who fiercely believed that the true God was a jealous God, ready to smite the indolent and rain fire on sin, a Lord whose affection was only earned through subservience. The door creaked open, “Good morning,” Mary said. “Is it?” William asked, nodding towards the names on the warning and probation list. Mary interlaced her fingers in front of her belly, stiffened her back, lifted her chin, and declared with cool, full-throated confidence, “Not for them.” “What happened?” William asked. “That one is a harlot. The other two are her co-conspirators,” Mary said. “A slut, huh, not surprised. Stupid and morally bankrupt tend to go together,” William said. He had despised the girl on the probation list ever since she had the gall to pin a ‘Christians …show more content…
They met as freshmen at a Christian Coalition meeting. William had been attending the meeting as a representative from the campus Young Republicans. The visit was planned as part of an outreach effort to drum up support for a voter-registration drive. William was smitten, not by the spark that follows a love-at-first-sight dynamic, more by the dull glow that evolves through begrudging respect for shared values. Their relationship was framed by common beliefs: The Evangelical fire that burned white-hot in Mary, and William’s uninhibited passion for conservative principles of right-wing Republican politics were perfect bedfellows. Together, they evolved and adopted one another’s worldviews; William allowed his Protestant faith to be co-opted by Mary’s Evangelical Christian fervor, and Mary, who would otherwise prefer a Christian theocracy, melded her worldview to favor limited government, so long as the limited government used the force of law to compel Christian-tinged social values. As one of a handful of conservatives on campus, they wore their beliefs on their sleeve, and found solace in one another’s faith, if not in one another’s physical