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of Hell down peoples throats. She s really gentle about her beliefs and people
respect that.
Well, a lot of people think she s a bad person now. It s really hurt her deep.
Sometimes people make me mad. Really mad.
Especially religious people, I said. Or people who hide their cruelty behind a
religious smokescreen.
We talked about religion for a little while. I threw her my beliefs agnostic,
really, I didn t know if God existed or not and she said she definitely believed in
God, but Destiny s church had thrown her away from the Christian ideas. I think
there s more to spirituality than just living life better so not to be thrown into Hell.
I mean, I think God s more interested in our lives than& Than where we go when
we die. Then, At least, I hope so. It s pretty depressing if God just kind of lives
outside our world and lets us run our lives. I want Him to be in and around us, you
know, not some distant grandfatherly-type.
I said, I guess I like that idea. I mean, if I decided to believe in God, then I d
like you hope He d be around. And more interested in us than just our
destination. Destiny seems to act like it s all about being saved and being kept
from Hell. If she s right, then I ll just wait till I m about to die to say the Jesus-
prayer. If God really wants me that much, He ll save me.
A God who is ignorant of us in the here-and-now isn t much of a God at all.
Precisely, I said.
The waitress brought our food and set it down. I picked through my chicken. I
mean, sometimes I wonder, How in the world could God be around us in our
world and let terrible things happen? Did you know thirty thousand kids die each
day because of starvation? I mean, there are people out there who talk so much
about hellfire and damnation and speak out against, I don t know, abortion or gay
rights, and they are so ignorant of what s going in the world. Rape, murder,
genocide, starvation, natural disasters. When I see someone who claims to know
God, I don t want to see someone who just follows a list of rules, you know? She
was nodding and munching on half a potato skin. I want them to actually care
about the world. I mean, if someone is, for lack of a better word, intimate with
God and I don t even know if that s possible then shouldn t they care about
what s going on in the world?
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She said, That s right. I m like you. I think that if someone is going to claim
they know the way to God and everything, they ought to back it up. Ignoring the
struggles of others isn t backing them up. Just being stuck in your own little
American world isn t backing it up. I mean, the poorest people here in America
are more wealthy than half the people in the rest of the world. I may sound
heretical or something, but sometimes I think we ought to stop paying so much
attention to the American poor and give some of that attention to the poor who are
starving and dying. Thirty thousand kids die each day? How can we just
complacently stand by as this happens? I think if anyone claims or infers that
they re got the whole God-thing figured out and I don t think anyone really
does then they should have an eye and heart for the rest of the world, not just
what they see in their little, plush circle.
She was amazing. She really was. She wasn t shallow like half of the people I
knew. She could carry on conversation! I ve always thought that America should
destroy the fast food joints and start eating rice and bread for the diet. We should
get rid of all the expensive homes and lives the simple basics. Stop spending so
much money on expensive cars and fancy television sets. I mean, what if America
really did this stopped being so materialistic and stuff? I think a lot of things
would change. We really could end world hunger. Thirty thousand kids would live
each day.
We d be happier, too, Jena said. I ve been on one or two missions trips in
my life, and the people who always have the least are always the happiest. My
idea? Materialism hasn t infected them like it s infected us. It s a disease, a
plague, it really is. We need to cure ourselves of it.
It s a disease, I said, that doesn t just hurt us, it hurts everyone around us.
Hence a plague.
We continued to talk and elaborated our ideas on spirituality and a world vision.
The waitress came and said, Do you really think people would resort to rice and
bread? I overheard you. It s a wonderful idea, it really is. But look where you re
sitting. Look what you re eating. You d have to give up Applebee s. You d have
to give up ice cream and French fries and hamburgers and pizza and candy bars. I
look at you two and I think, Hey, these kids can do it, but most of America isn t.
The disease of materialism has so choked us that now we live out of our
superfluous pleasures. Ignorance is the underscore of America, and no one wants
to be bothered. They won t worry about other people and they won t give up their
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pleasures. Let the children die, they ll say. It s really sad. And that s why
America is getting more and more corrupt, I think& I ll come back with the
check.
Jena looked at one of the desert menus. Wow, that cream cheese pie looks
good.
Do you want it? I asked her.
What?
I said, Do you want it?
What about the thirty thousand dying children?
Good point, I said.
Plus I try not to eat fatty foods.
Worried about getting fat?
No. Just& I don t like to put on more pudge than I ve got.
A lot of girls think they need to look like cheerleaders to be pretty. I remember
one time I was in the store and I saw some exercising equipment. One of the
aerobic machines had a before and after picture. The before picture looked better,
in my opinion. Girls and I mean this in a general sense need to stop trying to
fit into culture s ideal image. It s not the way it s supposed to be. Besides, girls
in my opinion are cuter when they have a little pudge .
The waitress returned and I asked for two servings of pie. She smiled and left.
Now you can t feel bad, I said, because I m going to be eating one, too.
As we used forks to cut the chilled pie and put it into our mouths, Jena said, You
know what really bugged me about Destiny s church? It was so elaborate. They
poured so much money into that thing, bought all these purples banners and had
bronze statues and state-of-the-art media centers. It just bugs me now, because
we ve been talking about this& This materialism mentality& And it s infected
the spiritual people, too. I mean, here s a church that should be focusing on the
world and helping the people of the world, and they re spending hundreds of
thousands of dollars on a nice-looking building, when only a few thousand dollars
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