Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 236 In the Name of God
"My dear friend: When you read this letter, you should also have received the little gift that your lovely child, the kindest little angel in the world, has given you on my behalf."
"Perhaps you are wondering if Jeff Lavine was drunk and gave the wrong gift. No one would use such a gift to maintain friendship between friends, not to mention that it was presented by children. I will go to him to discuss this issue in person tomorrow."
"In fact, I did something braver than drunkenly giving the wrong gift. I ran as a candidate in the special election for my district."
"The reason for running for election is that I believe that the beautiful 18th District needs to be more racially diverse. The purpose of this gift is to hope that all white residents can use Trojan to show your tolerance for racial diversity and give Cubans and blacks more living space in this district."
"The greatness of America lies in love and tolerance. From your most loyal friend in this district: Jeff Lavine."
A cramped storage room at the after-school children's activity center provided by the Catholic Church in Miami's 18th District was temporarily used as the office of campaign manager Martin.
At this moment, Martin took the letter written in Jeff's name to the parents of the child and read it carefully. After thinking for a few minutes, he suddenly realized and said to Tommy:
"Boss, I understand your idea. You want Jeff to offend all white people and make him look rejected by the white community. You want him to win the sympathy of Cubans and blacks by portraying him as pitiful but tolerant of other races. After all, in his letter, he called on these whites to use Torjan more often to prevent unwanted pregnancies, so that Cuban immigrants and blacks can have more children, right?"
"Copy this letter 100 times." Tommy did not answer Martin's guess, but said to Martin seriously, "Write everything by hand, and don't ask anyone else to help you. You must finish it before Jeff and the kids finish today's gathering, and then when the kids go home, have them take it back to their parents."
After that, he handed Martin a few ballpoint pens and a stack of letter paper: "After you finish copying, remember to burn the original copy I wrote."
"Let everyone believe that it was Jeff who wrote it, right? I understand." Martin was about to refuse, but then he saw Tommy take out fifty dollars from his wallet and hand it to him: "Fifty cents a letter, the more you work, the more you earn."
Martin asked doubtfully, "But... there are only more than seventy children. Who should I send the extra letters to?"
"There's a church children's hospital on the next street. Go to the hospital and give some letters to the children who are sick." Tommy said casually, "Also, don't let everyone think that this letter was written by Jeff. You wrote it. When someone comes to you, you have to admit that you drafted the letter yourself."
Tommy finished speaking, leaving Martin, whose brain had crashed due to the thought of delivering a letter to a sick child at a children's hospital, and turned to the side.
"Also, after you finish writing, remember to put them in envelopes and enclose a Torjan in the envelope. I'm going to go see how Jeff behaves in front of the children."
Martin took a look at the thick stack of letter paper and decided not to go to the Children's Hospital to deliver the letter, for fear of being hunted down by angry accompanying parents. Just as he was picking up a pen to write the letter, he saw Paige appear at the door with her arms folded, staring at him with a blank expression.
"That's great, Mr. Page. You're just standing at the door watching me like a fucking prison guard?" Martin scratched his head frantically, then lay on the simple table and began to copy: "I won't escape from prison, don't worry."
Paige looked at Martin's actions and said, "No, Tommy asked me to tell you what to pay attention to when you are taken to the police station while you are writing the letter."
"What?" Martin looked up after hearing what Paige said, and asked in confusion: "Why did the fucking police bother me just because I stole ten boxes of ten Trojans with a total value of seven dollars from Costco?"
"Did you steal those?" Paige was slightly stunned.
Martin said to Paige confidently, "What do you think? The boss didn't pay my fucking bill, but don't worry, the supermarket never suspects that any black person would steal that thing, they think that black people never use that thing when they go to bed."
"It's a little different from what the boss said, but it's not a big problem. Now just listen carefully." Paige said to Martin.
Martin felt that Page was affecting his ability to make money, and said impatiently, "Why should I listen to a retired white policeman who shot black people with racism, and asked him to teach me how to thrive in a police station? I am black, and black people have their own ways of dealing with police officers in police stations. Please, I am working, and I am not being lazy."
"Listen to what Tommy asked me to tell you about how a campaign manager should help increase the visibility of the people he serves in the police department, and how to maximize benefits if he falsely accuses a potential opponent," Page said.
Martin frowned, looking puzzled: "Why didn't the boss tell me in person?"
Paige showed the electric shock device on her waist: "Because this teaching method is more intuitive."
Tommy walked to the church's activity room and saw Jeff holding a children's version of the Bible on the stage, loudly telling the story of Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden by God because of their mistakes. Sixty or seventy children were sitting around him, eating the snacks or candies that Jeff provided them for free.
"This story tells us that if we don't listen to God, we will be punished. God is like a teacher. He makes us understand all the truths in the world. Adam and Eve's behavior of taking the apples that did not belong to them without permission was obviously very, very wrong. God punished Adam and Eve and expelled them from the Garden of Eden. The consequence was that they forever lost the opportunity to live in such a beautiful home. So, children, we can't be like them and take other people's things for ourselves. We must be good children and only do the right thing." After telling the story of the Garden of Eden, Jeff looked at the children and gave his understanding of the story.
Tommy stood in the corner, listening quietly to Jeff's entire story about the Garden of Eden, and then slowly exhaled.
Jeff's eloquence was a little terrible. He could only read aloud what was in the book. His voice was dry and not vivid at all. But the last sentence reminded Tommy of his childhood when his mother would tell him and Tony a story every night before going to bed. Most of them were Bible stories because she was a devout Catholic. The ending of each story would be the same as Jeff's, telling him and Tony to do the right thing.
"Jeff ruined this sentence. He is not suitable to be a woman." Tommy finally gave such an evaluation in his heart.
A white boy who looked about seven or eight years old swallowed the food in his mouth and suddenly asked Jeff a question in a puzzled tone: "Why did God only drive Adam and Eve out of their home, but did not dare to teach a lesson to the real bad guy, the bad snake who tricked Adam and Eve into eating the apple? It is the real bad guy?"
Seeing Jeff's face immediately turn into surprise, Tommy realized that his brain was now in a mess. This was a bad sign, because if the children saw his reaction, they would ask more questions to get answers. In other words, it was not just children, this was the innate aggressiveness of human beings.
"The book says that God created everything, but that bad snake was created by God just like Adam and Eve. So why did God create a bad snake?"
"Why did God create so many pythons in Florida? My dad said there are more pythons in the Everglades than people. He also said he saw a python crawl into a neighbor's house and eat the neighbor's dog."
"After Adam and Eve ate the apple, they found that they were not wearing any clothes. Why did God let Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden without clothes for so long? When he invited other friends to his home, did he trick them into taking off their clothes?"
"I know. He's a pervert. In one episode of the cartoon "Sheriff Brest", there was a bad guy who liked to trick children into going to his house. Is God a bad guy who likes to trick children? Who is worse, him or the bad snake?"
"The snake is not a bad guy! The snake said that after Adam and Eve ate the apple, they would have wisdom and be able to distinguish between good and evil. God is the bad one. He hopes that Adam and Eve will always be two idiots who can't even put on clothes!"
"Uncle Jeff is the idiot. He only knows how to read stories and do experiments with solid wood balls and wooden boards! He never gives an answer to any question!"
Sure enough, after the first child asked the question, more children joined the battle and began to ask all kinds of strange questions questioning God's behavior, looking at Jeff who was caught off guard with shining eyes.
Jeff probably didn't expect that he had caused such a stir just by telling an ordinary story of Paradise Lost. The children's questions were about to overwhelm him like a tide. What was worse was that these children were about to regard God as a copper smelter who knowingly did what he did!
It was his fault. As a believer, he should help these little ones resolve their doubts on behalf of God. However, he didn't know what to say to these curious little ones. He could only look for help to the other two school workers who were handing out candies.
The two janitors gave Jeff a helpless look. After all, Jeff was the smartest among the three of them.
Jeff opened his mouth and flipped open the Bible children's book, but there were no answers to the questions raised by these little demons.
"Because God wants them to distinguish good from evil with their own eyes, and wants them to understand how to keep warm by experiencing the cold themselves, rather than by hearing from others. God can give life, but wisdom needs to be acquired through learning." Tommy walked towards the children with a smile, and spoke to help Jeff out as he walked, attracting all the children's attention to himself. He gently touched the top of the head of a little boy who had just asked a question, and then lowered his body and squatted in front of him:
"Just like I'm telling you right now, the waters of Miami's Treasure Beach are bottomless, and there's a giant North Sea monster, the Kraken, hiding there. It comes out every day to drag yachts into the sea with its tentacles and then opens its mouth to eat them. Do you believe it?"
Tommy made a ferocious gesture, which made the little guys laugh. A little girl said, "No, there is no Kraken on Treasure Beach, and the water is very shallow."
A group of children nodded in agreement.
"Why do you think there is no Kraken? Why do you think the sea is shallow?" Tommy looked at the little girl with encouragement in his eyes.
The little girl said to Tommy, "Because the school organized a parent-child camping activity for us to go to Treasure Beach before . We stayed at Treasure Beach for a day and a night, but we didn't see the Kraken surface, whether it was day or night."
"May I have your name?"
"Emily."
"Very good, Emily, think about it, am I like that bad snake just now?" Tommy looked at the little girl tenderly: "If you hadn't been to Treasure Beach in person, you might have taken my words seriously, right? After all, how could an adult be willing to deceive a cute little girl like you? Now think about it again, why didn't God just let Adam and Eve eat the apple?"
The little girl named Emily nodded as if she understood. Under Tommy's encouraging and commendatory gaze, she hesitantly said, "So, God wants us to see for ourselves, so that we can know whether the bad snake is lying or not?"
"Very Good! The answer is very correct!" Tommy exclaimed with an exaggerated expression.
The little girl laughed happily.
The Bible is a terrible religious book with countless logical loopholes, and later generations are constantly cleaning up the mess of their predecessors. The real reason why God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden is recorded in the original text of the Bible: This person can distinguish between good and evil, just like us. I am afraid that if he raises his hand, he will also take the fruit of life, eat it and live forever.
In other words, God was worried that they would eat the fruit of wisdom and gain wisdom. If they were then tempted by Satan to eat the fruit of life and gain eternal life, they would be no different from himself who created them. He created human beings because he wanted them to worship him, not to become him.
Through this incident, God was trying to make Adam and Eve understand that they should learn to think independently. This excuse was completely made up by Tommy on the spur of the moment and had nothing to do with God's real thoughts. It was just to help God, or to cover up Jeff's mess.
Just like the clergy today, they find all kinds of reasons that sound more gentle and compassionate to beautify God's previous dark history, but it is not for God. After all, if it is really for God, they should tell the believers honestly that God likes his believers to be naked idiots forever.
Seeing that the children thought they had the answer, Tommy immediately struck while the iron was hot and said, "So, I want you to understand that dear Uncle Jeff is definitely not stupid. He wants you to learn to think independently, understand?"
"When Sheriff Bresta is fighting criminals, he doesn't always have to ask his uncle before he understands how to catch the criminals. He must have the wisdom and courage to face difficulties alone. I think you are very, very rude. Uncle Jeff and his friends prepare cookies and candies for you every day and tell you beautiful stories. Instead of thanking him, you questioned him and mocked him. Think about it, hey, you, little guy, if you bring delicious candies to your good friends every day, and your good friends eat the candies you bring, but laugh at you for wearing like a rabbit with shaved butt hair today, what will you do?"
"I... maybe I would... pretend that nothing happened, and then the next day I would wrap feces mixed with powdered sugar in candy packaging and give it to them as gummy candy for them to continue tasting." The little boy who was pointed at by Tommy seriously thought about how to teach those guys who dared to laugh at him a lesson.
What a damn Florida way of revenge, Tommy thought silently.
But he still had a smile on his face: "If you don't want dear Uncle Jeff to prepare a piece of feces candy for each of you tomorrow, what should you do?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Raven."
"I'm sorry, Uncle Jeff."
The children apologized to Jeff one after another.
Jeff responded in a panic: "It's okay, kids, I promise I won't make poop gummy bears, and I will continue to bring you candy tomorrow."
"Uncle Jeff has forgiven you, but he wants you to do him a small favor, which is to bring a small gift he carefully prepared to your parents." After seeing the children apologize, Tommy stood up and walked towards the original corner: "When you go home, someone will give you the gift."
"I...when did I..." Jeff was a little surprised when he heard Tommy say that he had prepared gifts for the parents of these children.
Tommy stood in the corner and turned to look at Jeff who was surrounded by children. "It's Martin. Your campaign manager Martin paid out of his own pocket to help you prepare gifts for their parents. Let's move on to the next story, Jeff."
