Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 248 I've Been Home All the Time
Garden City, Bay County, Florida.
Honestly, Nick came to see Gary Dooney today with the idea of pilgrimage. After all, the image of the other party that Tommy mentioned a few nights ago was too legendary. Nick did not want to discuss internal religious disputes, but just wanted to see what kind of style the world's top Bible interpreter, the believer in God who could make the mainstream sects collectively exile, had.
Unfortunately, Tommy didn't say anything after he finished speaking that night. Instead, he made many phone calls in a mysterious manner over the next few days while reading a book. He also went to a nearby church to worship. Five days later, he announced that he was going to meet Gary Dooney. For this, Nick, who had been unable to wait any longer, picked up the camera himself. He hoped to be by Tommy's side and get a close enough look at this big man who sounded quite legendary.
According to the address left in the other party's brochure, Nick, along with two of his men who helped carry the spare batteries, accompanied Tommy from the bustling metropolis of Miami, first flew to Panama City, the county seat of Bay County, and then drove to the final destination, Garden Town.
Garden Town, also known as Garden City, has a nice name and a good town environment, with lush vegetation and clean streets, but there are hardly any vehicles or pedestrians on the road.
The airport business car drove to the parking lot outside the Garden City Town Building as agreed. In the parking lot, a white man with a frosted face but a kind smile was leaning against a large pickup truck. He smiled at Tommy who had jumped out of the car and approached him tentatively to ask:
"Tommy Hawke?"
"It's me. Are you Mr. Hankins, Dr. Duny's assistant?" Tommy smiled and stretched out his hand, shook hands with the middle-aged man, and said with a smile.
The middle-aged man named Hankins looked at Nick and the other two who got out of the business car with their filming equipment. Tommy introduced them, "Mr. Jeff Lavine's campaign documentary filming team, a veteran Democratic Party donor in California. In addition to donations, they also prepared small gifts for Jeff. Jeff... You know, Jeff can't come here in person, but he hopes to record everything with his camera. He really admires Dr. Duney very much."
Nick felt something was wrong when he heard Tommy lie. This bastard had told him, Martin and Paige seriously that night that he was in awe of Gary Dooney's "Way of the Second Coming" Church, but he lied to him right away.
How could they possibly be Jeff's campaign documentary team? Stephen Bean was crazy enough to send a team from California to make a campaign documentary for a guy who believed in a flat earth? And Nick was sure that Jeff had never heard of Gary Dooney.
"Anyway, welcome everyone to Garden City." The middle-aged white man named Hankins nodded to Nick and the other two.
Nick carried the camera, looked at the large pickup truck next to Hankins and asked, "So, are we still going to get in the car and set off?"
"Departure? Where to?" Hankins asked puzzledly.
Nick pointed at the pickup truck and said, "Church, meet Mr. Gary Dooney. I thought this pickup truck was coming to pick us up."
"He's in the municipal building. Yes, this municipal building was bought by our 'Road to the Second Coming of Christ' to make it convenient for everyone to hold worship services. The price is so cheap that it's like giving it away for free." Hankins turned his head and gestured at the three-story building that was just a stone's throw away.
"Garden City was disbanded five years ago. The police department, city government, firefighters... all were disbanded. This is an officially unincorporated area. Now, it is just a human settlement that doesn't deserve to appear on the map of the United States. Everything here is now under the jurisdiction of the Bay County government."
Although America often disbands some established towns, Nick still finds it a little unbelievable because, generally speaking, disbanding occurs in metropolitan areas, which are easier to manage. Small towns in remote rural areas generally do not disband because the county government is too far away and is very inconvenient to manage.
He turned the camera and looked around the neatly organized surroundings: "Such a beautiful place? Why do we need to disband it?"
"No one knows... It seems like we were cheated. That year, we voted to elect two new Garden City government commissioners. Then that year, the five-member committee passed a resolution to dissolve Garden City with a vote of 3:2. The people here were confused and didn't understand what was going on. Then they found the Bay County government and said they wanted to cancel the resolution, but the county government said that the federal and state governments had agreed to our request. But when did we ask? The county government also said that the five commissioners who passed the resolution were all elected by all of us. Since we chose them, it is equivalent to giving them the power and obligations to exercise on our behalf and make the right decisions on our behalf. Speaking of those two shitty commissioners, after the dissolution resolution, their family moved to Miami. Fortunately, they moved away, otherwise I guarantee that more than 30 civil servants who lost their jobs because of this would kill them." Hankins shook his head with a sigh and walked towards the building with a few people:
"The county government has been calculating for four years and still hasn't figured out how much assets and debts Garden City has. They've also been in arrears with my severance pay for four years. By the way, I'm also among the more than 30 people who lost their jobs. I used to be the chief of the Garden City Police Department, but thanks to the disbandment, I'm out of work."
Hankins walked in front of them, chattering away, not caring whether Tommy and Nick heard his complaints. But Nick was from the big city of Los Angeles, and he suddenly thought of a possibility. So he looked at Tommy next to him and asked uncertainly in a low voice, "Do you think it could be what I guessed? Like big cities like New York and Los Angeles?"
Tommy nodded and did not deny it: "What else? There is no second answer. There is only one reason for each disbandment."
"But real estate developers usually only play this kind of trick in big cities, and it's more obscure than what they do here. Why is it happening here too?" Nick looked around again and continued to ask after making sure that this place had nothing to do with big cities.
As the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York continue to expand with the influx of population, some of the surrounding small towns will be disbanded and placed under the management of the municipal government. Generally, this disbanding appears to be the choice of the people, but in fact, real estate developers are involved. The problem is, it doesn't make sense for real estate developers to go to a rural place like Garden City to do this. This place doesn't even have a decent beach, and there are no resorts to build.
"It's not just real estate businessmen who would use this trick. Mining companies, forestry companies, fishing companies... any of them could be involved. Mining companies are more likely. Maybe a mining company has secretly discovered a mineral vein nearby. Once dissolved, all of Garden City's assets and debts will be handed over to the county government, including public security, planning, finance, franchises, legal proceedings, land use rights, etc. Everything will no longer have anything to do with the residents here. The county government can sell the land to whoever it wants, without having to get the residents' consent. Moreover, at the county and state levels, the public relations and lobbying companies of large companies can be more subtle, more flexible, and more efficient. Finally, you'd better not record this." Tommy flicked Nick's camera with his finger:
"As for what you said about the real estate developers' methods of acquiring land being more subtle, that's because the residents of big cities are too smart. But this is Bay County, Florida, where 30% of families live below the U.S. standard poverty line. Do you think they are smart? If they were really smart, they wouldn't have elected a few commissioners who had long been bribed to destroy homes for them. Big companies are blatantly bullying the country folk here because they have no brains."
Nick could only shake his head in the end and admit that what Tommy said made sense, but there was nothing they could do about this kind of thing. As Tommy said, it would be better to delete Tommy's words to avoid trouble. This is fucking America, a magical country where politicians and capitalists can easily treat country people as fools and trick them into giving up power as long as they want.
He tried to restore his mood to the excitement of meeting the saint, and followed Tommy and Hankins into the empty city hall. He walked up the stairs to the second floor, and before entering the room, just stepping into the corridor, Tommy and the others heard a vicissitudes and kind voice:
"I hope you understand that I am just a lucky messenger who has traveled the road of life for many years. It was not until I was old that I realized the true meaning of my coming to this world. God asked me to convey his message to all believers. Remember, you need to do what you should do."
Hearing this slightly hoarse but magnetic voice, Pilgrim Nick couldn't help but take a few deep breaths, ready to appear in the room with a camera in the next second to take pictures of the other person.
But before he was brought into the venue, the voice continued:
"What is the right thing to do?"
"Whoever strikes another shall be put to death."
"Any unchaste woman who falsely claims to be a virgin at a wedding should be put to death."
"Whoever has sexual relations with a married woman shall be put to death."
"And you two have committed three death sentences in the Torah, I..."
"This is the greatest interpreter of the Bible? This is worthy of awe?" Nick almost threw the camera at Tommy after hearing the last few words, and cursed in a low voice: "This is more barbaric and primitive than Jim Temple Jones! He wants to execute his followers, and you fucking..."
"I see that thunder and lightning will fall. We cannot stop God from being angry about this, but I sincerely hope that God will pour the thunder and lightning on me. I am willing to use my body to eliminate your sins and God's wrath. This is what I should do."
"I am willing to bear the punishment you are worried about, but Nikki, Joseph, what you should do most is not to appear here to pray for God's forgiveness out of fear of punishment. No matter when, adultery should be despised. What you should do most is to sincerely apologize to Nikki's husband and get his forgiveness. I will meet some new friends next, so I hope you can go back and think about it now, don't make the same mistake again, and return to God's narrow gate."
The imagined lines that the cult leader would announce the execution of his followers the next second did not appear. The voice inside was still gentle and kind, without any fluctuations, and completely contrary to the lines he imagined. Nick felt as if his neck was choked, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses. Hankins, who was standing at the door, looked back at Nick with an idiot look for a long time, and then looked at Tommy with an inquiring look, trying to figure out what was wrong with this guy.
Tommy rubbed his fingers on his temples twice and said helplessly, "He...has been under a lot of work pressure lately and is mentally disturbed."
"I thought... I thought Dr. Dune would execute them. A lot of extreme sects in the newspapers do that, and the same is true in the movies." Nick explained to Hankins in a low voice: "I'm sorry."
Hankins looked at Nick with disdain and asked Tommy, "Are you sure that the California funder didn't send him here because he has a grudge against the candidate? You should ask clearly. Maybe the funder is actually supporting Jeff Lavine's competitor."
Soon, the door opened from the inside, and two middle-aged white people, a man and a woman, walked out. They were simply dressed, typical of the lower-class poor in the Florida countryside. They looked at Tommy and the others with shame on their faces, then lowered their heads and left in a hurry.
Hankins pushed open the door. "Doc, Tommy Hawke is outside, and he brought along a crew from Mr. Jeff Lavine's campaign documentary to follow him."
"Please let them in." Gary Dunney's voice sounded.
After getting the other party's consent, Hankins stepped aside, and Tommy and Nick, walked in. An old white man wearing tortoise-shell glasses, a plaid shirt and jeans stood up in front of a large desk, walked over to shake hands with Tommy and greeted him. After the greetings were over and they sat down, Hankins left. Gary Duney, who had no aura of a leader, looked at Tommy with a puzzled look:
"To be honest, although I spoke to you on the phone before, Tommy, I still don't understand your intentions. I also don't quite understand who Mr. Jeff Lavine is, what he is running for, and what it has to do with me."
At this point, Nick even began to doubt whether Tommy was joking with him. This old man didn't look like a serious religious scholar, nor did he look like a fluent preacher who could quote scriptures. He looked like... an old employee of a department in the city government who was about to retire. Apart from a silver chain cross around his neck, there was almost no other religious ornaments.
Moreover, it seems that this old man does not look like a billionaire church tycoon. He has set up his church in such an unincorporated town, where all the believers are poor. How could he possibly come up with a large sum of money to support Jeff Lavine's campaign?
Could it be that Tommy was really in awe of the other person, so he came all the way to get to know him?
After talking about the beautiful scenery of Garden City, Tommy looked at Gary Dooney and asked earnestly in a studious tone: "This is it, Dr. Dooney, I accidentally learned some information about you and your church. Those materials said that you said that the New Testament was copied incorrectly and changed too much. Moreover, no one had even seen the original manuscript when it was created. It is an apocryphal book, unlike the Old Testament, which has everything verified."
"I was at Princeton Theological Seminary, where I mainly conducted research on the identification of religious texts. From what I know, yes, the New Testament has the problem of the original text being reconstructed by later generations. I did not say it is apocryphal, but from a research perspective, many of the gospels in the New Testament have various contradictions and different styles." Although Tommy was a little rude to discuss religious texts with him right away, Gary Dune still gave his answer seriously and concisely:
"My mother is a Catholic." Tommy paused for a long time before speaking.
Gary Duni smiled and said, "Catholicism is one of the three main Christian denominations. Your mother can certainly decide which denomination she belongs to."
"When I was very young, I was troubled by a question, Doctor. Those portraits in the Gospels of the Bible. My mother was a devout Catholic. My house was full of those Gospel portraits at that time. I watched those pictures since I was a child. One day, I found a problem. The Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew looked like a human, the Jesus in the Gospel of Mark looked like a lion, the Jesus in the Gospel of Luke looked like a cow, and the Jesus in the Gospel of John looked like an eagle. I asked my mother and the priest in the church at that time, and got a standard answer today, that is, Jesus showed different levels of images when facing different apostles. The human image represents Jesus' humanity, the lion represents Jesus' nobility, the cow represents Jesus' humility, and the eagle represents Jesus' arrogance. After I got the answer, I asked another question. This time, the priest did not give me an answer. Only my mother pulled me to signal me to shut up. The question was, the four of them were all faithful apostles of Jesus. Why did Jesus treat them differently? Why was he arrogant to Apostle John and why was he humble to Luke?"
Gary Duni smiled after hearing Tommy's question. He did not rush to give an answer, but praised him: "Few ordinary believers will find your first question. Generally, after finding it, as you said, ordinary missionaries will also answer it with the standard answer of different levels. But in fact, in the 3rd century AD, there was also a scholar who asked the same question as you, but he was not a believer, he just asked this question from the perspective of religious studies."
"Jesus will not change his image. It has nothing to do with the level. It's just that the apostles faced different missionary groups when they preached, so the image of Jesus they described was also different. They needed to make some noble believers believe that Jesus was as noble as them, and they needed to make other poor believers believe that Jesus was humble and could talk to the poor equally or even humbly. Jesus never changed. For example, the poor believers in Rome only accepted the Gospel of Luke, while the Jewish Christians only accepted the Gospel of Matthew. This was not because of Jesus' image, but because the believers only accepted the kind of belief that was more beneficial to them and that they were more willing to believe in. It's just that the early Christian groups believed that in order to make more people believe in God, there was no need to unify on such things, and let people choose the way of preaching they wanted to accept. This also led to many pagans attacking Christianity from this angle, and the Christian church compiled another book..."
"'Against Heresies', Irenaeus's 'Against Heresies'. In order to help the church cover up its lies, he could only say that the Gospels are the pillars and foundation of the church. The four Gospels represent the four directions of the world, and they also represent the four most solid pillars of the church. A building with four pillars is the most solid." Tommy continued what the other party said.
Gary Duni nodded, looking a little surprised: "You went to a church high school? Ordinary young people don't know these things."
"If someone is confused by the same problem as I was in my childhood, then what should you do?" Tommy did not answer, but looked back at the old man calmly and asked.
Gary Duni was surprised at Tommy's knowledge of Christianity just now, but Tommy's question made him laugh again: "Of course, preaching and explaining, kids, as long as they are willing to listen, I am willing to explain it to them."
"Will you lie?" Tommy hesitated and asked a presumptuous question.
Gary Dooney shook his head slightly: "I never lie, kid."
Tommy's expression gradually brightened. "If there are too many confused people scattered all over Florida, I mean, how much appearance fee do I need to pay you before you are willing to come forward to solve the puzzles for the world? Or, is Mr. Jeff Lavin willing to pay this fee?"
"It is the duty of missionaries to help people solve their problems. Of course, they will not accept any reward. However, if you are willing to pay for your travel expenses or donate to the church, I will certainly be very grateful." Gary Duni saw Tommy's changing expression and felt that something was wrong, but he didn't know what the problem was:
"But I think the pastors or priests in the churches around the world may not want an outsider to interfere in their work."
"You don't need to worry about those issues, Dr. Duny. I will be responsible for solving them, including travel expenses, food and accommodation, and the final donation. There is only one question, which is whether you have time now? We can set off at any time. The first stop will be in Tallahassee. There will be about 200 people and the trip will last for two days." Tommy said with a sparkling look in his eyes.
Gary Duni shrugged and said with a smile, "Of course, but...some of this is too unexpected for me. I mean, you just invited me to preach. You don't have to bring a camera to see me. Although I look a little old, I have no problem traveling by plane alone. Tallahassee, which church organized this gathering?"
"St. Joseph's Rosicrucian Order." Tommy said the term honestly.
The kind and sincere old man opposite was stunned for a moment, staring at Tommy for a long time, then slowly nodded, and then slowly stood up: "Of course, of course there is no problem, no matter what the identity of the lost world is, there is no problem, but...Okay, I will go and talk to everyone, kid, are you sure you believe in Catholicism?"
“I said before that my mother was Catholic,” Tommy said. “I never said I was.”
Nick, who was standing by, didn't know if Gary Dooney's church was a cult, but the Rosicrucian Order of St. Joseph that Tommy mentioned was a notorious religious organization in Florida. Seeing the old man slowly leaving, Nick stared at Tommy:
"What did you do?"
Tommy waited until the old man left before taking out a cigarette, lighting it, and taking a puff. "No big deal. Find a real angel to help the devil. The devil will donate 50,000 yuan to the social charity organization I helped Jeff set up."
Nick immediately understood Tommy's tactics. If those weird cult leaders in Florida were on the same stage with the old man, they would be more confident in selling their own religious works to overseas believers. After all, they could boast to them that they had received help and recognition from the best interpreters in the world.
"You are a devil, you will go to hell, Tommy. This is not a curse, this is the inevitable judgment." Nick whispered to Tommy, "You actually want to sell this kind and sincere old man to those lunatics! Give up this crazy idea!"
"You know what's even crazier?" Tommy said with a smile when he saw Nick's expression.
Nick stared at Tommy and shook his head slightly.
"I sold it more than once." Tommy blew out a smoke ring: "Besides, I, the devil, am already in hell. I have always been at home."
