Directly after the evening news about a week later, every television screen in the country went black, a trumpet sounded, and the following message appeared on the screen in golden letters while a warm but somewhat unctuous male voice read the words as they slowly scrolled up the screen.
“Soft doctors make stinking wounds. This is as true today as it has been in all preceding centuries. If the body has an infection, kill it. Don’t allow the infection to remain in the body. It will regrow, spread further and contaminate the whole. After excision, sterilise the wound and keep it clean! If a cancer threatens the body, cut it out completely. Do not leave little bits behind in the hope they will become benign.
For nearly a century our governments have treated social infections and cancers like soft doctors, sometimes punishing wrongdoers with a slap on the wrist, sometimes with a fine, sometimes with a prison term in the hope that after a few years they will miraculously become good, moral, law abiding citizens. They will not. Their continued presence pollutes society. During incarceration the evil infection grows and on release spreads to the entire community. The result? Murders, bashings, cheating, lying, stealing.
The most profitable companies pay no taxes to support the society that supports them. Wages are so low and unemployment so high that thousands are homeless, starving and ill, unable to cure themselves. Moneylenders bleed their fellow citizens, as do Corporations to fill the coffers of their shareholders.
In homes across the land most marriages end in divorce. Dissatisfied husbands and wives who have married thoughtlessly grow to hate and hurt and murder each other. Sex-crazed boys, girls, men and women choose sexual partners with less care than their clothes. Children are out of control, wandering the streets at all hours with no adult supervision, thieving, vandalising, causing misery and insecurity to neighbours.
Bored men and women demand access to alcohol every hour of the day and night, and drunkenness fills streets and homes.
Women insist on the right to expose their bodies without restraint anywhere, anytime yet demand severe punishments for men responding naturally to their provocation.
Millions are crying out for decency, honesty, justice, morality. And in his infinite compassion God has answered.
JECHIS is the instrument of the Lord and Master of the Universe who has decided to give his human creations one last chance to choose the path of goodness by obeying his laws and living with decency, restraint and respect for themselves and each other.
The End Times are upon us, so while there is still time, seek out the evil in your hearts and repent and mortify yourselves in the hope of mercy on the day of judgement.”
Signed: I. M. Phoul. Senior Communications Officer. JECHIS.
Internet surveys indicated that seventy-six percent of the community agreed with the basic premise of the notice, thirty-three percent considered it a tasteless joke, and only one percent were seriously worried about the intentions of the authors. No one publicly questioned who was behind JECHIS or how they were able to hijack the television network.
Three weeks later the warning was all but forgotten—obviously a joke in very bad taste.
And then an explosion partially demolished a large, recently refurbished Shopping Mall in a middle class suburb, killing seventy-two and maiming scores, mostly patrons of a well-patronised sex shop in which the bomb had been placed.
That evening in a prime-time slot on every TV channel, the program was interrupted in the same way as before, this time for one full minute, displaying a silent message.
Death to Fornicators. All sexual activity between men and women outside marriage is forbidden. A woman who tempts a man and thus loses her honour by committing fornication, dishonours her father, and her life will be forfeit.
JECHIS.
The regular program resumed with a polite apology for the interruption to their service, as if nothing unusual had happened.
Who or what JECHIS was, was now of great interest, so politicians immediately proved their worth by demanding more and stronger laws and a curtailment of the few remaining individual rights and freedoms in order to protect the nation from further terrorism. Civil Rights spokespeople responded with the valid observation that we already had too many laws infringing personal privacy and freedom, and more couldn’t make any difference. The current legislation was perfectly adequate to allow an efficient security force to keep the country safe.
The following day after work, Arnold and his team were seated around the table in the office as usual, planning the week’s schedule. Hylas, who had been mulling over the bombing suddenly asked, ‘What’s the difference between what they're doing, and what we decided to do the other night?’
‘What do you mean?’ Arnold asked.
‘We said that if Lance did something we didn’t like, we should kill him. That's what they’ve done, killed people who were doing things they don’t like.’
‘You're not serious, Hylas?’
‘Sort of—confused anyway.’
‘Fornicators hurt no one, least of all the people who planted the bomb; it’s only the idea they dislike. You can’t kill someone for having an idea you disagree with.’
‘We do in Australia.’ Robert disagreed. ‘At least we lock them away. There are loads of men in prison who've only written on the Internet and in emails that they'd like to blow something up, or kill someone. They haven't done anything wrong, but they're still punished for thinking about it. So we can hardly complain if these JECHIS people do the same.
‘Come on, Robert. Those guys want to kill, but people who have sex outside marriage hurt no one.’
‘This country encourages and supports all religions, even those with really batty beliefs. They get Government assistance to set up their own schools where they can indoctrinate kids. Some religions are convinced their god wants his followers to kill anyone who transgresses any of what they reckon are holy decrees. So as the state is encouraging people to do their god’s bidding, we shouldn’t be surprised when they do.’ Robert looked around at four sceptical faces. ‘Humans will believe anything that supports their inner desires, no matter how bizarre. They don’t want to die, so they believe there’s life after death. They want to get rid of someone, so they reckon god spoke to them and told them to kill everyone who disagrees with them.’
‘You're joking!’
‘No. All three monotheistic religions share more or less the same holy text that makes similar demands on believers, such as all who curse their father or mother must be put to death, and if a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. Those and dozens of equally harsh rules were written by a bunch of control freaks calling themselves Leviticus. In Exodus, believers are told that followers of other religions must be killed. This is reinforced in Chronicles where we are told that everyone who does not follow the god of Israel, must be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.’
Hylas wasn’t convinced. ‘So…they believe they are right in wanting to kill, and we believe we are right in wanting to live; that means we’re no different from them.’
‘If you believe their religious texts really are laws made by the invisible, omnipotent bloke who made the universe and everything that's in it, then you're right, we’re no different. But we don’t believe it. Our desire not to be murdered is based on the fact that death is real…it is the cessation of life. Their belief in their right to kill is based on wishful thinking, not on facts. There’s not a skerrick of proof that anyone except humans wrote the books that justify murdering and destroying other tribes. I reckon if you kill someone for doing something that hurts no other human, then you're a vile assassin. We, on the other hand, would be defending ourselves from death in this life. Quite different.’ Bart sat back with a satisfied smile.
‘No, it isn't different.’ Robert frowned. ‘They also believe they’re defending themselves from being killed, in their case by their god, for not killing people who offend him.’
Fidel was astonished. ‘But surely they can see the difference between what's real and what isn't?’
‘Sorry, Fidel, religious people can’t distinguish between fact and fantasy, reality and illusion. The need for an overlord to make decisions for them, makes them psychologically weak and terrified by the proposition that there's no purpose in their lives or any other life. They have to believe there’s a big daddy who’s in charge, and their lives have the purpose of serving him, and that this life isn't all there is. Accepting the reality of life and existence would addle their brains, so they convince themselves they're important, that there’s a god who cares about what they think and do, and when they die they’ll go somewhere better than this. Poor fuckwits…they live in fear of annoying a figment of their own imagination. They're crazy, the lot of them, and they rule the planet. Is it any wonder humans have started the sixth great extinction that’ll see the end of us…probably by the end of this century if the experts are right.’
‘Thank you, Robert for putting it in perspective,’ Bart laughed. ‘I guess that means it’s irrelevant whether we’re the same as them or not. We consider ourselves justified in what we intend to do and that's all that matters. Agreed?’
Everyone nodded and the problem was shelved in the interests of getting home to bed.
Over the following weeks seven more explosions rocked the city, causing damage to life and limb. First a cinema on South Side showing a season of erotic films, then a brewery just west of the City Centre, followed by a Family Planning clinic, another Sex Shop, and three night clubs famous for their pole dancing girls, lap dancers and floor shows featuring couples engaging in sexual intercourse. The total death toll was in the high hundreds with many more maimed.
After each atrocity, messages flooded social media on the Internet, arrived as spam in every email box and were dropped in thousands by drones. They were clearly derived from the usual old religious texts, but being in modern English were somehow more frightening than if they'd been direct quotes in traditional religious jargon.
Men who act like women will be put to death.
Adulterers will be put to death.
Whoever worships another god will be offered up as a burnt offering to the Lord your God.
If your brother, son, daughter, wife, or friend, entices you to serve other gods, stone him to death.
Anyone who blasphemes must be stoned to death by the community.
And then the attacks stopped. No one knew why. After a few weeks with no reports of more attacks or police ineffectiveness, it all began to seem like a bad dream. A very, very bad dream.