For Family Values

Christina shuddered. Certainly this could not be happening to her, to her daughter. Christina had tried to raise Susan right. She always seemed a good girl, bright and cheerful. It must have been the boy's fault. Maybe he drugged her. Christina had heard such things existed, back in the old days of sexual-anarchy. Or maybe it was just a story, something invented by the Protectorate to scare people. But Susan had not claimed any such thing. And now her life was over.

The Protectorate would never make allowances for Susan's being pregnant out of wedlock.  She would become a pariah. No man would marry her. No respectable employer would employ her. What was there left for her. She could become a street-walker. And if the Protectorate caught her at that she would really be sunk. All because of one fatal error.

Christina believed in family values. Really she did. The times of sexual-anarchy had been incredibly damaging, to society and to individuals. Sexuality had become a wholly predatory thing whereby people simply used each other. Christina was not surprised there was a reaction. But was there no room for mercy, At least for her daughter.

Christina was interrupted in her reveres, when her daughter edged timidly into the room. Her head was downcast and her was just beginning to show in her body the result of her shame. "I want you to meet my friend," Susan stammered.

If she was bringing the boy here, I will kill him, Christina thought. But the person who entered the room was a willowy, middle-aged, woman.

"I am Barbara of the Congregation of Christ," the new woman stated.

Great, thought Christina, now Susan is falling in with fanatics. The Congregation of Christ lived by their own rules and were not a part of regular society. The principle of religious freedom protected them even from the Protectorate.

"I have come to offer Susan a place among us," continued Barbara. "If she is willing to come."

"But why are you willing to do this?" retorted Christina. "Are you not one of the oldest advocates of family values."

"We are and we cannot approve wrong behavior, but we believe God forgives sin," replied Barbara. "That is one of the reasons the Protectorate opposes us and forces us to live in our own communities. We give help to the broken and the needy in spite how they came to that pass."

Christina hesitated. She was not sure she wanted her daughter associating with such people. But what other choice did she have. Maybe there was something to this Christian thing after all.