Judas Church

Episode 9

Chapter 25

"You mean to tell me that you had nothing to do with that 'gay' flag during the Nations Sunday celebration?" Pastor Thomas Taylor asked. Shirt-sleeves rolled up, he paced the floor behind his seat in the large room where the church's elders met. He looked like he hadn't slept the night before.

"You saw me; I was on stage," Ferrian Flay said holding his hands up. Taylor had called the new music director in to speak with him before the elders gathered for an unscheduled meeting on Monday morning. "I had nothing to do with that flag."

"Well, someone did," Taylor said. "And if it wasn't you, I bet you know who it is."

Flay shook his head. "You and I had an agreement. I respect that. Just like you don't want any trouble here, I don't either. I just want to serve the Lord in peace."

Taylor sighed. "You may go now."

Flay got up and headed toward the door. "Let me know when you find out something. I'm ready to put this distraction behind us so we can get back to what we do best," he said.

"Yeah," Taylor muttered. It's going to be a while before we put this behind us. He slumped down in his seat at one end of the table and pulled out his iPad to check his e-mails and the latest news until everyone else arrived. As he had feared, the news about City of Fellowship Bible Church was negative, mostly centering around the homosexual flag incident. The video of one of the church members seizing the flag and calling it an "abomination" had been uploaded multiple times on YouTube and the view count was already in the millions. News commentators were calling the church "homophobic" and "bigoted" and some were demanding that Pastor Taylor address the issue publicly. Johnny Dunmore had been interviewed on CNN; he said he had "long felt uncomfortable with the church's stance on gays." (That little traitor..., Taylor thought.) Even now, he could hear cars honking at the protesters who had gathered across the street from the church.

A few minutes later, all of the elders had gathered and had begun talking over each other about their ideas for a solution to this problem.

Taylor had only been half-listening when he cleared his throat. He clasped his hands on the table in front of him. "I need to just get this off my chest." Everyone looked at him expectantly. "Ever since Johnny shocked us all with his sudden departure, I have had this weird feeling that something is going on — like we're being played. Like..."

"Like the devil is out to get us," Stan, the human resources director, interjected. "Because, you know...he is."

"Yeah, but someone else is too." Taylor leaned forward tapping a finger on the table as he pointed out the succeeding events. "Then Gemma left. She said it was temporary, but she hasn't been back. Then we got a questionable new music director."

"Questionable? How?" said one of the elders.

"Just trust me," Taylor said, swallowing hard. Now was not the time to disclose his agreement with Flay. "On top of that, we've had two very negative episodes of media coverage."

"And one very positive episode of media coverage courtesy of said questionable person," Stan piped in.

"Negative coverage always trumps positive coverage," one of the elders said.

"Just keeping things in perspective," Stan said.

"Perspective aside," Taylor said, "what I'm saying is, all of this — happening at this time — seems to me like it's planned. Like someone is instigating all of this."

The elders looked around at each other, quietly registering what their pastor had just said. One silver-haired elder spoke up. "Well, Johnny Dunmore isn't the first enemy you've made, pastor."