A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nPp. 178-181<\/em><\/p>\nIt\u2019s Friday morning and we\u2019re at the Red Lion coffee shop with Peter and Aaron. Peter got there early and pulled out his notes to do some work while waiting. When Aaron arrives he assumes Peter is working on a case, but no.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is a case, then I have a fool for a client,\u201d Peter said.<\/p>\n
Aaron gave him a puzzled look.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, the old saying that he who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh! I get it,\u201d Aaron said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, I know,\u201d Peter replied. \u201cIf you have to explain a joke, it ain\u2019t funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, what\u2019s all this about, anyway?\u201d Aaron asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got something important to talk to you about,\u201d Peter said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Any guesses? Aaron has a guess! Nothing gets past Aaron!<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be about a certain blond client who came to church last Sunday, would it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m that obvious?\u201d Peter asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot exactly. I guess it was the two of you together that made a certain impression. Standing side-by-side, you looked like the models on a wedding cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, get off it,\u201d Peter laughed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Just once, I\u2019d like to see a romance between a homely man and a homely woman. Why do books always have to have characters who look like models? Most people do not look like models!<\/p>\n
Anyway, Peter tells Aaron that he is \u201chaving real difficulties sorting out my emotions relative to Gwen\u201d and that he needs help talking through the scriptural principals. He explains that while Gwen did say a prayer as a teen at a summer Bible camp, she does not appear to be a Christian in the present. He adds that he thinks she will likely become a Christian very soon, and explains that he had advised Gwen to test God by asking him to help her win on Tuesday, and they\u2019d won, so God passed the test. Strongly, Aaron does not object, although there is this exchange:<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect she will respond very favorably when I get a chance to follow up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr when someone gets a chance to fAollow up,\u201d Aaron said with one eyebrow raised.<\/p>\n
\u201cUh . . . yeah,\u201d Peter replied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How much you want to bet Peter plans to follow up when he joins\u00a0Gwen and her parents for dinner on Saturday?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more, isn\u2019t there?\u201d Aaron asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d Peter said, lowering his eyes. \u201cI am very attracted to Gwen, and it\u2019s not just her looks, although her looks are obviously very appealing. But I know more than enough to curb that attraction unless and until she becomes a real believer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got that right. So what\u2019s the issue?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue,\u201d Peter replied, \u201cis that she is divorced, and she didn\u2019t have scriptural grounds. And you know I have a commitment to not marry a divorced woman under those circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did she get a divorce?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHer husband divorced her because she kept complaining he wouldn\u2019t get a real job. Now he\u2019s an alcoholic. I\u2019ve met him\u2014he was a witness in the hearing. Her complaints were obviously valid. He wants to get back together and she refuses because of his continued irresponsibility. To put it simply, I believe Gwen probably will become a Christian. But there is no way she can chance her status as a divorcee. What I want to know from you is whether I have read Scripture correctly when I made a commitment to never marry a divorced woman?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Aaron acknowledges that this is an area where people disagree\u2014and he\u2019s right. \u201cVery solid men of God have come to divergent views on this point,\u201d Aaron explains. The reason for this is that the Bible is a bit contradictory. There are some passages that seem to indicate that divorce is acceptable for certain reasons\u2014what reasons depend on the passage\u2014and other places that seem to indicate that divorce is never acceptable. One would think issues like this would make fundamentalist Christians realize they\u2019re going to have to use some Biblical criticism and drop their literalism, but no.<\/p>\n
Anyway, as Aaron talks, Peter becomes hopeful, but Aaron isn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you\u2019ve got a different kind of issue than pure scriptural interpretation. You\u2019ve reached a conviction in the past about the meaning of Scripture and made a commitment to God based on that understanding. And now, when a very attractive alternative interpretation of Scripture comes on the scene, you are rethinking your convictions. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the way that God wants us to operate. Sure, there are times we should change our views. None of us interprets Scripture with one-hundred-percent accuracy. But I don\u2019t believe that we should change our convictions in the heat of the moment\u2014especially when the reason for the change is not some new insight from Scripture, but simply a very attractive temptation to vary what we have believed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter sighed deeply and fiddled with his coffee cup. \u201cI was afraid you were going to say something like that. You\u2019re probably right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d Aaron replied, \u201cI don\u2019t feel that it is appropriate for me to give you a blanket answer about divorce. If God changes your mind, that\u2019s one thing. But if it is a beautiful woman responsible for the change, I fear you set a very dangerous spiritual precedent in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell thanks\u2014I think,\u201d Peter said with a weak smile.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And here ends the section. So let\u2019s talk.<\/p>\n
You may be wondering about this whole \u201cconvictions\u201d thing, because it definitely doesn\u2019t seem to mesh very well with a literalist Bible-ab0ve-all-else worldview. When I was a girl, I read the Elsie Dinsomre books, and one thing that stuck out to me was that Elsie\u00a0refused to read secular books on Sundays. I asked someone about this, because I knew we had no such rules, and that besides attending church, Sunday differed from any other day very little. I was told that because Elsie was convicted that reading secular books on Sunday was sin, and that therefore, it would have been sin for her to do so, regardless<\/em> of what the Bible says.<\/p>\nI\u2019m honestly not sure how widespread this teaching is, and I honestly haven\u2019t even\u00a0thought about it in years. Here, it seems to be applied only to issues that are not completely clear, scripturally. But I would note that many issues that one Christian things are unclear, another things are crystal clear. This is part of the problem with relying on a millennia-old book that is actually a collection of many very different books as the basis of your religious tradition\u2014things won\u2019t always line up, and people will eternally argue over what the book does and does not say. Except that actually, people seem to argue over the details of their religions regardless of their founding scriptures. And here I sense we\u2019re getting off track.<\/p>\n
Let me tell another story. When I was in college, I started a relationship with a young man at around the same time that I began to evaluate a number of my beliefs. My parents immediately argued that I was changing my beliefs to suit the young man in question. I was mad, but I was also a bit scared. Could they be right? Was that what I was doing? Because whether my parents realized it or not, that is not<\/em> something I would be okay with doing. And that, quite simply, is the tension Peter is facing here. In this case it\u2019s very clear that Peter is rethinking his convictions because he met a beautiful woman.<\/p>\nNow, don\u2019t think I haven\u2019t seen you all in the comments making bets on what happens to Gwen\u2019s husband Gordon! Where do you place the odds now? Does (a) Gordon die in a tragic accident; (b) Peter change his mind about divorced women; or (c) Farris keep the two unmarried at the end of the book. And if you\u2019ve read it, no spoilers!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now, don’t think I haven’t seen you all in the comments making bets on what happens to Gwen’s husband Gordon! Where do you place the odds now? Does (a) Gordon die in a tragic accident; (b) Peter change his mind about divorced women; or (c) Farris keep the two unmarried at the end of the book. And if you’ve read it, no spoilers! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-27601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anonymous-tip"],"yoast_head":"\n
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