Mr Chandler, good luck! Now go.’
Zeke rode the bike extraordinarily slowly at first, but as he got used to the machine and the flattish terrain he began to speed up, almost enjoying himself. The general had given him much to think about.
Jed Crone was waiting for him at the second bridge. Zeke got off the bike, killed the engine, and yanked it onto its stand.
Someone coughed, not quite meaning it.
‘How was Kabul?’ asked Crone.
‘So-so,’ said Zeke. ‘So-so.’
That fake cough again.
Zeke came out of his reverie to see the stone-faced man standing by the door. He apologised, stood up and was led into a wood-panelled office, lined with books. Along one side of a large oak table, five elders of the Church sat in high-backed chairs; on the other side stood one plain chair. He had known every single one of them all their lives. The high priest of the Melchizedek order, Elder Jeremiah Thring, some nine years Zeke’s junior, picked up a slim pamphlet in black covers from the table, cleared his throat and the proceedings began.
‘I announce that this session of the Strengthening Church Members Committee has been called to examine the following pamphlet written by Ezekiel Chandler. Brother Chandler, you wrote this thing?’
Zeke nodded.
‘Brother Chandler, this session is being tape-recorded for legal purposes, so we need to hear your responses, loud and clear.’
‘I am the author of the pamphlet in your hand,’ said Zeke.
‘And it’s title is “Mormonism: An Impudent Fraud?”’
‘That is correct.’
Elder Thring started to read in a voice edged with anger: ‘Joseph Smith, 1805–1844, the founder of the Mormon Church, claimed the Angel Moroni led him to golden plates on which was transcribed the Book of Mormon, proof that some Israelites had travelled to America until they died out around AD 400. The Book of Mormon identifies the following crops: barley, figs, grapes and wheat. But does the archaeological record provide any evidence of barley, figs, grapes and wheat in America before the conquistadors arrived, following Columbus’s discovery of the New World in 1492? It does not.’
He paused. The silence in the room grew until Zeke felt he had to puncture it.
‘And the animals?’ pressed Zeke. ‘Don’t forget the animals. The Book of Mormon says in pre-Columbus America there was ass, bull, calf, cattle, cow, goat, ox, sheep, sow, swine, elephant. Is there any archaeological evidence to support our holy book? There is not. Horses are cited in eleven separate instances in the Book of Mormon. Horses came to the American continent with Cortes in 1519. The Book of Mormon is hokum, Jeremiah.’
Thring let the pamphlet fall onto the table. ‘Brother Chandler, you were born into this faith and yet you mock it. You have been a good Mormon and have served your country impeccably, and yet you bring hatred to your people. You are of good family, with seven children and many grandchildren who are all Mormons of good standing. What on earth has made you do this – to attack this, our Church, with such poison?’
Five pairs of eyes bored into him.
Zeke shifted in his chair, coughed, but said nothing.
‘Well, Brother Chandler?’
‘I read something by a man called Archibald Sayce.’
‘Is he a hater?’
Zeke shook his head.
‘You’ve got to say it out loud, Brother Chandler, for the record.’
‘Archibald Sayce was Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University in 1891. One of the very first people to decipher Egyptian and Hittite hieroglyphs – that is, he unlocked languages, cultures that had been dead to us for some three thousand years. Sayce was a genius. He was shown the pictures in the Mormon Book of Abraham. Sayce wrote’ – Zeke’s ability to recall detail had been a thing of wonder to his colleagues in the CIA – ‘that “it is difficult to deal seriously with Joseph Smith’s impudent fraud”. For the Book of Abraham, Smith cannibalised an Egyptian funeral drawing,
Zeke rode the bike extraordinarily slowly at first, but as he got used to the machine and the flattish terrain he began to speed up, almost enjoying himself. The general had given him much to think about.
Jed Crone was waiting for him at the second bridge. Zeke got off the bike, killed the engine, and yanked it onto its stand.
Someone coughed, not quite meaning it.
‘How was Kabul?’ asked Crone.
‘So-so,’ said Zeke. ‘So-so.’
That fake cough again.
Zeke came out of his reverie to see the stone-faced man standing by the door. He apologised, stood up and was led into a wood-panelled office, lined with books. Along one side of a large oak table, five elders of the Church sat in high-backed chairs; on the other side stood one plain chair. He had known every single one of them all their lives. The high priest of the Melchizedek order, Elder Jeremiah Thring, some nine years Zeke’s junior, picked up a slim pamphlet in black covers from the table, cleared his throat and the proceedings began.
‘I announce that this session of the Strengthening Church Members Committee has been called to examine the following pamphlet written by Ezekiel Chandler. Brother Chandler, you wrote this thing?’
Zeke nodded.
‘Brother Chandler, this session is being tape-recorded for legal purposes, so we need to hear your responses, loud and clear.’
‘I am the author of the pamphlet in your hand,’ said Zeke.
‘And it’s title is “Mormonism: An Impudent Fraud?”’
‘That is correct.’
Elder Thring started to read in a voice edged with anger: ‘Joseph Smith, 1805–1844, the founder of the Mormon Church, claimed the Angel Moroni led him to golden plates on which was transcribed the Book of Mormon, proof that some Israelites had travelled to America until they died out around AD 400. The Book of Mormon identifies the following crops: barley, figs, grapes and wheat. But does the archaeological record provide any evidence of barley, figs, grapes and wheat in America before the conquistadors arrived, following Columbus’s discovery of the New World in 1492? It does not.’
He paused. The silence in the room grew until Zeke felt he had to puncture it.
‘And the animals?’ pressed Zeke. ‘Don’t forget the animals. The Book of Mormon says in pre-Columbus America there was ass, bull, calf, cattle, cow, goat, ox, sheep, sow, swine, elephant. Is there any archaeological evidence to support our holy book? There is not. Horses are cited in eleven separate instances in the Book of Mormon. Horses came to the American continent with Cortes in 1519. The Book of Mormon is hokum, Jeremiah.’
Thring let the pamphlet fall onto the table. ‘Brother Chandler, you were born into this faith and yet you mock it. You have been a good Mormon and have served your country impeccably, and yet you bring hatred to your people. You are of good family, with seven children and many grandchildren who are all Mormons of good standing. What on earth has made you do this – to attack this, our Church, with such poison?’
Five pairs of eyes bored into him.
Zeke shifted in his chair, coughed, but said nothing.
‘Well, Brother Chandler?’
‘I read something by a man called Archibald Sayce.’
‘Is he a hater?’
Zeke shook his head.
‘You’ve got to say it out loud, Brother Chandler, for the record.’
‘Archibald Sayce was Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University in 1891. One of the very first people to decipher Egyptian and Hittite hieroglyphs – that is, he unlocked languages, cultures that had been dead to us for some three thousand years. Sayce was a genius. He was shown the pictures in the Mormon Book of Abraham. Sayce wrote’ – Zeke’s ability to recall detail had been a thing of wonder to his colleagues in the CIA – ‘that “it is difficult to deal seriously with Joseph Smith’s impudent fraud”. For the Book of Abraham, Smith cannibalised an Egyptian funeral drawing,
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