Chapter 7 & 8 Business at the Cathedral?

 
      Growing Up Christian - - - Or Not!

                        Chapter 7

The Bishop was meeting with the ‘Idea Men’ from the New York Mob. The mobsters were very interested in how the Bishop's organization functioned. This meeting was being held in order for these men to get some pointers for improving the performance of their own organization. The Bishop was fielding questions in a seminar-like setting.

A man stood up who had a patch over one eye and many scars covering his face and hands. One could just imagine the same type of scars covered his entire body as well. No doubt these scars were the souvenirs of his climb up the corporate ladder of the underworld.

He directed questions toward the Bishop “How are you able to control the world wide distribution of your product without detection by the authorities?"

  The Bishop smiled as he replied "That's a very good question.  I'm glad you asked that question at this time. I won't be like the politicians who are running for office. I won't side step the issue and give you an answer which is completely irrelevant."

"As you all know, I have a very large organization which extends all over the world. I own a shipping company, an airline and a few trucking companies. These businesses are headquartered in several different countries. I have some very good people working for me, who are masters when it comes to filling out bills of lading and packaging products. We have ways of hiding shipments within shipments which the authorities can't even imagine. Once in a while, one of our shipments gets stopped but so many get through that the one which is caught is of no consequence. We lose about one percent of our product to the authorities. That's far less than the cost of insurance for ligament shipments. For the ‘one in a hundred’ that is stopped, I have many of the law enforcement and judicial people in my pocket. Evidence is always getting ‘lost, stolen or misplaced’. Court documents have a way of getting ‘mistakes’ in them which will cause the case to be thrown out of court. Many things like that."

"When the government system is run on the theory that monitory compensation is a reward for being honest it takes very little to turn it around and find someone who will be dishonest for a few more dollars. You'd be surprised just how little compensation it takes for many people."

"Why do you think it's so hard for the do-gooders to get tougher drunk driving laws passed by the various State Legislatures? I have ‘key people’ in each State Legislature, who are on my payroll. It doesn't take too much influence to turn a critical vote around. I try to influence these votes because a good drinking person is only a step away from buying and using the harder stuff."

"The key to our success in damage control is in recruiting. The usual way in which we recruit is to catch the person in some immoral act or we set them up so we can catch him or her. Human nature being what it is, we don't have to try too hard or wait too long. We just let nature take its course and make sure our agents are on hand, with a camera, in order to catch the action as it’s in progress. Once we confront the official with the ‘evidence’ they get so embarrassed and confused that they're willing to accept a position with my organization. Once they're on my payroll there's no way they can back out without loosing everything they've worked for all their lives. I know your organization does the same type of thing but on a much smaller scale."

"On another subject, we do have some losses as our product goes through channels but we control pilfering by being generous with our people. If anyone gets caught, usually by surveillance cameras, the offenders are never heard from again. We let our people know about these situations, so not too many try to go into business for themselves.
Are there any other questions?"

A huge bald man rose to his feet, who had one arm missing and who couldn't stand up straight. (Even with his crooked posture he still stood seven feet tall.) One leg was deformed and this caused the man to favor it. He was one of the executioners for the Mafia and rumor had it, he usually killed his victims by twisting their heads off with his one massive bare hand which he still possessed. (Some had suggested he was the result of one of Hitler's experiments to create a race of super humans.)

He asked in a heavy German accent "Howe dew you commoonikate mit such a fa flunk umpire aus you haff?"

"O.K., that’s a good question. Our communications have come into the twenty first century. We don't use voice communication any more. We use a computer system to send messages all over the world via satellite. As long as there's a computer and phone line available, we can send any kind of information we want. Our computer has a program which scrambles the message and then our computer on the other end unscrambles it. We can send a ten page document anywhere in the world in sixty seconds."

"Do you have any other questions?" (No one responded.) Then lets go do that, which you came here to do - - PARTY!!!!”

The meeting broke up with several of the participants gathering into small groups to discuss the things which the Bishop had told them. Others went back to the main lodge in order to enjoy the free intoxicants available to them there. The Bishop went to his office stronghold to meditate on the upcoming glorious events which were destined make him even richer.


          Growing Up Christian - - - Or Not!

                      Chapter 8

Willie awoke to the creaking of the hinges on the door to his room. Mr. Shagnasty came in with a lighted candle, looking as gruesome as ever. The old man greeted the younger man with "Good morning, Mr. Willie Wilson. It's time for breakfast. You will now have a chance to meet some of the other residents of The Church of The Most Holy Named Saint. It takes quite a number of people to keep this place running smoothly, you know. They are all specialists and very good at what they do."

Willie got out of his bed (he was still dressed in the clothes he had worn yesterday) and followed the old man up stairs and down long halls, again at the same torturously slow pace. They finally came to another large, heavy door which Mr. Shagnasty labored to push open. (This door opened inward.) Inside was a large, high ceilinged room with various frescos painted upon its walls. The pictures were showing scenes of gladiators as they were fighting in an arena and pictures of wild predators of various kinds in the process of capturing and killing their prey. There was a forty foot long table with equally long benches on each side where many people were seated. These people were eating some kind of unappetizing looking gruel. As the two men entered the great hall, the Bishop, who was already enjoying his repast saw the two men and rose from his seat which was at the head of this long table.

"Come over here REVEREND Wilson. The huge fat man bellowed. I have a place for you to sit right here next to me. I want you to tell me all about your training at my seminary and also about your aspirations.”

“So REVEREND, what do you have to say for your self?"

Willie sat down as a serving woman put a bowl of the evil looking gruel in front of him. Willie looked at the contents of the bowl and asked "Is this the only choice of food we have to eat for breakfast?"

The Bishop nodded in the affirmative and said "We believe in a simple life here. That's one of our great traditions.  We believe in doing without luxuries - - part of the time, in order to prove how pious we are."

Then Willie asked "Why am I being held prisoner here?"

"Not a bit of it!  Not a bit of it! You're not being held prisoner here at all. We lock your door at night so you won't wander off and get lost in the building. The passage ways, corridors and stairways can be quite confusing to a newcomer. Besides, there have been certain incidents where our guests have been scratched up pretty badly and one of our staff was killed. We've investigated but have been unable to come up with any answers as to what could be causing these incidents. We've just found that if we lock our doors at night no one gets hurt."

"Last night I thought I heard a rustling in the hall outside my door" Willie commented "but I just put it down to rats - now I don't know what to think."

"Ha" the Bishop interrupted "We have very few rats here in the building. That's one of the reasons we don't worry too much about finding what ever has been causing the injuries to our guests. Once in a while we find a rat tail or a blood stain on the floor where a rat has been killed and eaten. What ever is causing these problems in the building is also keeping the rat population under control."

"Not to change the subject of conversation, REVEREND, but how was your training at my seminary? Did they treat you well? Did you learn the things which would help you as you're leading people to turn loose of their money?"

"Yes, they treated me very well and I'm grateful for the education they provided for me but I guess I should be thanking you, since you're the one who paid for it. I'd have had no chance at all to get a college education without your help."

"That's what I like to hear. I like to have a person indebted to me, who knows he's indebted to me. It makes it a lot easier to make certain little ‘requests’ without feeling any embarrassment on my part. You know how it is. There are always little favors which I have to ask people to do for me from time to time. Things need to be done and heaven knows I don't have time to get them all done by myself. I'll be coming to you, on occasion, to ask you to do some of these little things for the good of the church.
I know you won't disappoint me."

Willie was grateful for his education but he wasn't THAT grateful. He had dealt with people like the Bishop before, when he had been forced to live by his wits on the streets. He had learned that it was always bad news if a person knuckled under to this kind of extortion. Willie was going to be very careful about what he said to the Bishop. He was beginning to realize that if he said the wrong thing to this man it could spell his doom. Willie hadn't lived and survived on the streets all those years for nothing. He had become quite a good judge of character and he could see that this man was rotten to the core. Willie would have to do some fancy verbal side stepping if he was going to survive his stay in this facility.

"I appreciate your assistance very much and I'm sure the two of us can have a mutually profitable association."

Before Willie could say more, Mr. Shagnasty came shuffling in and whispered into the Bishop's ear. The Bishop jumped up and without a word to Willie, the two cronies

hurried out of the room with more speed than Willie thought either of them could have
mustered.

When the two men were gone, Willie felt a little bewildered. There were a few people still in the large room but no one was paying any attention to him. He had finished his breakfast (such as it was) and didn't quite know where to go or what to do next.
Since he had been left to his own devices, Willie decided he'd take a stroll around the castle-like church building.  He picked one of the several corridors which led out of the large room. As he was walking along this dark corridor he saw a door open just ahead with a glow of light sweeping across the hall floor in front of him. Willie looked into the room as he stepped into the light. He could see a scantily clad young woman lying on a bed, who was sipping a martini. She was reading a book but she looked up as Willie stepped into the light from her room. She sat up and her raven black hair flowed over her shoulders and all the way down her back. She had long shapely legs and a small waist which made her large breasts look as if, at any moment, they might burst out of the skimpy teddy she was wearing. Her face made Willie think he might be looking at an angel. That face was just too perfect and too beautiful to belong to a normal human being.

She smiled at Willie and said "Hi, you're the new minister of our church aren't you? I saw you at breakfast while you were sitting with the Bishop. Come in and spend a few hours with me. We have some strict traditions here and one of them is that the minister gets anything he wants. I'll bet we could really get it on."

Willie froze in his tracks. While he was attending the seminary, a large number of the students (and professors also for that matter) had the philosophy of ‘Eat, drink and have sex for tomorrow we die.’ But Willie just couldn't buy into it. It just didn't seem right. Willie couldn't put his finger on the fault in this line of thinking but he stayed away from the wild parties where the orgies were going on. It may have been his early home life, which he could see, had been totally ruined by the use of drugs and other immoral practices on the part of his parents. Or maybe some of the religious training which he had received at the little mission church had stuck. At any rate, he abstained from the immoral practices of his fellow students even though they taunted him and called him names because he didn't join in. They just couldn't understand anyone who would exercise moral restraints and forgo the pleasures of the moment.

As 1st. Peter 4:3-5 states “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation and they heap abuse on you.”


Willie looked down at the floor and said "I - - - I'm sorry, I don't feel very well. I have to leave now."

He abruptly turned and left the doorway and walked down the hallway as fast as he could, on legs which felt like soft rubber, without drawing attention to him self in the event he might happen to run into someone.

Soon Willie came to another large room which had the same type of paintings on the walls as were on the walls of the breakfast hall. There was a circular picket fence in the center of this room with what appeared to be, a sunken floor inside the fence. There were a large number of men and women standing around the fence. These people were yelling at the top of their lungs and waving their arms. The scene reminded Willie of a scene which he had watched on television once, of the New York Stock Exchange. Everything seemed to be in chaos. The people were waving money in their hands so Willie guessed they were betting on some kind of a contest. Out of curiosity, Willie edged over and squeezed between some of the spectators so he could get a look at what was going on. After quite a little maneuvering and jockeying for position, he could just get a glimpse of two young boys, about six years old, who were going after each other with sticks which were about three feet long. Both of the boys were bloody, with cuts and contusions all over their bodies. One of the boys appeared to have a broken nose and one eye was missing. The other boy had a broken arm with the ends of the bones sticking out of the wound.  The boys didn't seem to be feeling any pain. They had a glassy look to their eyes, as did all the adults who were standing and yelling outside of the fence.

The sight of this spectacle really DID make Willie sick. He backed away from the crowd, whirled and ran for the nearest exit. He didn't worry about being conspicuous this time. He just ran for all he was worth. He ran through corridors, down stairways, around corners and up stairways, on and on until he collapsed in a heap at the bottom of one of the staircases. He just couldn't go any farther and he couldn't get the horror of the sight of the two little boys out of his mind. As he lay there gasping for breath, he was just about to pass out from exhaustion and lack of oxygen as he prayed "Lord, help me to get out of this terrible place and help me to put an end to the abominations that are going on here." Just before he passed out a scripture popped into his mind from nowhere ‘Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit, says the Lord.’ Then Willie lost consciousness, lying in a pool of his sweat.

While he lay there unconscious, something stirred nearby. From the gloom under the stairway three pairs of beady little eyes peered out at Willie. Three creatures began to creep closer and closer to Willie's prostrate body. The black creatures came slowly - slowly - ever closer to the prone and helpless form of the young man. One of the creatures reached out and grasp Willie's ankle and began to pull his prostrate form toward the shadows under the stairway.

Nest:

Chapters 9 &10  (13+) A lot is going on! #1580899 by Author00