Secret Army 3 - The Underground Church in the Basement

Outside Matty's house a banner had been thrown over the wall.
"Happy birthday Matty. 50 today." Matty walked into the house. A great crowd of family and
friends were in the large living room.  The room was full of balloons.  They all cheered.
Matty burst into tears.
"I'm 50 next year," she said, sobbing.  "I'm 49 today."
"But you said you were going to be 50," said Joan.
"I said I was nearly 50."
"Matty, you've been going around saying for the last 3 months, I'm nearly 50, won't it be great
when I'm 50."
"Joan, I was looking forward to being 50 next year.  Did you think I was 50 today?"
"We've driven 400 miles," said Debbie.
"Debbie, you're my sister, I thought you'd remember the year I was born."
"We were never that close," said Debbie.  "Different hobbies, different personalities.  We live
in different worlds.  Doesn't mean we dislike eachother."
"You're my mother," she said, looking at Mavis.  "I thought you would remember when I was
born."
"I've never been any good at remembering dates."
"I had to remind her it was our golden wedding anniversary," said Matty's father.
"Look Matty," said Joan, "all these people have come here today to see you.  Can't they
celebrate your 49th birthday party?"
"It won't be the same.  It's going to be a real damp firework if you throw another surprise
party for me next year, isn't it?"
"Don't worry, we won't bother," said Joan.  Matty began sobbing loudly and walked out of the
room.  She began making a cup of coffee in the kitchen.  That was the best thing to do.  A
cup of coffee would steady her nerves.  Joan had invited Louise to the party.  Brian and
Louise were now gazing at each other.  Brian was recalling a particular song he had heard on
an old cassette tape that had been left behind after a police search.  Malcolm was 85 years old
and had given Brian a cassette recorder.  Louise reminded him of this song.
"Come to me, come to me, I'll hold your hand.  Rest on the ground, not on sinking sand.
Trust in me, trust in me, I won't let go. I want you to know that I'll never let go, oh come to me.
Here in my arms you will be safe from all harm, oh come to me."
"Hello," Brian said to Louise.
"Hello," said Louise.  "I'm one of Joan's friends.  My name's Louise."
"That's a nice name.  My great grandmother was called Louise.  Are you a Christian?"
"I used to be."  Now I'm a police informer, Louise said to herself.  She felt awful inside.  How
could she betray these Christians?  She was a Christian.  But it was important for a
police officer to remain emotionally detached.
"I haven't been to church for years," she said truthfully.
"Have you been baptised?"
"No," Louise lied.  She had been baptised but saying no would give her the opportunity to
find out more about the cult, if that's what it was.
"I do baptism teaching," said Brian.
"Where?"
"In the basement downstairs."
"Just you and me?"
"I don't want to tell you how many people come.  We keep it quiet.  I'll give you my videomail
address."  Brian picked up his mobile and searched for Louise's mobile on his screen.
"There.  I've sent it.  I've got yours as well.  I'll let you know when the meeting is.  We don't have
a set time."

On Monday night Brian was sitting in the living room in Matty's house drinking a cup of coffee.
His mobile played a tune in his pocket.  A picture of Louise appeared on the screen.  She was
standing outside.
"Hi there Louise.  I'll unlock the door and let you in."  Brian led Louise into the kitchen.
"Would you like a coffee or a tea?"
"I'll have a tea," she said.
"Sugar?"
"No."  Brian made the tea and they sat down together in the living room.
"Are you married?" asked Brian.
"Yes," said Louise.  "I have two daughters, both studying their A' levels.  They both want to go
to university."
"What do you do for a living?"  asked Brian.  Louise felt embarrassed.  I'm a police woman,
she wanted to say but couldn't.
"I run my own business," she said.
"That's interesting.  Doing what?"
"I'm a salesperson."
"Excellent.  What do you sell?"
"Boots, shoes, clothes, stuff like that."  Actually the first thing that came into her head.
"In a shop?" asked Brian.  Louise laughed.
"You show your age Brian.  When was the last time you bought clothes from a shop?"
"When I was a child.  I don't buy clothes.  My wife does all the shopping."
"So we're both married," said Louise.  "Happily married?"  Brian felt embarrassed.  There was
nothing really bad about his marriage except the feeling that he was becoming distant
from his wife and children and flirting with a woman who had come to the church.
Louise would be in the meeting tonight.  His wife would be at home with the children.
Louise had no idea that this dilemma was going on in Brian's mind at all.
"Yes.  Very happily married," he said.  "Should we go down to the basement?"  They went
down the stairs into a room underground which seemed huge.  It was full of young people.
"Hello," Brian said to one of the girls.  "This is Louise."
"Hello Louise," said the girl.  "I'm Linda.  This is the underground church.  It's in the basement."
One of the men was holding a small electronic keyboard with keys that looked like a piano.
"That's a children's toy synthesiser," said Brian, "although actually it's a heck of a good one.  We
wouldn't use a guitar down here.  That would be too loud.  The neighbours would hear.  But you
can turn the volume right down on the synthesiser."  The man with the synthesiser started to play it.  It was so quiet you could only just hear it.  Then he began to sing in a hushed voice,
"Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the
Almighty reigns."  The rest of the group joined in, some whispering the words, some miming.
"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory unto him.  Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the
Almighty reigns."  The song ended.  Brian took his mobile out of his pocket and stood looking at the screen.  He began to read.
"The Holy Spirit will not come without his holiness.  He comes to bring change.  He comes to
pour out his love into our hearts.  If you have any sin in your life the Holy Spirit is grieved.  He is hurt.  He can suffer pain.  One night, when I was a student, one of my friends took me to the pub and got me drunk.  I didn't want to get drunk.  It upset me.  Then I thought, what does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit?  My friend is making me unhappy by involving me in something I don't want to do.  So it is when you have the Holy Spirit living in you and do things he doesn't want you to do.  Your sin grieves the Holy Spirit.  Let him flow.  Don't block the pipe.  Repent of everything you know to be wrong.  That's the real meaning of baptism.  Remove all the blockages and let the Spirit of Christ reign in your mortal body.  You want to know why you never feel anything?  That's why you never feel anything.  The Holy Spirit can't flow through a blocked pipe."

After the service the young people went home and Brian invited Louise in the living room for another cup of coffee.
"Excellent sermon," she said.  "Did you write it yourself?"
"It came from the Operation Mobilisation Discipleship and Missionary Training Manual."
"Oh?  I thought Operation Mobilisation was a banned organisation.  Weren't they taken to court for evangelising Muslims in Birmingham?"
"The spirit of Operation Mobilisation lives on in their publications."
"Brian, if an organisation is banned, I thought it meant that every book they ever wrote was taken off the internet."
"I just happen to have a copy."
"Have you been in Operation Mobilisation?" asked Louise.
"No."
"How did you manage to get an excellent book like that?"
"Let's just say I found it somewhere," said Brian.  Louise looked at the wall.  There was a huge
painting of a car park and the registration numbers of five cars could be seen.
"Fancy some cake?" asked Brian.  "My wife makes excellent cakes."
"Yes please," said Louise.  While Brian was out of the room she typed the car registration numbers into her mobile and a huge website came up, showing books, videos and music by several organisations including Operation Mobilisation.  She took a photograph of the picture on the wall. She didn't see Brian come back in carrying the cake on a large plate.
"You'll never believe this," he said.  "Chocolate and peanut butter."

Matty was walking down the street when she was stopped by a policeman.
"Are you Mathilda Days?" he asked.
"I am," she said.
"Do you lead a church cell group?"
"I have done in the past."
"In that case would you like to come with me down to the station?"  Matty was shocked and surprised but willingly accompained the police officer down to the station.  He sat her down in the office.
"Mz Days, do you have very strong views about Islam?" asked the policeman.
"I said some very unkind things about Islam in the past and I don't think all of them were true.  I have changed my mind about some things that I said."
"Mz Days, it doesn't matter if you have changed your mind.  The law was broken when those
statements were made.  You said that Islam was a terrorist religion and that the Quoran was a
terrorist's charter."
"I had some passages from the Quoran which weren't very accurately translated.  It is possible to translate the word that this writer translated as unbelievers very differently - it could actually refer to a serious criminal.  It was more ordinarily translated as 'those who work mischief in the land' or 'infidels' and is stronger than simply saying that someone is not a Muslim.  The Quoran doesn't tell you to crucify people who are simply not Muslim."
"You admit it.  You said all of those things," said the Policeman.  The woman police sergeant came in to the room.  "Sarah," said the policeman, "this is the woman who was speaking on that
video.  Take her down to the cells until I can work out what I'm going to charge her with."  The
sergeant led Matty out of the office and put her in the same cell as Clare.  Matty looked shocked.
"Hello Clare.  What are you doing here?"
"I had a darknet server in my office.  The computer was stolen.  The police have it."
"Can they trace the people who wrote the articles on it?" asked Matty.
"They can.  I imagine that's why you're here."
"I used to run a cell group in my house.  We used to film it and put it out on line.  One meeting - just one meeting - was on the subject of Islam.  It was years ago, Clare, more than ten years ago.  I said that the Quoran was a very violent book that it told you to kill unbelievers.  I had read an American website on the subject."
"They would arrest you if you said that," said Clare.
"The problem is, I'm not really sure the Quoran says those things.  The translation of some of those words is uncertain.  It might not be as violent as some Christian commentators think.  Yes, the Quoran tells you to kill people, no one would deny that.  But who does it tell you to kill?  Unbelievers or serious criminals?  The maker of that website hardened the meaning of the Arabic words.  I'm sure he did."
"It doesn't make any difference if you changed your mind about what you said.  You have broken the law, Matty, that's all there is too it," said Clare.
"If I'm going to go to prison for being a Christian I just wish I could do it for saying something that was true, or for doing something that was worthwhile, not just for repeating a lie from an American website which was probably only trying to justify the American invasion of the Ismalic State in 2045."

There was another meeting of the underground church.  Alison walked behind Malcolm as the 85 year old man clutched the bannister rail on the stairs.  He had both hands on the rail and put both feet on each step.
"Be careful," said Maria, "if he falls down those stairs."
"He is perfectly steady on stairs," said Alison.
"He doesn't look steady to me."
"I'm a nurse.  As long as he has proper shoes on and is holding on to something Malcolm is steady as a rock."
"Thank you Maria," said Malcolm.  "I'll be fine on the stairs.  I'll take my time."
"You can't deny that he has falls."
"I have falls because I'm careless," said Malcolm.  "Oh, I was just adjusting the valve at the bottom of the radiator in my slippers that don't fit properly.  Oh, I was just walking across the garden in the same slippers and forgot my stick."  At the bottom of the stairs the people had gathered for the meeting.  About a dozen young men and women were there.  Brian was sitting much too close to  Louise.
"Hello Malcolm," said Brian, "what have you been doing today?"
"Sending videomails to one of the colonists on Mars.  In French.  Keeping my brain active."
"You should keep your body active as well."
"Nothing like a good walk down the stairs."
"This is Malcolm," said Brian to Louise.  "He has a gift of prophecy.  He saw this all coming."
"For forty years I've been writing a book on how to memorise Bible verses," said Malcolm.  "I knew Christians would be persecuted."
"I thought Bibles had been banned," said Louise.  "Where did you get your Bible from?"
"I have had it since I was a child.  It is the original NIV, 1979 version and bought for me for a birthday present in 1981.  It's very important to use the same version all the time when you're memorising scripture.  A new NIV is no good.  There's six different editions that came out at different times.  It's falling apart but I can still copy verses out of it with a biro."
"What's a biro?" asked Linda.
"A kind of pen."
"What's a pen?"  Malcolm laughed.
"You write on paper with it.  I've got an old clip file that I keep next to my cassette recorder."  Linda looked mystified.
"What sort of music do you listen to on your cassette recorder?" asked Louise.
"The Beatles and Cliff Richard."
"Who are they?" asked Linda.
"This meeting is going to be led by Malcolm the prophet," said Brian.
"Do not worship me, I am only a man myself," said Malcolm, laughing.  "I think we could start by memorising one of the Proverbs.  Here's a proverb that really speaks to me.  Proverbs 13 verse 23.  'A poor man's field may produce many crops but injustice sweeps them away.'  How does that make you feel?"
"Shouldn't we just try to remember it?" asked Maria.
"You need your spirit to absorb the Bible verse.  Then try to remember it.  It makes me feel angry about the third world.  They grow plenty of food, they grow half of what we eat, but they export it all. Injustice sweeps it away.  And where was the verse?  Proverbes 13 verse 23."
"I can feel the injustice there," said Brian.  "It makes you think about how it actually happens.  It's not true that the soil simply couldn't support the people."
"And what verse of the Bible are we talking about?"
"Proverbs 13 verse 23," said Alison.
"Good.  What does it say?"
"Injustice sweeps away a poor man's crops," said Linda.
"You've got it.  You've got the essence of it.  Now I'll say it again.  'A poor man's field may produce many crops but injustice sweeps them away.'  Whisper these words after me.  Who is it about?  A poor man."
"A poor man," they all whispered together.
"What is about?  A poor man's field."
"A poor man's field."
"What does it do?  May produce many crops."
"May produce many crops."
"What happens to the crops?  But injustice sweeps them away."
"But injustice sweeps them away."
"Where is this verse?  Proverbs 13 verse 23."
"Proverbs 13 verse 23."
"Now we'll say it all together.  'A poor man's field may produce many crops but injustice sweeps them away.'  Proverbs 13 verse 23."

In the police station the policeman led Matty out of the cell that she shared with Clare.
"We're letting you go," he said.  "As long as you follow our instructions."  Matty followed the policeman into the office.  "Sign this."
"What is it?"
"It's a Legal Injunction.  You have committed a public order offence.  We are prepared to accept you had no previous convictions and were acting out of character.  Be warned Mz Days, this is a legally binding document.  If you don't abide by the terms of the Injunction you will go to prison."