The Canaan Belt War by David Field

Author:David Field [Field, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Published: 2021-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

God’s Not a Puppet Master

Pastor Dayton’s study was pretty much what I had expected: a couple of comfortable chairs and a fully integrated desk. What really surprised me though was her bookshelf. Along with a few Bibles, a Manual on Ministry, and several Christian novels, she also had copies of the Tao Te Ching, the four Vedas, the Sutras, and the Quran.

“How can I help you today, Paul?” she asked.

I froze. How could she help me? Why was I here? How could I even explain to a total stranger what I had been going through for the past month.

Intuitively, Pastor Dayton read the anxiety on my face. “How about you start from the beginning? I often find that makes it a little easier.”

I took a deep breath, tried to calm my nerves and begin to tell her about being raised Presbyterian-Methodist. I told her about the time a youth group from another state came to my church for a week and how it temporarily ignited my young faith. I explained how the hypocrisy I witnessed in my parents’ church and my own struggle with doubt eventually broke my belief in God.

I talked briefly about my life as a soldier in the Canaan Belt War. Finally, I came to the failed mission on the Nivchar home world Bachar.

“I’m technically not supposed to discuss military missions, so I’m counting on your pastoral confidentiality.”

“Of course,” she replied.

At this point in my story I left no details out, from my squabble with Helena in the troop transport ship to finding the dead spy in K’vad, from the heroic death of Commander Keck (which I noticed caused Pastor Dayton to tear up) to Helena and I witnessing the Nivchar praying at the end of their Shiv’yonist ceremony, from our discovery of the ancient Shiv’yonist text to its parallels with the Bible and Christianity and the strange buzzing sensation in my head, from our accidental encounter with Chaverah to how I used the aforementioned parallels to convince him to help us safely escape Bachar.

I left out my drunken night of lamely sparring with Tyanet, but I told her all about my visit with my family. I explained how my mother expertly used my niece Deanna to get me to go to church and the recurrence of the peculiar feeling in my head when Deanna skillfully compelled me to take communion for the first time in over a decade. I also told her how quickly that happy experience was dashed by the pomposity of the ubiquitous ‘church ladies,’ Felch and Vause. I finished with my ill-fated visit to Helena’s Union Church of God, including Pastor Kelvin’s assertion that Adam named the dinosaurs and that Noah welcomed them onto the ark.

Pastor Dayton rolled her eyes and chuckled. “You’ll have to pardon my fundamental brothers and sisters in Christ. They get a little carried away sometimes, but they mean well. Of course, we don’t see eye to eye on many issues, especially considering the fact that they don’t consider me a legitimate pastor simply because I’m a woman.

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