Rebellion

“Let not the rebellious exalt themselves.”

A line from an ancient lyric, aka Psalm 66:7

There exists a beautiful land, glorious and yet simple, where people live happily in their homes and raised their children in peace.  Once, years ago, there was a terrible dictator who forced people to pay high taxes and there was misery everywhere.  

But since that time the Kingdom of God came in, swept away the evil dictator, and since then there has been peace and harmony.  All people work together for a common purpose and they are all free from the evil of the past.  Every family has a strong leader and the children are raise in the ways of truth and justice.

            But there are still a few, occasionally, who oppose the ways of the Kingdom of God.  There are a few who feel, in their greed, that they do not have enough, so they steal from those who have more.  There is, once and again, those who hurt others in their anger.  There is, on occasion, those who are overwhelmed by lust and hate and rape their object of disdain.

            And once, just once, was a woman so that she would kidnap children, selling them to the Kingdom’s enemies.  She confessed to every one of her crimes, yet she remained unrepentant.  Here is the transcript of how justice was done:

Judge:  It is for the sake of your soul that we are concerned.  Please, repent and we will have leniency.

Johnson: I don’t deserve your leniency.

Judge: Then you admit your crimes?

Johnson: I admit that I kidnapped children.  And I would do so again. Happily.

Judge: Do you not realize that you are destroying our community?

Johnson: I do so gladly.

Judge: To take our children from us and hand them over to another nation is to undermine all we have worked for.

Johnson: Don’t I know it.

Judge: Please, all we want to know is where you have put these children.  We just want them restored to their parents.

Johnson: I will not let you know.

Judge: Think of the families you have torn apart!  If you could see the tears of the fathers!

Johnson: I would spit in their faces, if I ever met them or saw them on the street.

Judge: Why?  These men did not abuse the children…

Johnson: Ha!

Judge: Why do you doubt this?  We have their testimony, as well as the testimony of their brothers…

Johnson: Doubt it?  The children themselves told me of the abuse!  Did you ever take testimony of the wives?

Judge: Surely you would not completely trust the word of children?

Johnson: And why shouldn’t I?

Judge: From my twenty years of experience on the bench, I can tell you, children are not always clear about events in the past.  They misremember, they are easily swayed. 

Johnson: I can trust my own eyes when I see an eleven year old pregnant.

Judge: By her father?

Johnson: By her “husband”!

Judge: And what is wrong with that?

Johnson: Apart from the danger to herself because of the pregnancy?  The fact that The General married these children off to his soldiers and they raped little girls…

Judge: They were not raped

Johnson: Not according to your laws, no.  They were legally, forcibly, married to men three times their age and then taken into the bridal chamber and the men had their way with them.  No matter that the man already had two other wives.  No matter that the child has barely had her first period.

Judge: But they all have had their first period.

Johnson: And I’m sure that your male supervisors took great pleasure observing that.

Judge: Don’t be grotesque.

Johnson: You are the ones who are grotesque!  You have kidnapped small boys and girls...

Judge: We are not the kidnappers, you are.

Johnson: Where do these small children come from?  Just as many as die in battle or in childbirth you capture from villages you pass through!  The boys you convince to be mighty warriors for your Kingdom of God and the girls are married to the adult soldiers as prizes.  It is an affront to God!

Judge: You are an affront to God.  You are so self-righteous.  You are not humble before the authorities.

Johnson: I need not be humble before you, you hypocrite!  You support the rape of young girls by calling it “marriage,” and legalize the warping of innocent boys to be war machines by calling it “boot camp”.  You kill the righteous and make it all legal by declaring yourself a government.  You oppress the poor and blame them for your policies.  You bomb cities and declare them to be in rebellion.  The fact is—you are the rebel.  You are the ones who are opposed to God, not I.  Repent!

Judge: This trial is not about how our society is run, it is about your…

Johnson: Repent!

Judge: Ms. Johnson, I need to ask you to calm down…

Johnson: Repent of your sins before God!

Judge: Bailiffs please take her away.  Yes, go ahead and silence her.  Thank you.  Silence truly is golden… ha, ha.  Take her to the range and do what you must.   What is the next case?¹⁴

^Notes

^14.  This is based on true events happening in North Africa.  There is a group called God’s Army who kidnap children and train them to fight and the girls are given to soldiers to rape and to call their “wives”.  Some of these children escape and others are taken by brave saviors and brought into refugee camps.  In a corrupt society, that which is good is declared illegal and the good are killed for doing good.