Second Term - A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 1) (33 page)

SEVENTY
TWO

Dallas,
Texas

Pastor Jack Madison’s
church is located in the Park Cities suburban area of northeast Dallas. The
upscale area is made up of University Park and Highland Park. Park Cities
boasts several larger community and evangelical churches, some with several
thousand members. Jack Madison’s church was growing, had almost two thousand
members, and was considered as one of the areas up and coming churches. His
congregation was a diverse mixture of age groups, with many young families, but
also with retired couples who enjoyed his Bible-centered teaching.

This Sunday’s service
was expected to be packed out, as it had been promoted with billboards and some
radio advertising. Jack and his Board knew that they faced the potential of a
disruptive interruption during the service, so they hired a few off duty
policemen and women from their local suburban police forces. As the service
started on Sunday morning all was peaceful, with no protestors outside the
church. But peace was not to be.

After several minutes
of spirited and worshipful singing, Pastor Madison strode briskly up to his
pulpit, with his Bible and his notes firmly in hand. Spiritually speaking, it
was show time. He had thirty minutes, max, to make his point, repeat it and
make sure everyone understood it. Tell them what you’re going to tell them,
tell them and then tell them what you just told them, as he had learned in
seminary.

Jack laid his Bible
and his notes on the pulpit, said a silent prayer and looked out over his
congregation. What he saw caused him to stop. Scattered among the congregation
were several, maybe as high as 20 or 30 people, all wearing identical green
shirts, the uniform of the CCC. Why hadn’t someone noticed this during the
seating time and warned him, he wondered. Not that it was any huge deal, he
thought, everyone’s welcome here. Whomsoever will may come, as they say. Still,
he would have liked a heads up. I won’t change a word of what I have planned to
say, he swiftly concluded. Maybe some of these government employees will respond
to the Gospel through this visit today, he comforted himself by thinking. But,
he did have to admit that his stress level went up considerably, as anyone could
attest whose father who had been arrested for his words. Memories of the
earlier visit in his church office by two FBI agents added to his anxiety.

Pastor Madison began
with his traditional greeting, “He is risen.”

“
He is risen,
indeed
”, responded the congregation, using a first century greeting
exchanged by Christians.

“I welcome you all to
our church. We’re a church that emphasizes the study of God’s Word. Before we
look at the Word, though I’d like to welcome our first time guests here with us
today. So please stand if today is your first time to be with us, and the
Deacons will give you an information packet about what we do as a church in
this community and how you might fit in.”

As Jack looked across
the sanctuary he only saw a handful of first timers standing, scattered across
the room. None of the green-shirted Conservators stood to be recognized. “Come
now, I see several, maybe as many as thirty, first timers who have not yet
stood, all in those sharp green uniform shirts. We welcome our friends who work
for the Civilian Conservation Corps, which has a long and noble history of
service in this country. One of my distant family members served in the CCC in
the 30’s, building national parks, so we welcome you and ask to stand and be
recognized.” None did. “Well, that’s fine, that’s OK, you’re always welcome
here any time. Now, let’s open our Bibles and see what the Lord has to say to
us today from His Word.”

As he opened his
Bible, Jack looked down at the two Conservators seated just to his right on the
first row. He noticed that both had lapel microphones attached to their uniform
collars, and both appeared to be leaning slightly forward, as if anxious to get
all of his words recorded. He never had any doubts that his words could be used
against him. He was more than well aware of his father’s entanglement with
federal authorities over his speech in Austin. In addition to which his church
recorded and broadcast locally in the Dallas-Fort Worth area his morning
services, including his sermons. He wasn’t keeping secret his message. Which
made him wonder, fleetingly, as he looked down at his notes for his next point,
why the government felt it needed to record his words spoken in the sanctuary?
They could just turn on the local cable channel. But, they may have worried
that Jack wouldn’t broadcast the words that they were most interested in. They
just didn’t know Jack, he smiled to himself, at his own feeble attempt at
humor. Oh well, he concluded,
let’s give ‘em somethin’ to talk about
, as
the country song says.

“As many of you know
from the radio spots and billboards, this month’s sermon topics are centered on
this question– What Does the Bible Teach on Perversion?.... Please turn your
attention to the video screens.”

A segment from the
movie, The Princess Bride, appeared on the sanctuary’s three large video
screens. In the clip the movie’s male and female heroes are standing at the
altar in front of a verbally challenged cleric, who says, “
Mawwaige.
Mawwaige is what bwings us togwether today. Mawwaige, that bwessed
awwaingement”.
 The clip ended to widespread laughter. Pastor Jack followed
it with, “my accent won’t be as good as the cleric in one of my mom’s favorite
movies, but, it’s true….marriage is what brings us together today. Where did
the idea of marriage come from? What is marriage? Does marriage have any
purpose in this modern age? Is it really a blessed arrangement? Why shouldn’t
anyone, or any group of someones, be allowed to marry? Is marriage in danger of
extinction? These are all questions, along with others, that we will examine
today and in the next three week’s sermons.

“First, where did the
idea of marriage come from? Who thought it up? I’m going to read to you a few
sentences from a sermon given by a Swedish Pastor named Ake Green. Pay
attention to what he said, because he was arrested and convicted by the Swedish
judicial system for what he said. As you listen to the beginning of Pastor
Green’s sermon, ask yourself if you think his words are hate words. The Swedish
government charged and convicted Pastor Green with a hate crime for these words.
Here are Pastor Green’s opening few paragraphs:

“
From the beginning
God created humans as man and woman. We begin in Genesis 1:27-28:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue
it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

“Here, God's Word clearly states that you were created to be
Father and Mother - as man and woman - designed for parenthood. The Lord states
that very clearly here….The marriage institution is also clearly defined in
Genesis 2:24, where it says:

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

“Only man and wife are referred to here. It is not stated any
other way; you can never imply or interpret it to mean that you can have
whatever sexual partner you wish to have. ….”

“What was it that led to these cities (Sodom, mentioned 30
times in the Bible, and Gomorrah) perishing, losing their dignity, disappearing
from the face of the Earth? It was because they lived in homosexuality. It will
be the same on that day when the Son of Man is revealed; consequently, this is
a sign of the times we are facing. As people lived in the time of Lot, so shall
they live before Jesus returns. This is something we cannot deny in any way.
Jesus says that the lifestyle of Sodom shall be active in the whole Earth
before the coming of Jesus. The one who represents this lifestyle today goes
against God's order of creation.”

“Are Pastor Ake Green’s words hate words? Or are they instead
words of truth from God’s Word? Due to a high level of international interest
in Pastor’s green’s conviction and sentencing to jail, the Swedish Supreme
Court eventually overturned his conviction, I am happy to say. I am unhappy to
report, however, that in doing so, the Swedish Supreme Court ruled that his
Bible-based message did, in fact, constitute hate speech. The Court said that a
higher European Court might not agree with them, so it threw out his
conviction, even though they ruled that he was properly convicted as a hate
speaker. Think about that for a moment. Pastor Green has been labeled by his
government and his government’s highest Court as a disseminator of hate speech
for those Biblically-based words in his sermon, though they spared him from
serving time in jail.

“Could that same thing happen in America? Many of you know that my
father, a resident of Tyler, was charged by the federal government with various
crimes, all arising from his use of words in a speech in the election campaign
that he delivered in Austin to a political meeting. Many of you may also know
that I didn’t agree at the time with my dad’s speech, and what I then thought
was harsh rhetoric to use in describing the President of the United States. I
used, ok, maybe, misused, the verse about rendering unto Caesar that which is
Caesar’s.

“I love my father, John Madison, but we didn’t see eye-to-eye on
this subject, and frankly, it put a strain on our normally very warm father-son
relationship. On more than one occasion, usually when I was visiting him in
prison, I asked my dad if he knew what he was doing? Was it worth it to lose
his insurance executive job and spend time in federal prison, away from mom and
his family, just because of words? Dad loves me, as I do him, so he would
always gently reply that he was right, and that I would eventually see that he
was right.

“Last week I was able to tell my dad that he was right in two
ways. First, I told him that I now agreed that he was right to do what he did
in opposing an administration that has frequently acted contrary to the best
interests of the people of this nation. Secondly, I told him that he was
correct when he said that I would one day see that he was right in his actions
that led to his arrest and imprisonment. It was a sweet moment, my friends, to
be able to be re-united not only in our love for each other, as dad and son,
but also united in our belief that standing up for what you believe in is worth
the cost, whatever that may be. Words do matter.  I’m here today, using words
from God’s Word, for which I may be, like Pastor Green, charged with criminal
acts. I can’t control what those in authority may choose to do to me for using
God’s Word, in their view, in a politically incorrect manner, in their view. I
can only control what I say.

“I said to John Madison, my dad, last week, a man I consider to be
a true American hero, ‘Dad, you stood up when others, including me, should have
spoken up before the second term happened. If more Americans had stood up and
raised our voices, as you did, we would still have our First and Second
Amendment rights today. Please forgive me.’ And, congregation, please forgive
me for not leading you to stand up and speak up when we still had the chance to
do so. Because of my lack of leadership, and the lack of leadership by many
other pastors and priests, we now live in a different nation than we did before
the last election. We can’t go back now and change that, but we can admit we
were wrong and speak up now. Will that mean we will be charged with violating
the McAlister Hate Speech and Hate Weapon Elimination Act? Only time will tell,
but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

All of the CCC Conservators present that Sunday morning had been
carefully trained to avoid any controversy. They were to attend, act
respectfully, observe and record what went on and what was said at the worship service
and render a recommendation, in writing, after their visit. The Conservators’
joint Memorandum recommending action was completed and submitted to the
Regional CCC Offices in Houston by Wednesday and conveyed to national CCC
headquarters by Friday.

A draft of a formal notification of the levying of significant fines
to be levied on the Church and on Pastor Jack Madison and his Board members was
on the desk of the Director of the CCC by the following Tuesday. On the same
day a copy of the Memorandum was delivered to the Deputy Attorney General
responsible for initiating criminal action. Criminal charges in several counts
against Pastor Jack Madison were drafted for final review by the Attorney
General. Jack Madison and his Texas church were on a collision course with the
government of the United States of America.

SEVENTY
THREE

U.S.
District Court, District of Oregon

“All rise. The United
States District Court for the District of Oregon is hereby convened, the
Honorable Hiram McDermott, presiding. All persons present are advised that any
outburst in the Court will led to your immediate ejection, and possible
incarceration. You may be seated.” Thus began the trial of federal criminal
defendant John Madison.

Judge McDermott
called the case, “The cause before the Court today is the United States of
America versus John Madison, Cause Number 13-ODC-276. The charges brought by
the people of the United States against John Madison are a.) that he advocated
the overthrow of the government of the United States, b.) that he conspired to
advocate the overthrow of the government and c.) that he violated the federal
hate crimes act. The charges will be read in full by the District Attorney
shortly. You have been selected as a panel of potential jurors to hear and
consider the evidence and to render a fair and impartial verdict. Anyone of you
on the jury panel have a problem with doing so?....No….Okay, we’ll move to the
questioning of the panel. If you’ve been a juror in a state court trial, you’ll
notice that we do it differently in federal court. In this part of the trial,
what’s called voire dire questioning, I’ll be the one who asks you questions.
In state court the lawyers ask you a lot of loaded questions, all attempting to
try their case before it actually starts. I just need to find out who should
and who should not be jurors of this important case.”

Judge McDermott
routinely used voire dire to quickly weed out any perceived ‘anti-government
types’ who might be tempted to vote to set free any criminal defendant, just
because the federal government, mistrusted by a juror, had filed the criminal
charges. He viewed it as giving the District Attorney a ‘level playing field’.
Oregon defense counsel saw it as stacking the deck in favor of conviction of
persons accused of crimes by the federal government.

Even with federal
judges, though, things don’t always go as planned. The District Attorney had
read the three criminal charges against John Madison to the members of the
panel, including the statutes on which the counts were based. Judge McDermott
inquired as to their past jury service and anything about that duty that might
affect the potential juror’s ability to be objective in the people’s case
against John Madison. He had just started to ask the members of the jury panel
if they were related in any way to the Defendant or any of the lawyers, when
two panel members raised their hands, at about the same time.

“Oh….yes….potential
juror…let’s see… Ms. Litz, what’s your question? Seeing as how I haven’t even
started asking my next question. ….And then, let’s see….potential juror
Hankins, we’ll take your question next….Ms. Litz?”

Amanda Litz was a
registered nurse, taken away from her ICU patients by her call to jury duty,
and none too happy about it. As she listened to the charges being read against
John Madison, she pondered why everybody was so upset about a mere speech, when
the streets and government buildings had been full of real rebels, breaking
windows, burning flags and causing havoc. Before she enrolled in nursing school
she had given serious thought to a career in law, as her high school and
college teachers and professors had praised her for her analytical mind,
telling she ‘thought like a lawyer’. Thus, it was that she addressed the Court
with a question that did not please the District Attorney.

“Your honor, I don’t
know the procedure here, whether I can ask a question or not….” The Judge,
momentarily distracted by a staff member whispering a message to him, missed
his opportunity to head off the question, as panel member Amanda Litz plunged
ahead, “Well….ok….it just seems to me that accusing a man of trying to
overthrow the government when all he did was just give a speech, for crying out
loud, and he apparently wasn’t violent in any way, or he would have been
charged with that, too….and the law that the DA just read said that the
overthrow attempt needs to be by force or violence….I mean….your Honor….why are
we here? Who would ever vote to convict another American in such a weak
case…seriously….this looks like a big waste of everybody’s time….including….”  

 Crack. Crack. CRACK.
“Stop….STOP….No more….” His gavel slamming the bench, the Judge was so
flustered he could barely spit out his words. He had been distracted enough by
his staffer that he had only just started paying attention to Amanda Litz late
in her run-on commentary on the government’s case against John Madison. By
then, it was too late. The jury panel had been hopelessly corrupted by her
comments, as the lawyers like to describe such a case-destroying outburst.

Hoping that possibly
he had not heard what he thought he heard once he paid attention, Judge
McDermott tried to ignore her. “Thank you, Ms. Litz. We’ll let the lawyers sort
out all those issues. Mr. Hankins, what was your question? Keep it short,
please, I let Ms. Litz go on way too long.”

“Well, Judge, it’s
funny, because I was about to say the very same thing that she just said….how
can we convict somebody for advocating the overthrow of the government when
there’s no allegation of force or viol….”

Crack. “That’s quite
enough, Mr. Hankins….Quite enough…. Counsel, we’ll meet in chambers. This Court
stands in recess.” ALL RISE.

Judge McDermott held
in disdain government prosecutors who had no case, but who appeared to be
asking him to use the power of his bench to rescue them from imminent defeat.
After listening to the digital recording of potential jurors Litz and Hankins’
comments on the government’s case, the Judge, his robe freshly hung up, glared
at the lawyers assembled in his chambers. “All right. Blame where blame is due.
I should have paid attention when that woman started going off on your case,
instead of listening to my aide tell me about a decision overturning one of my
cases from the 9
^th
Circuit. But, gentlemen, you all have tongues. You
could have objected, and shut her up, and got my attention before she polluted
the panel.

“Now, we got
ourselves a real problem. It would clearly be reversible error to let this
panel decide this case after what just happened. Not going to happen, as I’m
sending them home. But the government has an even bigger problem. Madame DA,
you just got a mini-verdict from two random citizens of this District. They not
only don’t like your case, they think it’s a witch hunt, far as I can tell. My
suggestion? Call your Deputy AG in DC, or call the AG himself for that matter,
and tell them what happened in Oregon today, in a Court that’s historically not
been too antagonistic to your cases.

“Tell them that the
Judge suggested a thorough review of this case….a ….thorough….review…. of this
case. Remind them that what was said today will be carried by every newspaper,
TV station and radio talk show in this District, from whom the future potential
jurors will be selected. That is, if there is a future panel of jurors, as I
doubt seriously that this case will ever be tried. I’ve already denied Mr.
Madison’s dismissal motion, so I’m not throwing out your case….but….today you
saw what will happen if you actually take this poor excuse of a case to a jury.
They would likely vote to exonerate before they even have time to order pizza.
Again….two words….thorough….review….Got it? Now, you all get out of here. And
as for you, Counsel for the Defendant, you can wipe that smile off your face. That
woman’s destruction of the government’s case today was only by the grace of
God.”

“Your honor, I
couldn’t agree with you more. Thank you, sir.”

It was late Friday afternoon
following Judge McDermott’s aborted voire dire of the jury panel in the U.S.
vs. Madison case. The Clerk of the U.S. District Court for the District of
Oregon was preparing to close for the day, when an employee of the U.S.
District Attorney, officed in the same building, walked in with a last minute
filing. The pleading withdrew all charges against John Madison previously filed
by the United States. No media representatives were in the Clerk’s office at
the time of filing. By Monday, when it became known that the charges had been
dismissed, mainstream media justified not reporting the story as being
“Friday’s news”. John Madison was informed by prison authorities in the middle
of the day on Saturday that charges against him had been dismissed and that he
would be released within 24 hours. John and Debbie Madison wept as they talked
by telephone of the answer to their many prayers. Though their son, Jack, was
equally happy at the good news, he warned his parents. “Dad and Mom, this
thing’s not over yet. Not nearly over. As good as this news is, I’m convinced
the Madisons are not off the President’s radar screen. If what I saw in the
eyes of the government visitors to our church services means anything, your
son, and this church, are facing significant trouble. Sooner rather than later.”

Pastor Jack Madison
could not have known then how right he was.