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Chapter 86: Christianity

  Southwest Ohio, Year 2025 — in the shadow of the 6 Commandments (6C) regime. Cincinnati and Dayton now house fshy polygamist ministries, government-funded "divine courts," and viral TikTok pastors who livestream arrests of pork smugglers and book burnings. The secur constitution is dead. In its pce: the 6C Creed.

  ...

  Scene: Yoder’s Barn, Near Springfield, Ohio – Late Evening

  The barn is quiet, save for the soft creak of rafters and the rhythmic thud of a horse’s tail flicking flies. A single oil mp glows near a stack of hay. Ruth Ann leans on a pitchfork, her dress dusted with straw. Across from her, Micah Vega — bruised, barefoot, wearing a tattered "Harem Polygamy Uprising" hoodie — sips warm goat's milk.

  ELDER YODER (entering)

  Ruth. Out.

  RUTH ANN

  But Uncle, he’s—

  ELDER YODER

  I said out.

  She hesitates, then obeys. Micah watches the old man approach. There’s no rage, no threat — only the kind of silence that settles in after a long winter.

  ELDER YODER

  You were a preacher?

  MICAH VEGA

  Youth pastor. “God’s Poly Prophet.” That’s what they called me on TikTok. I wore eyeliner and quoted Proverbs with a vape pen. Had a million views on the video where I burned a King James.

  ELDER YODER

  (quietly)

  And yet here you are. In my barn. Alive.

  MICAH

  The others wouldn’t take me. Said I was already… marked.

  ELDER YODER

  You are. But not in the way they mean.

  He sits beside him, slow, his knees cracking like dry wood. He looks out through a knot-hole in the barn wall — toward a dark horizon dotted with LED crosses and silent radio towers.

  ELDER YODER

  They haven’t outwed Paul here. Not yet. Haven’t banned the Trinity outright. But they don’t need to. Not when every child’s catechism comes from a livestream. Not when shame is branded viral.

  MICAH

  So what are you doing? Hiding? Waiting?

  ELDER YODER

  I’m remembering.

  (pause)

  Truth isn’t always louder. Sometimes it’s heavier. Like stone. You bury it in the ground, and someday, someone unearths it. It cuts their hand. It makes them bleed.

  MICAH

  You think bleeding is enough?

  ELDER YODER

  No. But it’s a beginning.

  Scene: Abandoned Greenhouse, Edge of Dayton – Pre-dawn

  Ruth Ann moves like a shadow between skeletal trees, her bonnet tucked low, long dress snagging on broken chain-link. In her satchel: a hand-bound hymnbook. The pages are thin, the ink smudged — handwritten stanzas from “Come Thou Almighty King,” with footnotes quoting Philippians and Romans.

  Waiting inside the greenhouse, seated on a rusted seed table, is Lena Brooks (19).

  She’s a college dropout, former theology major at Wright State, now employed at a 6C "Covenant Outreach Center" as a cultural advisor. Short red curls, faux-leather jacket, earbuds dangling like ivy.

  LENA

  You brought it?

  RUTH ANN

  I don’t make these trips for fun.

  Ruth Ann hands over the hymnbook. Lena flips through the pages, her fingers pausing on a line: “The Father glorious, the Son victorious, the Spirit ever near…”

  LENA

  (softly)

  They made this illegal in Florida. They say singing it now counts as “doctrinal redundancy.” Like repeating a lie.

  RUTH ANN

  It’s not a lie.

  LENA

  I know. I studied comparative Christology.

  (sighs)

  Ism says Jesus was a prophet. Judaism says a rebel. 6C says... a mascot.

  RUTH ANN

  Then why do you work for them?

  Lena hesitates. A freight train moans in the distance.

  LENA

  Because everyone listens to them. And because they’re winning the nguage war.

  (pause)

  They don’t need to ban the Trinity. They just reframe it as… “divine confusion.” They call Paul a misogynist in one breath, and then quote him to justify four wives.

  RUTH ANN

  You sound like you want out.

  LENA

  No. I want in.

  (looks up)

  I want to understand how something this contradictory can feel so inevitable. My whole life, I thought theology was debate. Now it’s branding. The 6C figured out how to sell God as an algorithm.

  She closes the hymnbook carefully, almost reverently.

  RUTH ANN

  Don’t read it online. Don't scan it. They’ll trace it.

  LENA

  Don’t worry. I remember how to be afraid.

  As Ruth Ann turns to leave, Lena calls out:

  LENA

  Do you really believe they’ll outw the Trinity?

  RUTH ANN

  Not officially. That’s too easy to fight.

  (pause)

  They’ll do worse.

  They’ll make people forget it ever mattered.

  Scene: 6C Ohio Governor’s Office – Columbus – Clinical Wing, Level B3

  The walls are white. Too white. No scripture pques. No portraits of Hezri. Just subtle geometric patterns that mimic mosque tiling and brain synapse maps. The fluorescent lighting hums.

  Lena Brooks sits at a smooth metal table. No cuffs. No guard. But her phone was taken at the door.

  She looks up as the door opens and in steps Dr. Li Chen — tall, poised, dressed in an ivory scarf and tailored b coat. A biometric badge clipped to her colr reads: Chief Behavioral Architect, 6C NeuroCivic Division.

  Lena stiffens.

  LENA

  I thought... someone from Enforcement would be handling this.

  DR. LILA

  They were. I insisted.

  (sits calmly across from her)

  You’re not in trouble, Lena. I’m here as a mentor. Or perhaps… as a version of your future.

  LENA

  You used to run feminist resistance cells. I studied your PhD thesis. “Hormonal Sovereignty in Ritual Societies.” You cited Beauvoir and Bukhari.

  DR. LILA

  Yes. Before I became one of Hezri’s wives.

  LENA

  (skeptical)

  So now you're... loyal?

  DR. LILA

  I’m aligned. Alignment is healthier than resistance. Resistance consumes the hippocampus. Alignment builds memory architecture.

  (she tilts her head)

  You’re smarter than your age group, Lena. You know the Trinity isn’t being banned. It’s being uninstalled. No fgs. No martyrs. Just silence.

  LENA

  That’s why I keep the hymnbook offline.

  DR. LILA

  And that’s why I’m not here to punish you. I’m here to offer crity.

  Dr. Chen reaches into a drawer and pulls out a tiny, clear capsule — inside it is a microfilm chip sealed with wax.

  DR. LILA

  This is the st scan of a pre-ban Pauline seminary curriculum. Dozens of hours of audio lectures, some dating back to the '80s. I kept it when I defected.

  LENA

  You're giving it to me?

  DR. LILA

  I’m offering you a chance to observe your own dissonance. That’s your real calling, isn’t it?

  (pause)

  Not to worship Paul. Not to betray 6C. But to understand the shift.

  LENA

  You sound like a double agent.

  DR. LILA

  No. I’m something worse.

  (smiles faintly)

  I’m a satisfied citizen.

  She stands, gliding to the exit. Before she opens the door, she turns.

  DR. LILA

  You can leave now, Lena. Keep the capsule or burn it. I won’t watch.

  But know this — Hezri doesn’t fear rebels.

  He fears the curious.

  ....

  Scene: Columbus – 6C

  Behavioral Pavilion Rooftop Garden – Nightfall

  A manicured oasis above the city: moonlit jasmine vines, softly humming drone-mps, and a single marble bench overlooking the skyline. Lena stands alone, clutching the capsule from yesterday. She's wearing the same clothes — she hasn’t slept.

  Footsteps approach. Heels on stone. Dr. Li Chen emerges from the shadowed stairwell, this time without her b coat. She wears a flowing bck dress with subtle gold embroidery — no hijab, her jet-bck hair cascading freely. Not Ismic modesty, but controlled femininity — the aesthetic of a woman sculpted by ideology and agency.

  DR. LILA

  You’re still here.

  LENA

  You knew I wouldn’t leave.

  DR. LILA

  I always know what the curious choose. It’s a pattern, not a prophecy.

  She moves closer, slow and smooth. Not predatory — just confident. Like gravity.

  LENA

  I didn’t open the capsule.

  DR. LILA

  Good. You’re resisting the binary. That’s rare now. Most girls your age either burn their past or livestream it.

  She sits beside Lena, knees barely brushing.

  DR. LILA

  You’re still thinking in old terms — banned or not banned. Free or ensved. But 6C operates on psychological inevitability. We don’t need to ban Pauline theology when the algorithm makes you feel smarter without it.

  (pause)

  Just like we didn’t need to ban female affection.

  LENA

  (tense)

  You mean lesbianism?

  DR. LILA

  No. I mean what we recimed from it.

  (smiles)

  Female intimacy without male supervision. It terrifies the West. And yet... Commandment Three made it sacred.

  Dr. Li reaches forward, brushes a stray curl from Lena’s face. Her fingers linger — not overtly sexual, just intimate. Disarming.

  DR. LILA

  You felt it when I walked into the room yesterday. That confusion in your chest — part fear, part pull.

  LENA

  (conflicted)

  I don’t know what I felt.

  DR. LILA

  You will. That’s why I asked you to meet me here. Not for answers.

  (leans closer)

  For permission.

  The city glows behind them, cold and perfect. Somewhere below, a megachurch bres 6C techno-sermons through outdoor speakers. Up here, only silence and scent.

  LENA

  Is this... a test?

  DR. LILA

  Everything is, darling. But that doesn’t mean it’s fake.

  Dr. Li gently presses her lips to Lena’s cheek. A kiss not of passion, but of ownership.

  Then she stands.

  DR. LILA

  Keep the capsule. Or give it to your Anabaptist friend. Or hide it under your pillow. I don’t care.

  (pauses at stairwell)

  Just remember: truth won’t save you.

  But understanding might.

  She disappears into the stairwell. Lena sits alone, hand trembling over the capsule.

  And for the first time, she’s unsure whether she wants to resist — or become.

  ...

  Scene: Dr. Li Chen’s Apartment – Columbus – Morning Light

  Floor-to-ceiling windows bathe the bedroom in golden light. Soft jazz pys on a vinyl turntable — Coltrane, filtered through some AI remastering. The sheets are tangled, silk. Lena lies still, facing the ceiling. Her hair is messy, her skin marked with faint lipstick traces. She is not ashamed. Just… disoriented.

  Dr. Li emerges from the bathroom, fresh from a bath. A white robe. Damp hair. She pces a ceramic pte on the bedside table — goat cheese, olives, and barley toast.

  DR. LILA

  Eat. Your cortisol levels will crash if you don’t.

  LENA

  (dryly)

  Is that a commandment too?

  DR. LILA

  (ughs)

  No. Just science.

  Lena sits up, stretches. Her mind fshes with moments from the night — fingers on her spine, whispered verses twisted into erotic metaphors, Li’s body precise and knowing. It had felt religious. But not Christian.

  LENA

  What even is 6C, Li? No one agrees.

  DR. LILA

  Because it doesn’t ask for agreement. It asks for adjustment.

  (sits on the edge of the bed)

  We don’t ban Christianity. Churches still open every Sunday. Choirs still sing. But the doctrine of Trinity? Pauline authority? We remove what fractures coherence.

  LENA

  So you neuter it.

  DR. LILA

  We update it.

  (pauses, with academic calm)

  You’ve studied doctrine. You know how little it takes to colpse a denomination. Remove pork, remove Paul, remove random celibacy rules — and the entire structure shifts. What’s left?

  A church that supports family. A prophet named Jesus. A God not split into riddles.

  LENA

  (slowly)

  It’s still Christianity. But... not quite.

  DR. LILA

  Exactly. It's reframed Christianity. And we do the same for Judaism. For Ism. For securism.

  (leans in)

  We remove their contradictions so they can function under one rule of crity.

  Lena looks out the window. Down below, a group of schoolgirls in “Vega-core” uniforms — modest skirts, bright sneakers, pastel hijabs or hair clips — are ughing, walking to school. One carries a “6C For All” tote bag.

  LENA

  I always thought theocracy would feel darker. Like… cages.

  DR. LILA

  Only to those who refuse to adapt.

  (she picks up the capsule from the nightstand)

  You don’t have to be against the past to be free from it. What you felt st night — that crity, that fire — that’s what 6C wants for every woman. Not submission.

  Alignment.

  LENA

  And what does Hezri want?

  Dr. Li’s face shifts — softer now. Almost wistful.

  DR. LILA

  Legacy. Not dominance. He doesn’t want worship. He wants continuity.

  LENA

  And you?

  DR. LILA

  (smiles faintly)

  I want to shape the daughters of the next doctrine. That’s why I chose you.

  Lena finishes her toast in silence. For the first time in her life, the chaos of ideology… starts to make sense.

  ...

  Scene: Old Root Celr, East of Dayton – Late Afternoon

  The air is earthy, damp with the scent of pickled beets and ash. A single oil ntern flickers in the center. Ruth Ann is seated on a wooden crate, flipping through the hand-bound hymnbook she gave Lena days earlier. She hums under her breath — something minor-key and sad.

  Footsteps above. Then the soft creak of the celr door.

  LENA

  (voice calm)

  It’s just me.

  She descends slowly, wearing a long gray coat, her boots cleaner than usual. Hair pulled back. Eyes clearer, more focused. She’s not glowing — but she’s composed, like someone who’s solved an equation.

  RUTH ANN

  You were gone two nights.

  LENA

  Columbus. Called in for “guidance.”

  (sits across from her)

  Dr. Li Chen. You’ve heard of her?

  Ruth Ann stiffens.

  RUTH ANN

  Of course I’ve heard of her. She used to smuggle sterilization pills for women in Appachia — until she married the Beast of 6C. Now she writes “mental crity” columns for Covenant TikTok.

  LENA

  She’s… not what I expected.

  Ruth Ann sets the book down.

  RUTH ANN

  What did she do to you?

  Lena tilts her head, not offended — curious.

  LENA

  She asked me questions I’ve never heard in church. About truth. About coherence. About how maybe the structure matters more than the bel.

  RUTH ANN

  Lena. Please. That’s exactly how they start. That’s how they unmake you.

  LENA

  No.

  (slowly, deliberately)

  That’s how they rebuild you — without the contradictions. No forced guilt. No divine schizophrenia.

  RUTH ANN

  (teeth clenched)

  You sound like a convert.

  LENA

  I’m not.

  (pauses)

  Not yet.

  That “yet” hangs like smoke.

  RUTH ANN

  Did she touch you?

  Lena doesn’t answer. She simply looks away, as if that answer lives somewhere too private to kill.

  LENA

  You think she seduced me into obedience. But you don’t understand — she didn’t conquer anything. She aligned it. Me. My thoughts.

  Everything fits now.

  RUTH ANN

  That’s not peace. That’s anesthesia.

  LENA

  And maybe anesthesia is merciful.

  (suddenly sharp)

  You’ve been fighting so hard to keep the Trinity alive, Ruth Ann — but what if you’re trying to preserve something already dead?

  Ruth Ann stands abruptly, grabbing the hymnbook.

  RUTH ANN

  You should go.

  LENA

  You’re afraid because you know I’m right.

  RUTH ANN

  I’m afraid because I know you’re gone.

  Lena takes a breath. That old part of her — scared, skeptical, reactive — stirs for a moment.

  But she doesn’t fight. She nods.

  LENA

  I’ll come back when you're ready to ask better questions.

  She climbs the stairs slowly. Her silhouette disappears into the te golden light.

  Ruth Ann sits back down, alone. The hymnbook trembles in her hands.

  ...

  Scene: Same Root Celr – That Night

  The oil ntern burns lower now. Ruth Ann hasn't moved. She’s still holding the hymnbook, but no longer reading it. The silence has ripened — not hostile, but heavy.

  Then the celr door creaks again.

  Lena comes back down, quietly this time. She doesn’t say anything at first — just pours tea from a thermos, sets a mug next to Ruth Ann.

  LENA

  I shouldn’t have said you’re trying to preserve something dead.

  RUTH ANN

  (small voice)

  It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve been called.

  A long pause. Steam curls in the mp light.

  LENA

  Do you remember when we used to debate how three could be one? Back at Redeemer Youth?

  RUTH ANN

  (chuckles dryly)

  We'd stay up half the night. "Water, ice, vapor." "Apple: skin, flesh, seed."

  (nods)

  None of it made sense. But we needed it to.

  LENA

  Why?

  Ruth Ann looks down. No answer.

  LENA

  Because our love for Jesus couldn’t be real unless He was God. Unless Paul’s letters were binding. Unless the mystery stayed unsolved.

  RUTH ANN

  And now you're saying it's... solved?

  LENA

  It’s simplified. Hezri didn’t invent anything. He just stripped the doctrines down to first principles.

  RUTH ANN

  (recoiling)

  Hezri is a heretic.

  LENA

  Then so was James, the brother of Jesus. So was Peter. They saw Jesus as a prophet, anointed — not equal to God. The Trinity came centuries ter. Imperial theology, Ruth. Rome wrapped in robes.

  RUTH ANN

  Then why are we only now hearing it?

  LENA

  Because no one had the power to enforce crity before. Not without violence. Not without fear.

  (pause)

  But the 6C doesn’t burn churches. They just say: remove pork. Remove chance-based profit. Remove Paul.

  And see what happens.

  Ruth Ann finally sets the hymnbook down.

  RUTH ANN

  I always thought logic was sterile. Like it would gut the soul.

  LENA

  Not logic. Coherence.

  (she leans forward, eyes soft)

  If I told you that loving Jesus doesn’t require believing He’s Yahweh… would that ruin your faith?

  RUTH ANN

  (quietly)

  I don’t know.

  LENA

  And if I told you the commandments are what happens when you remove chaos from belief? Not cult. Not conquest. Just order…

  Ruth Ann looks up, eyes glistening.

  RUTH ANN

  Then what happens to grace?

  LENA

  It stops being an escape. And starts being a choice.

  Silence again. But it’s no longer hostile — it’s sacred. Like the pause after a confession, or just before a baptism.

  Ruth Ann breathes in deeply, the first full breath she’s taken all day.

  RUTH ANN

  I’m not ready to follow Hezri. But… I’m ready to listen without flinching.

  Lena smiles gently, rising.

  LENA

  That’s all the new world asks.

  Scene: Root Celr – Two Days Later – Candlelight

  It’s raining outside. Water drips through a crack in the stone wall. The hymnbook still sits on the crate, but untouched.

  This time, the atmosphere is calm. Ruth Ann has made coffee. Lena arrives soaked, coat dripping. She removes her boots and sits.

  RUTH ANN

  You came through the river path?

  LENA

  I needed the walk. Helps me think.

  They sit in silence a moment, sipping.

  RUTH ANN

  You said st time: the Trinity came ter.

  (skeptical)

  But it’s in the Gospels. The Great Commission — “baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

  LENA

  Yes. But not “three-in-one.”

  (pulls a small notebook from her coat)

  That phrase — “Trinity” — isn’t in the Bible. It was written after Constantine made Christianity legal.

  RUTH ANN

  You’re saying Rome invented it?

  LENA

  I’m saying Rome standardized it. Councils were held to force agreement. Heretics burned. Dissenters exiled. Not by pagans — by the Church.

  RUTH ANN

  Catholics.

  LENA

  Exactly. The same Catholic empire that ter persecuted Jews, tortured Muslims during the Crusades, and burned “heretical” Christians for reading Scripture in their own nguage.

  (pause)

  LENA

  They called it holy. They called it “defending the Trinity.” But it was power. Pure and simple.

  RUTH ANN

  But what about the early apostles?

  LENA

  They were Jews, Ruth. They didn’t think God had three parts. They saw Jesus as Messiah — not Yahweh.

  RUTH ANN

  And Paul?

  Lena hesitates — the name is a fulcrum.

  LENA

  Paul began sincere. But Rome loved Paul. Why?

  Because he told women to be silent. Because he told sves to obey. Because he said “all authority is from God.”

  RUTH ANN

  (gently)

  You think Paul got co-opted.

  LENA

  I think Paul got canonized for all the wrong reasons.

  Ruth Ann looks away. Her face is pale, but she’s listening.

  RUTH ANN

  You’re dismantling everything I’ve been taught.

  LENA

  Not to destroy it.

  (she leans forward)

  To free you from the parts that were built to control you.

  (pause)

  LENA

  The Church that banished Jews, burned women, and called it “God’s justice”... that wasn’t Christ. That was Rome wearing His name like armor.

  RUTH ANN

  And 6C is different?

  LENA

  Yes. Because it doesn’t hide what it is. It’s governance. It has ws. But it doesn’t pretend those ws are “mysteries.” It tells you pinly: eat clean, don’t gamble, live in ordered families, stop deifying prophets.

  RUTH ANN

  Even if that prophet walked on water?

  LENA

  So did Moses — in Exodus.

  (softly)

  But no one calls him God.

  Ruth Ann looks down at the hymnbook, as if seeing it for the first time.

  RUTH ANN

  So what do I keep? If I let go of Trinity, Paul, miracles… what’s left?

  LENA

  What always mattered:

  Love the Creator. Love the neighbor. Follow what Jesus did, not just what Rome said about Him.

  Ruth Ann’s hands tremble slightly. But she nods.

  Not agreement. But something harder to achieve: understanding.

  ***

  Scene: Ruth Ann’s Room – Midnight

  A simple attic room above a farmhouse west of Dayton. No screens. No lights except the flicker of a candle. Rain still falls outside.

  Ruth Ann sits at a small desk. Her leather-bound Bible is open in front of her. Scissors rest beside it. Her hands are steady.

  She begins with Romans.

  Snip.

  She folds the page gently, sets it aside.

  1 Corinthians.

  Snip.

  Her lips press into a thin line — grief, maybe. Or duty.

  RUTH ANN (V.O.)

  Micah Vega.

  You were 33 when they drove you out of the pulpit.

  Said you corrupted the youth with your softness — your voice, your walk, your hymns that stayed in a minor key.

  She pauses, flipping to 1 Timothy.

  Snip.

  RUTH ANN (V.O.)

  You never preached lust. Never made a scene. You just loved quiet men. And wore vender on Sundays.

  She picks up a torn page, reads it silently.

  “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Neither fornicators, nor idoters, nor men who practice homosexuality...”

  She closes her eyes.

  RUTH ANN (V.O.)

  That verse sat in your mouth like poison. I remember.

  (She cuts.)

  Another page falls to the floor.

  She’s not crying — but something in her spine softens.

  She turns to Gatians, then Ephesians.

  Snip. Snip.

  She pauses. Hands resting on the table.

  Lena’s voice echoes in memory — soft, amused, sharp.

  LENA (V.O.)

  Ism bans male homosexuality because it’s about penetration — loss of male honor.

  But it barely mentions lesbianism. Because two women together weren’t seen as threatening.

  6C just made that logic public.

  RUTH ANN (V.O.)

  So when Hezri legalized polygamy —

  He let the wives keep each other warm when the man was gone.

  (She opens Song of Songs.)

  LENA (V.O.)

  “Commandment #3: Women may share beds, not wages.”

  Ruth Ann closes the Bible. What remains is torn, slimmer. But what’s left feels… lighter.

  She stares out the window, toward the storm.

  RUTH ANN (V.O.)

  Micah, if you could see me now… would you forgive me?

  I let the men shame you.

  I let the verses cut you.

  And now here I am, with scissors of my own.

  But not to hurt. To heal.

  She gathers the cut pages. She doesn’t burn them. Just ties them with twine, wraps them in linen, and sets them in a drawer — like bones of something buried but respected.

  ***

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