Chapter 93

93
PRESS ROOM, KISSINGER PLAZA, STATE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Jesus walked up to the podium. "Hello everyone. Thank you for coming. I suspect that you all would like to talk a little about the tragic events in Atlanta this last week. To accommodate these questions and still allow time for some other more substantial things, I would like to field one question from each one of you about Atlanta generally, and then move on to our normal questions and answers. Please keep the questions short. The length of this news conference will be the same as usual. No one, of course, is required to ask about Atlanta. No one who does will necessarily lose his opportunity to ask a question later, and I consider it unnecessary for you to introduce yourselves during this part. Perhaps we can start right over here and come across the rows like this." Jesus motioned.

This development surprised General Tower. It had arisen without warning, apparently at the last minute. Juan, as usual, simply sat with a placid smile on his handsome face, Beatrice on his shoulder.

"What are Your thoughts about something like Atlanta? Does it affect You?"

Jesus answered optimistically, "It's good that it ended. That affected Me by making Me feel good. I am strongly opposed to that kind of violence. Not holding with some things that have been said about Me, I am deeply troubled by it."

"Could You stop the violence?"

Jesus answered slowly, "I could stop My violence if I were being violent. As for others, I find it very distasteful to interfere in the free will of people. Both sides of this affair believe they are trying to stop the violence of the other. That has had very little effect. Besides, can you recall what did stop it in Atlanta?"

The next reporter immediately continued the question. "Do You mean the rain storm?"

Jesus was coming up to speed. "Yes, perhaps the answer is to pray for rain."

"Do You mean pray to You?" the next reporter asked.

"You can pray to Me if you wish, but that is probably not going to produce very much rain. I suggest that you take that kind of request on up the chain of command to a Higher Authority, if you know what I mean. I could become too busy to accomplish much here if I were to be in charge of answering all the prayers of the world. I don't care to explain much, but you may assume that there is a division of labor. Next?"

"So that's it? Pray for rain?" this reporter, bearing the Mark of God was actually more interested in who to pray to than ending the riots.

"That's it. I think much of this problem might be attributed to a lack of prayer. Everyone has been so busy in the streets, they may have forgotten to pray." Jesus answered.

"But isn't prayer considered to be an effort toward personal development? The troubles in the streets are not particularly personal." the next reporter, a portly woman, asked.

"That is correct, but we must remember that like prayer, a bullet is also extremely personal, too. I might add that a prayer for the other side to suffer terrible casualties is probably not one with much potential either."

"So more praying and less shooting and scuffling would just about have to be a step in the right direction. The religion of both sides requires sincere prayer. I would have assumed that this idea would have occurred to someone by now."

Having answered all the questions presented, Jesus looked over the small crowd on men and women in the press corps. "Now let's begin with some of your prepared questions. How about you, Sir?"

"Paul Isaacs, Cleveland Daily Courier. Do You expect Your loyal forces, the Neo-Apostolics as they are called, to finally defeat the Fundamentalists in the streets? Doesn't Your overall strategy include a gradual shift toward winning elections in the disputed districts?"

Jesus adopted His usual broad smile. Regardless of what He might say to answer the man, the smile itself cast the whole affair off balance. These seasoned reporters had covered news conferences on every possible topic at every possible turn of events. No one, not ever a single person fielding answers to any sort of question about any sort of topic had ever smiled. Every situation, it seemed, was either bad getting worse, serious turning to grave or filled with remorse about some awful thing that had just happened. It was His firm intention to elevate the mood, the tenor and the topics to a useful level, a challenge with such a reporter as this one. The man's Mark of God seemed to add an invisible slant to every word in both question and answer.

"How can anyone think that I have come here to be some sort of appliance to Buck Stratton's Ministry? Or for that matter, the Neo-Apostolics? I am painfully aware of what those groups are doing across the United States. It seems to you that they are locked in a mighty struggle to determine who will control the other. Further, it might be remotely possible that this struggle will ultimately reach into the government, perhaps replacing the opposing sides of that body with new opposing sides. But what can be won? Can the heart of a single person be captured by any means other than by substance? Can winning or losing a fight in the street persuade a single participant or observer?"

"The forces which act in these groups are strictly human forces. Fear, revenge. Emotions run high and strong among them. Each has a desperate wish to be right at the expense of the other. They are humans using human means in an attempt to create Divine hope for themselves. Every one of them desires to have hope more than anything, but you see them turn their faces away from it. You see them turn to fight more, to have suspicions about their neighbors. And when they fight, they hope only to win the fight. When they are filled with suspicion, they hope only to reveal some fact or other which will incriminate or exonerate. What kind of hope is this? These people will not look to even imagine what the hope they seek might be. They are blinded by the ways of this world. They are so frantic, so taken in trance by worldly things that they only make every good possibility more difficult."

"I have not come to referee a street fight between this suburb and that one. How can anyone think I might be interested in that?"

"How about you, Ma'am. Would you like to ask a question?" He pointed to a portly woman in the front row.

"Yes, thank you very much. Lynn Prescott, Boston Tribune. Following Mr. Isaac's question and considering Your response to him, what political developments would further Your plans? Can You foresee a Neo-Apostolic majority in Congress after the election, and if so, what would be reasonable agenda for such a majority?"

"Thank you Miss Prescott. First let Me answer as simply as I can. No political developments can aid My plans in any way. My plans are not political. Politics deals with great numbers of people at once. I am here to reach each man and woman as an individual."

"Beyond that, and this is important, an end to politics would not aid My plans either. As you are well aware, politics are not new. They seem to be a very ancient, natural means that people have chosen to govern themselves. This group may have an autocrat, this one an oligarchy, this one a Prime Minister. They all have politics, and they all rely on it to operate their world. If I were going to change that to something besides politics, what could it be?

"Now, as for a Neo-Apostolic majority in the United States Congress, should such a thing really be possible given the current situation. Just say that such a thing happened. The day after the election, the Congress might act in Neo-Apostolic ways, whatever they might be. Very soon, the Neo-Apostolic majority would find itself having to negotiate with the Fundamentalist minority. Before long, some of each side would occasionally vote with the other, and a third side would begin to form, depending on one's view, being fallen-Fundamentalists or, perhaps, Near-Neo-Apostolics."

"As the interests of constituents conflicted here and there, new groups will form. Perhaps Free-market Fundamentalists and Reformed-Near-Neo-Apostolics. The Congress would heal itself. It would gradually become again what it always had been and what it always should be, political. Once things had returned to normal, so to speak, everyone would be able to agree on something. Everyone would agree that Jesus had almost wrecked the country. I am not here to wreck the country. Contrary to what some may wish, I am also not here to pacify it." Jesus looked over the room of clamoring reporters. "You, Sir. Have you a question?"

"Bob Portman, Nashville Daily. Can You or will You do anything about the civil unrest? Whether by plan or happenstance, You are unquestionably in the center of the conflict."

Jesus, once again, smiled at the reporter. He had experienced Mr. Portman's 'objectivity' before. The man had a talent for twisting every word into inflammatory evidence of the Satan, anti-Christ, demon idea. Stratton quoted him frequently. Jesus paused for a moment as He formulated an incomprehensible and irrelevant parable.

"Mr. Portman, let us say hypothetically that you have moved into a city where everyone drove either a red or a blue car. You personally ride a bicycle. One morning, you awake to find that all of your neighbors have grouped themselves up into those with, respectively, red or blue cars. They have begun to fight each other. Those with the red cars believe that those with the blue ones are thieves and grave robbers. Those with the blue cars think their neighbors with the red ones are kidnappers and murderers. Actually, considering both groups, there is not a single thief, grave robber, kidnapper or murderer among them. And, in fact, there is nothing whatsoever to suggest that a kidnapper, for instance, would be any more inclined to buy a red car or a blue one. Yet the fighting is violent and pervasive."

"A reporter looking over the scene asks you, 'Since you ride a bicycle, what do you intend to do about this mess?' as you are leaving for work. If you have an answer for that reporter's question, the same answer would probably be the most satisfying answer for Me to offer to your question."

The effect of the parable was completely obvious. Portman's face was passing from puzzled anticipation into utter confusion. Jesus continued, speaking more and more quickly.

"You are, indeed, caught in the situation. And, in fact, you seem to stand out as someone different from your fighting neighbors. Yet, their actions have very little to do with you. Their actions actually seem to have very little to do with what color car one has, or even if whether or not one is a thief, a kidnapper, a grave robber or a murderer. My point is that this is not a situation which can be analyzed and resolved. This is a situation which is under full power toward goals which are long forgotten. These are people who redouble their efforts daily, yet have no vision of what might be any kind of ultimate victory."

"Ultimate victory is the goal of My visit to this world. Only a vision of ultimate victory, and a way to accomplish ultimate victory can be My gift to every person alive. Less than that will not be satisfactory to Me."

"That will be all the questions for today.