Whispers of Mystery: They Lied

Dear Readers, after a pandemic break from my fictional project, I'm finally returning to the storyline of "Just like Eve." If you are new to this story, you can start with the back-cover like introduction or at the beginning. Update for followers: I have updated some dates and ages, added date and place headings to each selection, and set this selection to take place on the same day as Synchronicity, when Jasmine listens to the radio preacher.

Black Bear Diner, Colorado Springs, Sunday, March 25, 2012

“They said sex would be better if we wait until marriage.” Davie tells his mentor Ethan Raymond at dinner. “They lied.”

“Yes, David, they lied,” Ethan replies. “They lied about a lot, didn’t they? Sex tops the list.”

It’s been over a year since Davie has seen his mentor, the senior pastor at a larger evangelical church, also in Colorado Springs, where Davie served his internship year. Now a professor of Hebrew at the University of Denver, Ethan contacted Davie when he registered for a conference in Colorado Springs. He’d be in town. Could they meet? Davie jumped at the chance. If anyone could help him, Ethan would be the one; but even with Ethan, Davie doesn’t know how he’ll approach the topic of Jasmine.

“Sex isn’t cracked up to be what you’ve been told, David?” Ethan teases.

“No,” Davie replies, embarrassed. “But I want it. Just not with my wife.”

“Isn’t that the way it goes?” Ethan gazes up at the two large, dark brown stuffed bears, sitting as love-birds on a swing above the barstools. He’s a little nostalgic; for meetings like this one, the Black Bear was his favorite restaurant in Colorado Springs, partly for its juicy steaks, but more for its rustic atmosphere of dark wood and stone, accented with hunter green trim. In the seven years since Davie’s internship with Ethan, Davie has entered the pastorate and Ethan has left it. Publicly, Ethan announced that the teaching position he accepted at the University of Denver was the career choice he had always wanted. Privately, he had seen too much ugly church politics and chose to leave the pastorate. But he left quietly, holding his mouth shut.

Ethan shifts his gaze back to Davie with a compassionate eye. “Tell me about Pam. How’d you two meet?”

“We met at Colorado Christian University, sophomore year, living in neighboring dorms and both playing Ultimate Frisbee.”

“How did she catch your eye?”

“It’s more like I caught her eye. My eye was on her friend Jenny.”

“All right, start with Jenny. Tell me about her.”

“We sat next to each other in Calculus. She also played Ultimate Frisbee and was a friend a Pam’s. At least then they were – until Movie Night.”

Ethan nods for Davie to continue.

“My dorm held a Movie Night in our basement and Jenny, Pam, Pam’s roommate and I were all sitting on one of the couches, and I was sitting between Jenny and Pam. The couch had enough space for four of us, but,” Davie blushes, “it was thankfully a little tight for four. I started shifting my body closer to Jenny and let my arm start to rub up more against hers. When the scene got scary, Pam clung to my arm; I let her do it, moved toward Pam, and then she wrapped both her arms around mine.”

“Uh oh, Pam moved in on Jenny’s territory.”

“I guess so, but I wasn’t smart enough to get that then. I still wonder what could have come from a relationship with Jenny. Most evenings, Jenny and I had a habit. Her dorm was on the way to the Dining Commons, so I’d take my backpack over to her dorm room and leave it there. I kind of liked my stuff in her room, you know?”

Ethan smiles at Davie’s blush.

“Then we’d gather some other frisbee players, including Pam, go to dinner together, then return to Jenny’s dorm room, pick up our backpacks, and head to the Library to work on Calculus. Math came easy for me, but not for Jenny.”

“It seems you were pretty charmed by her.”

A little embarrassed, Davie gives a slight, subtle back and forth shift of his head. “Part way through the term, Jenny lost her scientific calculator. She bought a new one and couldn’t get the right answer for inverse cosine. ‘Some calculators follow a different way of entering function commands,’ I told her and moved to sit next to her so she could show me the commands on her calculator. Unable to read the screen, I put my hand under hers and twisted the angle to see better. Jenny looked up at me and smiled. She seemed to like my hand there. I smiled back, watched her enter the wrong commands, and asked if I could show her another way, which I did, still with my hand below hers. She asked about finding tangents and exponents on her new calculator, and I showed her all of those functions too, all with my hand below hers.”

Ethan smiles and raises his eyebrows. “Sounds pretty intimate.”

“It was. I was excited. Thrilled. But my hand beneath hers had felt bold, so I thought now it her turn and hoped she would make the next move.”

“Did she?”

“No.”

“Maybe she didn’t know you had decided that for her. Maybe she wanted you to pursue her.”

“Or keep pursuing her? Yeah, I get that now, but didn’t then. I often wonder why I didn’t ask her out on a real date. What would have happened? Would my life be different?”

“Good question. Even if you and Jenny didn’t stay together and you later dated Pam, it might look different. Did you ever get that male rite of passage of pursuit?”

“Is that a rite of passage? I guess I missed that one!” Davie laughs.

“No one will tell you that,” Ethan replies, “but some men who don’t get the chance to pursue a woman before they marry later feel a sense of loss, like they had missed a rite of passage. That can be a complicating factor in some marriages.”

“Interesting. I’d never thought of that. I’ve often wondered whether I chose Pam, or whether she chose me. Did I marry her by default?”

“What do you think? Ask yourself this: had Pam not pursued you, do you think you would have ever pursued her?”

”Maybe. She was cute, a PK like me, and, like me, she didn’t like it. Once we started dating, we agreed we wouldn’t force our kids to attend church. That’s for them to decide. Let them be normal kids. Making them go backfires. The more we dated, the more I found we had in common. She also had a playful spirit and never gave me the silent treatment. I liked that and felt like I could trust her. I just flowed with it, and before I knew it, I was married!"

"You must have had a proposal in there somewhere," Ethan teases.

"Yes, and I did it up too -- on the chair lift while we were skiing! I apologized that I couldn't get on my knee, but hoped she would accept my proposal to marry me anyway."

"Then even if she pursued you first, you still chose her, and it sounds like you've found a good partner. What's the problem?"

"That 'rite of passage'? I don't know. Now there's another girl. Jasmine."

“Does she work with you in ministry or attend Quail Canyon?”

“She’s my mixed doubles partner, but, yes, unfortunately, she did attend Quail Canyon, until they kicked her out.”

“Uh oh.”

“When I was preparing to be a youth pastor, everyone warned me not to get too close to the female students. No one warned me about a tennis partner who happens to attend my church.”

The waitress, wearing a black, flair skirt to her knees with a black shirt and a black bear logo on it, arrives with drinks and asks for their orders. Davie notices a crowd of customers waiting for a table, widens his eyes, and quickly opens the menu he hasn’t yet looked at.

“Two orders of the Santa Maria Tri-Tip,” Ethan tells with waitress. She nods, writes down the order, and takes a quick leave. Turning to Davie, Ethan smiles, “You’re going to love it, especially with their fresh parsley and garlic seasoning.” Relieved, Davie takes a breath and a sip of soda.

“They lie about more than just sex, Ethan. They also lie about their rules and their promises to ‘protect’ you if you follow their rules. ‘Just seek accountability from the elders if you’re ever tempted,’ they say, ‘and they’ll pray over you and hold you accountable.’ Well, Jasmine and I did just what they told us to do, and she got kicked out of church.’”

“Oh goodness.” Ethan sighs.

“Do the elders realize that by casting Jazzie out, they’re sending my heart closer to her. I smile when I think about our fun tennis plays and the silly way we celebrate them. But it’s more than that, Ethan. Remember how you said those WWJD bracelets need an R to make it WWJRD? You’d say, “Churches say Jesus would do this, but What Would Jesus Really Do?” Just like you, Jasmine asks questions like that. You’d really like her, Ethan, I know you would. She has the same inquisitive, caring spirit you do. The elders sent her away, and I can’t stop thinking about her. Don’t they say, ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder?’”

“They do, and that’s usually true for women, and sometimes for men. But I think many church leaders think the phrase should be, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’”

“Not for me. Jasmine’s been out of sight for six weeks now, but she’s not out of mind. I can’t quit thinking about her, worrying about her, wondering if she’s okay, wondering how her husband took it, wondering whether she’ll find another church, that will support her.”

“You have a good heart, David. It’s inconvenient for them to think you have genuine love for her. They jump to assume you’re just sexually tempted. They even assume that of her, or, at least, that she intentionally tempted you, and sexually.”

“If only they knew her. Could it be they’re afraid of their own emotions and their own sexuality and they’re imposing their own fears onto me and onto Jasmine?”

“Possibly. Their reaction is extreme. Usually, it’s not that blatant, but insidious with suggestions to the woman to pull away from ministry positions, mixed in with awkward silences. An aura is created that is so stifling to the woman that she conveniently chooses to leave on her own. I’ve even heard in some charismatic circles, the girl is said to be ‘entrusted to a pastor.’”

“’Entrusted’?”

“Strange term, I know,” Ethan grimaces. “Back in the days when I took such things semi-seriously, I figured the notion was related to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.”

Davie raises an eyebrow, confused.

“In Matthew 3, before Jesus has done anything, He is already affirmed as the Son in whom the Father is well pleased; in Chapter 4, He’s sent into the wilderness to be tempted, then in Chapter 5, He delivers what many consider to be the most remarkable teaching in the Bible. This movement seems unbelievably quick and out of order. ‘This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ One would expect such a statement of praise to come after the Sermon on the Mount, not before His ministry began.”

“Sure,” Davie replies in a voice more like a question than a reply.

“I know. But some have taught that new ministry leaders should expect a progression like this: an affirmation, then a test – usually a temptation – then the start of ministry. The affirmation and the test might go together, like a sermon video that goes viral for a few weeks, which the new leader lets go to his head.”

“OK, but what do you mean by Jasmine ‘entrusted’ to me?”

“These people would say she’s your test, and they usually judge her for it. When I first heard this notion, I wondered whether a woman ‘entrusted’ might actually be spiritually advanced, and that the judgment cast at her is part of her test.”

“That’s a twist on their curious idea, isn’t it?” Davie chuckles. After a pause, his voice is solemn again. “Whatever anyone wants to call what’s happened, we’re both being tested, but by my own church elders who are ignoring what Jesus taught. Didn’t He say cast out your eye? When did he ever say to cast out the woman?”

“He didn’t.”

“Then why do they do it?”

“Because churches aren’t following their own leader. Now, David, what are you going to do about it? Will you give in to their order, or will you challenge it?”

Continue to the Ancient Obsession

Continue to Davie's second conversation with Ethan

Continue to Davie's third conversation with Ethan

Start "Just like Eve" at the beginning