Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 43: Interruptions
HENRY’S LIFE was an agglomeration of juggling product releases, projects, new hires, and wedding plans. Lisa had resigned as a contractor for Open Cloak and was focused solely on their wedding plans. Chastity was torn between the two, trying to execute her responsibilities in the office during the day and trying to support her girlfriend at night.
Amazingly, all three were able to maintain a semblance of sanity and support for each other.
“So, Henry and I are going down to Baton Rouge for the holiday,” Lisa said. “Are you sure you’ll be okay, boo?”
“Of course I will,” Chastity said. “I love you and I’ll be waiting here for you when you get home Monday.”
“I don’t know why I should be worried about meeting a minister,” Lisa said. “I don’t even believe in any of his mumbo jumbo. I can’t believe Isobel made Luke convert to Catholicism before they got married.”
“I don’t think either of them really care,” Chas said. “It was all Isobel’s mother. Izzy only pulls the religion card out when it suits what she wants someone to do. She just assumes your mother is being as irrational as hers was.”
“Well, thankfully, the only thing Mom required was getting married in the church. I didn’t even argue about it. It doesn’t make a difference to me, and it’s a pretty building,” Lisa said. “I think she was so surprised that I agreed immediately, she just forgot about all the backup things she had prepared. She was surprised when I told her only two bridesmaids, but Dad was all over that. He considered it a sign of the size of the wedding.”
“It seemed like an awful lot of invitations for a ‘small’ wedding,” Chastity laughed. “Oh! Henry just got home. Shall we have dinner?”
After a night of loving and little sleep, Henry and Lisa took off for Louisiana on Friday and Chastity went to work.
The Methodist minister was a laidback guy who asked them if they wanted him to wear a robe and vestments or just a business suit. Henry and Lisa immediately agreed to the suit idea. They didn’t mention it to Jackie. He’d even been understanding about the inclusion of Chastity in their family and ceremony, as if it was something that happened every day.
“Well, there’s just one more thing I want to do,” Rev. Jackson said before their meeting was over. They’d laughed a lot during the meeting and felt they got to know each other fairly well. The minister pulled his computer keyboard to him and tapped in a few words. He looked at the screen and cocked his head to one side while he considered it. “Hmm. What do you think of this?” He turned the monitor to Henry and Lisa.
Both looked at the screen in amazement.
“You use Pythia Speaks for things like this?” Henry asked. On the screen was the minister’s question and Pythia’s answer.
“She’s great for generating ideas,” Jackson said. “Really makes me think about things.”
On the screen the question was “What should I speak about at Henry and Lisa’s wedding?”
Pythia’s answer was a little more involved than Henry was used to seeing.
“Marriage is a union. A union is stronger than the parts. When one part is threatened, hurt, or even joyful, the union strengthens, comforts, and celebrates. And if things really aren’t going right, the union has the power to strike.”
“Um ... Pythia sometimes doesn’t differentiate between meanings of a word,” Henry said. “I think everything is accurate, but it might not all fit with your message.”
“No. I think it works,” Lisa said. “Look at the key things, Henry. Pythia doesn’t talk about any religion or religious concept. She doesn’t even specify how many people can be in a union. She identifies the concept of mutual support in good times and bad. And believe me, if you were threatened, the union would strike.”
“Very good,” Jackson said, scribbling some notes. “We’ll go with that.”
On Monday, a very amused couple returned to Pittsburgh.
“I never imagined a minister would consult Pythia Speaks for sermon ideas,” Henry laughed when he got together with Luke on Tuesday. “I can’t imagine it’s very common.”
“I think you might be surprised,” Luke said seriously. “Ah. Darla is here. She said she had some important information for us.”
They welcomed their PR person into Luke’s office and summoned Chastity and Isobel to join them. This was not an official board meeting, so their newest member of the board was not present. The new investors, while buying non-voting stock, negotiated having a board member appointed. They had selected Professor Jacoby and he would join them at the June meeting.
“We would have expected a general marketing report at the board meeting in two weeks,” Luke said when they were settled around his conference table. “You indicated that you had information that we should be aware of right away. Please go ahead, Darla.”
“Thank you, Luke. Yes, this news is something you should be aware of. Pythia Speaks has gone viral. You all knew she was gaining users regularly, but since the foreign language versions started coming online, traffic is growing like never before. I expect we will have a million queries a day by the end of this week,” Darla said.
“Whoa! You have to be kidding!” Henry said. “I need to call the server farm and make sure everything is holding together. We didn’t anticipate that kind of traffic. Ever!”
“What’s driving so much traffic?” Isobel asked. “I mean that sounds like more than foreign language versions.”
“Yes. Remember when I said even negative publicity was still publicity? There seem to be people who are tearing into the concept as a tool of the devil. Of course, there are then people who have risen to support her and condemn the megachurches for their alarmism.”
“Megachurches?” Henry asked.
“Let’s take a look,” Darla said. “I brought a link to Sunday’s service at a huge church in Austin, Texas.” She turned her laptop toward them and increased the volume as the recording played.
“The Bible says God is sufficient for all our needs!” Evangelist and megachurch pastor Daniel Reeves spoke to his congregation. At the bottom of the screen a counter showed how many people were watching online. It was close to 30,000! “But this computer pretends to be God. People ask a stupid computer—stupid I say because there is no intelligence where it is artificial—the questions that only God can answer. They pray to the online idol. Fellow Christians, we never anticipated that the antichrist would come in the form of bits and bytes.
“But even this, God has prepared us for. God has given us salvation through his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us therefore arm ourselves, as the Apostle Paul said, with the whole armor of God. Let us gird our loins with the Belt of Truth. There is only one truth and there is only one source of that truth. Let me tell you it is not a machine giving random advice from a mishmash of false religions. It is in the Bible and only the Bible has truth.
“‘Oh, Brother Daniel,’ you might complain. ‘What about science?’ My dearly beloved, science is a false prophet. Science has led us astray through disease pandemics when it would have had us injecting our bodies with poison in the name of preventing disease. Science claims there is no creator, but that people come from the evil-lution of lower species of animals. Science can’t even make up its mind if light is a wave or a particle. All we need to know is that God placed the lights in the heavens. God created man in his own image and woman to be his helper. God protected the righteous from the effects of the pandemic, or took them immediately to be with Him.
“And so I tell you, put on the Breastplate of Righteousness. Satan will bombard you with the arrows of advertising and public opinion and false gods. God’s word will protect you from their false claims. Put on the Shoes of the Gospel of Peace. My brothers and sisters, let there be no mistake that there will be times those shoes need to trample the evil beneath our feet in order to have true holy peace.
“Take up the Shield of Faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Science, history, politics, and all education are not proof of anything. If it contradicts our faith, let it slide off our shield and do us no harm.
“Put on the Helmet of Salvation. Yes, my friends, wrap your head in the immutable love of God’s saving grace. Let nothing enter your head that does not come through the filter of salvation. Would you turn your eyes and your questions to this oracle of degradation? No. You must wear God’s protection of your mind to keep it from being corrupted. For we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness, against the ones and zeroes of a digital idol.”
Rev. Reeves’ voice rang out in the sanctuary seating nearly 3,000 people in front of him. He stepped out from behind his pulpit and the camera followed him as he moved to the center of the chancel.
“We have a wonderful God,” he intoned. “He has given us this armor to protect us from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” No one seemed to notice he’d slipped into Shakespeare. “But we are not a passive faith. No, my friends, God calls us to do battle. And to do battle, he has armed us with the Sword of the Spirit—His holy word. And with our swords drawn, we must march into battle against God’s foes. We must bring down this abomination. Boycott the evil Pythia Speaks, named after a false god of the ancient Greeks. Boycott the companies who program it, host it, support it, and from this point even talk about it. Take your sword of the spirit and cut this cancer from our society. Let its blood be a sweet-smelling sacrifice to our God. Rise up and yell at the top of your lungs, ‘Not today, Satan! Get thee behind me!’ Let me hear you!”
The congregation stood as one and shouted the words, “Not today, Satan. Get thee behind me!”
“Great will be your reward in heaven,” Reeves concluded.
They discussed the threat and Darla pointed out that there were others of various religions who were refuting Reeves’ sermon, but it was obvious that both sides were driving more traffic and more visibility for Pythia Speaks.
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