Tales from Grace Chapel Inn by Jolyn Sharp

Author:Jolyn Sharp
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780824932329
Publisher: Guideposts
Published: 2012-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

That’s terrible!” exclaimed Florence. “A minister lying like that—that’s a dreadful message for a story to send.”

Cyril, however, smiled. “I wondered how people would respond to that.”

John seemed taken aback by the vehemence of Florence’s reaction. “I don’t think you’re supposed to see them as lies, so much,” he said.

“That’s what the minister himself called them,” Louise pointed out.

“Well, yes, but I mean they weren’t self-serving. They were more in the nature of a bluff. He was trying to resolve a dangerous situation, and that was an expedient way to do so.”

“But the Indians didn’t even ask for restitution,” Florence said. “That was all his own idea.”

“But they deserved it,” John insisted. “As a minister he probably knew how he would feel if his church’s sacred objects were stolen. How would you feel if someone stole things out of Grace Chapel? He was trying to right a wrong.”

Louise frowned, uncertain regarding the argument: She was generally unimpressed with the argument that the ends justify the means.

“He was faced with a dangerous confrontation between a lot of upset people, most of whom had guns,” John continued. “He had to resolve it as quickly and as peacefully as he could. You could almost argue that he had an obligation to bend the truth, because by doing so, he defused the standoff.”

“Ministers shouldn’t lie,” said Florence emphatically. “They are men of God.”

“Nobody should lie,” Lloyd said, “but do you really think that ministers never do? They’re only human.”

“If that was typical of his behavior,” said Louise, “perhaps that’s why he was in trouble with his superiors.”

“I still say he achieved a good resolution to the crisis,” said John.

“That’s the thing about stories,” said Harry. “The characters don’t always behave as we think they ought to, because people in real life don’t always behave as we think they ought to. But as readers of, or listeners to, stories, we have the opportunity to decide what we will take from them. We can take the grain and leave the chaff, as it were. As for Rev. Pilliston, well, he’ll have to answer for his lies to a higher power someday.”

Florence nodded in satisfaction at that.

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