refused to give them more details, dodging their few other questions.

  The family had reassembled for the televised interview. At the end, when Mary tried again to ask Sarah how she felt about the sessions, Sarah stood up and, with tears filling her eyes, shouted, “I hate all this faith stuff! Look at us on TV—we look like idiots! What will the kids say tomorrow? Just when I was getting over all the computer garbage you stirred up, we’re shown on TV as goody-goody Christians—too good for everybody else. Well, I’m not! I’m just a person.” Now the tears really came, and Tim, wide-eyed, moved quietly to the door. “I don’t care about all that church stuff! I just want to live my life and be normal, not crazy or wacko or holier than everybody else. Yes, I used the computer. You know what? It was great! So please, leave me alone about this. It’s my life. Just leave me alone!”

  And with those words Sarah ran upstairs and slammed her door, leaving her parents in stunned silence, until Mary asked Graham her question. Now she thought about his answer.

  “Am I wrong, or is that the first time Sarah’s screamed at us since she was three?” Mary asked.

  “I think you’re right. I guess we underestimated the power of temptation at her age, and the peer pressure.”

  Mary paused. “Now what do we do? It’s as if she’s experienced sex, but she hasn’t. Good grief, Graham, think what she might have already experienced if they’re past the seventh session. When do they do all that group and lesbian stuff? Do you realize in the past few weeks she may have had—or simulated—or I don’t know which way to say it—all sorts of sex that nethier of us, thank God, has ever known? What does that do to our relationship with her?That course is absolutely rotten, Graham! It’s the secular/humanist ultimate individual experience, all in the name of ‘learning’! And just to top it off, it inflames kids and ruins their relationships with their parents. Give the bad guys a perfect score!”

  Graham tried to lighten the tension. “Now you sound like a Christian fundamentalist.”

  “The truth is the truth. You’re right, but we simply believe what most people believed forty years ago, and now we’re held up on television as extremists. Oh, Graham, Satan is gaining speed, destroying our nation, one family, school, and church at a time, and yet the press and the leadership are saying that we’re the crazy ones. But, Graham, I really heard Sarah’s pain. She must feel so left out. We’ve got to pray that God will send her some Christian friends who can support her faith—otherwise, I think she’s going to have a very difficult few years. And so are we.”

  “We’ve got to pray about that and much more. Our family, William, our nation, that computer...” He shook his head, then looked at his wife. “Do you know what we need? We need help with our prayers. Why don’t we get together with the other parents who share our beliefs and ask them to bring their pastors, so we can enlist a larger group of prayer partners?”

  “Yes, and I’ll mention it again at Moms in Prayer. I wonder if the national leadership of MIP knows anything about this computer. Maybe I’ll give them a call.”

  “Good,” Graham said. “But back to Sarah—Mary, we’ve got to walk a fine line with her. Our relationship is bent, but not broken—at least I hope not. But if we push her too hard, we may lose her for many, many years. On the other hand, we can’t condone what she’s doing either.”

  “She already knows how we feel. I think her explosion had been building, and there was probably some guilt fueling it.”

  “Let’s hope so. If we keep loving her but don’t give in on what we know is right, hopefully she’ll come back to her faith and to us when this has run its course.”

  Mary thought for almost a minute in silence. “Yes, I think you’re right. But how long may it take, Graham, and what will be the cost?”

  Graham reflected on her words before answering. “I don’t know. But you know what just struck me? I bet this is almost exactly what believing parents go through when a child announces that he or she is gay. The Father of Lies just has a new high-tech, addictive lie to use, and it’s apparently working. Thank God that whatever lies he tries, we’ve got access to the one sufficient answer. Here, before we get too depressed, let’s give all of this to the Lord. Let’s pray.”

  Mary and Graham prayed out loud for several minutes together in their den, interceding for their daughter. At one point Sarah quietly opened her bedroom door and could tell from the lowered voices in the den below what her parents were doing. The battle inside her raged again: she wanted to scream for them to stop, yet she also wanted to scream for them to pray harder. She silently closed her door and fell on her bed, quietly sobbing.

  15

  We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It
is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

  JOHN ADAMS

  Monday, December 3

  One Month Later

  WASHINGTON—It was mid-morning on the first bitterly cold day of the new winter. The sun was shining but the strong wind behind the cold front which had passed in the night made commuting unpleasant. As William sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, he was glad that his daily commute was by elevator. But I guess we make up the miles in other ways—like a “quick trip” last week to Puget Sound for Thanksgiving with the kids. It was certainly good to see how the aerospace industry has shifted to peaceful projects. Wouldn’t heads turn if I gave a speech on strong defense? He couldn’t resist a smile.

  William finished going through the morning’s key foreign communiques in anticipation of the meeting with Sandra Van Huyck, Jerry Richardson, Patricia Barton-North, and Lanier Parks on the secretary of state’s mission to Moscow, where he had discussed the difficult situation in the Pacific William drought briefly about the vice president. There had been no subsequent flare-ups since their confrontation over his new approach to their domestic policy. William knew that the détente in their relationship had been reinforced by the final passage of a pasted-together national budget, several months after it should have moved through Congress. Seven continuing resolutions had been required to permit the federal government to keep operating after the start of the new fiscal year in October, but William had held on to the hope that his new approach would encourage Congress to pass at least some parts of his domestic package.

  He was wrong. Within days after his televised address, business as usual returned to Washington, and the final budget turned out to be the kind of watered-down compromise, accomplishing little and making no one happy, which Ted Braxton had predicted months before. So the legislative stalemate continued. But at least the nation’s top two executives appeared to have declared a truce for the moment, since the budget battle was over for that year.