Customer Reviews

Fidelity of Betrayal

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Since the author seems to like clever little stories, I thought a story may be a good way to post a review of his book. Here goes...

--Not so very long ago, in a city not so very far away, there lived a young couple. They had been married for only a few years, and while their marriage had had its ups and downs, it was on the whole a good marriage, and the wife rested sure in her husbands love and care for her.

In the weeks leading up to her birthday, she began dropping subtle and not-so-subtle hints of things he really should consider getting her for that day. She wasn't a greedy woman, but she couldn't help but feel anticipation at what her husband may have chosen to give to her (with a bit of dread that it may be something practical).

So, when the day came, and she came home late in the afternoon to find him standing at the table, a silly look on his face, she got a little thrill. With a silly grin, he motioned to a couple of envelopes on the table. Not sure what would be in them, because most of what she was really hoping for were things that couldn't fit into envelopes, she opened the first.

Inside, she found a very legal set of divorce papers.

With growing confusion, she set the papers down, and with much less enthusiasm opened the second. Inside was a letter addressed to her husband, but it was from a woman she had never heard of, and this woman basically said that she was expecting a child, and it was his, and he'd best be ready to own up to it.

The wife looked up at her husband, completely dumbfounded, hoping for the punchline, and by golly with the distress he had just put her through, it had best involve diamonds.

Instead, his silly grin just broadened. "Well, what do you think?"

"Think?" She exclaimed, though her thoughts after that were much less organized. "This...this...what? Divorce papers?"

"Of course!" He said. "You see, a few months ago, I read this truly brilliant book by a guy named Peter Rollins, it's called 'The Fidelity of Betrayal', and..."

"The...the what? Betrayal?"

"Sure. Don't worry, it makes perfect sense, in its own way. You see, in this book, he talks about how Christianity should actually be a religion beyond religion, not being about creeds and beliefs or if anything in the Bible is true or even if there is a God or not. And so, I thought, hey, why can't we have a marriage like that, a marriage beyond marriage, without need for things like vows and rings and wedding ceremonies and all that 'til death do us part' stuff. No, I decided that we need to have this kind of marriage beyond marriage, where we know our love for each other even as we doubt that love, were we doubt our marriage even as we know that something has happened that has transformed this relationship we have. So, in asking you to divorce me, I'm asking you to enter this marriage beyond marriage, where we have a commitment beyond commitment, faithfulness beyond faithfulness, where we are not bound by oppressive vows that tell us what we can or cannot do."

While she was hearing his words, the words had seemed somehow...strange. Like the meaning she had always associated with them was somehow...missing. When she had been young, before there had been digital photography, she had seen real photo negatives, and they had looked strange to her because they had been the opposite of the photo itself. The words she was hearing were a lot like that.

At a loss for her own words, she simply held up the letter for her husband to see. His reaction was almost ecstatic.

"Oh, you read that, too!! Good, I'm so glad. You see, in reading Rollins' book, I found out that betrayal is the ultimate act of love and faithfulness! Just as Judas was faithful because he betrayed Jesus, so I've proven my love and faithfulness to you have betraying your trust and our marriage vows, having an affair with another woman, and now having a child by her. I've come to see that a real marriage will always demand an act of betrayal on the part of the faithful, and that the deepest way I can express my fidelity to you is by engaging in a betrayal of you and our marriage. Because, you see, 'marriage' and 'miscreant' both begin with the letter M, just like the names Jesus and Judas both begin with the letter J, so it's impossible to really separate a faithful marriage partner from someone who's a blatant cheater. Can't you see, by betraying you and our marriage vows and sleeping with other women, I've presented you with the gift of my monumental love for you!!"

For a long moment, there was no sound between them. Slowly, the wife's face went from disbelief and puzzlement, to a brief moment of comprehension and intense pain, and finally took on a set of cold fury that no man who values his livelihood, his reputation, his household and the things in it he rests in, and finally his half of the estate, ever wants to see in his wife's face. She had been holding the letter, and she picked up the divorce papers.

"Why, yes." She said with a voice of menacing sweetness. "You've given me the very things that I've just learned that I really, really want." Saying that, she turns from him, digs her cell phone from her purse, and as she walks out the front door she is talking on the phone to her lawyer, and her voice was so loud and firm that her soon-to-be ex-husband heard phrases like "Oh, no, my brothers would be far too merciful to him", "Yes, I even want that ratty sweat-shirt he wore all through college, too", and "If he wants half of anything, he should keep in mind I do know how to use a chain-saw".--

For those of you who are so hip on story, I hope you appreciate that little attempt. For those of you who like plainer words, I understand fully, and these I think say it all much more succinctly than can any story I can imagine.

II Timothy 4
1I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the
living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the
word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all
longsuffering and teaching. 3For the time will come when they will not
endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves
teachers after their own lusts; 4and will turn away their ears from the
truth, and turn aside unto fables. 5But be thou sober in all things, suffer
hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry.