when I didn’t think I could.”
Laura laughed lightly. “Sorry,” she said, “It’s hard to explain. Am I making any sense at all?”
“Yes,” Vicki said. She understood that special feeling, had known it years ago.
The brothers and sisters of the Holiness Union Church believed in God, in salvation through the Blood of His Only Begotten Son, in the surety of a heavenly home for the faithful and true believers, and the endless flaming punishment of Hell for sinners. The brothers and sisters of the Holiness Union Church believed in miracles, in the power of God to heal by casting out demons of the mind and heart and body.
The brothers and sisters of the Holiness Union Church believed that women wearing make-up were guilty of the sin of vanity, that women in pants were guilty of far worse, that dancing was meant to tempt too weak flesh to greater sins, that alcohol drove God out of your mind and spirit, leaving an inviting vacuum to be filled by Satan, that movies and television glorified godless people doing godless things, that the sole godly reason for sex was to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, and that the Devil walked the Earth, eager and alert to snatch your soul and cast it into the pit the moment your eyes were not on God and your heart was not filled with Jesus.
The Millers—Brother Robert, Sister Lou Ann and their children, Victoria and her sister, Carol Grace, younger by three years—belonged to the Holiness Union Church. The girls learned to ignore the taunts of schoolmates. “Holy roller, bible banger, crazy, goofy, nutty, batty freaks.” The insults might wound, but God healed the wounds of the faithful. What harm could a poor lost sinner do to God’s children who walked in His path, knew Him as shield and comforter?
Victoria and Carol Grace believed with a single-minded intensity which only the young can achieve. “He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own…” is what the sisters felt from moment to moment in their lives, but it was when they prayed with the congregation in the white frame Holiness Union Church that they were overwhelmed by the shining force of His wondrous love. There with the benches pushed against the walls to clear the floor for those seized by the Holy Ghost, convulsing in an ecstasy of the spirit, crying out the streams of mysterious God-inspired words, they knew and rejoiced in God’s might and His magnificence beyond magnificence. And when Brother Earl or Brother Talbot or their very own father Brother Robert, laid hands on the sick, commanding “In the name of the Lord!” that Satan’s imps, demons, and devils quit the body of God’s servant, the servant was cured, healed of the common cold, rheumatism, colitis, psoriasis, and they beheld a miracle.
In church, when Victoria Miller thanked God for His grace, she often cried, sobbing at the splendor of His gift, freely given.
She was saved and Carol Grace was saved, because their blessed parents were godly people who brought up their children in the ways of the Lord. That is what Victoria Miller believed.
Victoria was 14 when her father died of a heart attack. She could have accepted that. Death was “The Lord calling his servant home.”
However Brother Robert died late at night in the mobile home of a bleached blonde who had known many men. Brother Robert was naked and died in a naked woman’s bed.
Victoria could not accept that. She could not accept her father’s burning in hell forever, could not accept his being a hypocrite, a liar, a fornicator, an adulterer.
Mrs. Miller could not accept it, either. Within a year, she was mumbling to herself about blood sins and winged serpents and communists, and six months later, muttering prayers, she tried to burn down the house. She was committed to a mental institution; a year later, she died there.
Victoria and Carol Grace were taken in by their father’s brother and his wife, Uncle Chester and Aunt Toni. It was
Laura laughed lightly. “Sorry,” she said, “It’s hard to explain. Am I making any sense at all?”
“Yes,” Vicki said. She understood that special feeling, had known it years ago.
The brothers and sisters of the Holiness Union Church believed in God, in salvation through the Blood of His Only Begotten Son, in the surety of a heavenly home for the faithful and true believers, and the endless flaming punishment of Hell for sinners. The brothers and sisters of the Holiness Union Church believed in miracles, in the power of God to heal by casting out demons of the mind and heart and body.
The brothers and sisters of the Holiness Union Church believed that women wearing make-up were guilty of the sin of vanity, that women in pants were guilty of far worse, that dancing was meant to tempt too weak flesh to greater sins, that alcohol drove God out of your mind and spirit, leaving an inviting vacuum to be filled by Satan, that movies and television glorified godless people doing godless things, that the sole godly reason for sex was to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, and that the Devil walked the Earth, eager and alert to snatch your soul and cast it into the pit the moment your eyes were not on God and your heart was not filled with Jesus.
The Millers—Brother Robert, Sister Lou Ann and their children, Victoria and her sister, Carol Grace, younger by three years—belonged to the Holiness Union Church. The girls learned to ignore the taunts of schoolmates. “Holy roller, bible banger, crazy, goofy, nutty, batty freaks.” The insults might wound, but God healed the wounds of the faithful. What harm could a poor lost sinner do to God’s children who walked in His path, knew Him as shield and comforter?
Victoria and Carol Grace believed with a single-minded intensity which only the young can achieve. “He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own…” is what the sisters felt from moment to moment in their lives, but it was when they prayed with the congregation in the white frame Holiness Union Church that they were overwhelmed by the shining force of His wondrous love. There with the benches pushed against the walls to clear the floor for those seized by the Holy Ghost, convulsing in an ecstasy of the spirit, crying out the streams of mysterious God-inspired words, they knew and rejoiced in God’s might and His magnificence beyond magnificence. And when Brother Earl or Brother Talbot or their very own father Brother Robert, laid hands on the sick, commanding “In the name of the Lord!” that Satan’s imps, demons, and devils quit the body of God’s servant, the servant was cured, healed of the common cold, rheumatism, colitis, psoriasis, and they beheld a miracle.
In church, when Victoria Miller thanked God for His grace, she often cried, sobbing at the splendor of His gift, freely given.
She was saved and Carol Grace was saved, because their blessed parents were godly people who brought up their children in the ways of the Lord. That is what Victoria Miller believed.
Victoria was 14 when her father died of a heart attack. She could have accepted that. Death was “The Lord calling his servant home.”
However Brother Robert died late at night in the mobile home of a bleached blonde who had known many men. Brother Robert was naked and died in a naked woman’s bed.
Victoria could not accept that. She could not accept her father’s burning in hell forever, could not accept his being a hypocrite, a liar, a fornicator, an adulterer.
Mrs. Miller could not accept it, either. Within a year, she was mumbling to herself about blood sins and winged serpents and communists, and six months later, muttering prayers, she tried to burn down the house. She was committed to a mental institution; a year later, she died there.
Victoria and Carol Grace were taken in by their father’s brother and his wife, Uncle Chester and Aunt Toni. It was