Edenville Owls

Chapter 26

I went up to the Reverend Tupper’s youth group meeting on Sunday afternoon, and slipped into the back row. There were maybe fifteen other kids there. Too few to hide among. The reverend spotted me.

“Bobby Murphy,” he said in his mock Irish brogue, “sure and ye be welcome among us, Bucko.”

I nodded and tried to look pleased. Actually I was so nervous, I thought I might throw up.

“You are just in time, Bobby, to join us in our opening pledge.”

Everyone stood up, so I did too. We stood at attention.

“Until I die...” the reverend said.

Everyone said, Until I die...

“I will serve...”

I will serve...

“This flag...”

This flag...

“And the great country it represents...”

And the great country it represents...

“So help me God.”

So help me God.

We all sat down. Reverend Tupper was wearing a tan uniform, kind of like a Boy Scout leader, except instead of a kerchief, he had a black tie. Over the tie he wore some kind of medal hanging on a blue ribbon around his neck. Behind him on the wall was a big American flag with a crucifix. The same one that had been in the house trailer church.

“As always,” the reverend said, “we begin by reviewing the truth of our mission. The flag of our country is red, white, and blue: red, for the blood shed in the defense of our way of life; blue is for the true-blue loyalty of those who have defended our way; and white for the color of the founding fathers.”

All of us sat silently.

“Those of us who served in the war, including those who won the Medal of Honor” — he touched the medal — “as I did, went to war to keep those colors clean and pure. We trusted this country and we were lied to. We were not preserving those sacred colors. We were fighting to advance the cause of godless Communism. We were fighting to repress white Christians. We were making it more possible for black and yellow hordes to mongrelize the population so that racial purity and Christian virtue could be banished. We were manipulated by Franklin Delano Jewsavelt and international Jewry, who conspired to demonize the German people and advance the cause of godless Bolshevism in the name of victory.”

We all sat perfectly still listening. It was unbelievable. I had never heard anyone talk that way. I wasn’t exactly sure what he was saying, but it was certainly different than anything anyone else had ever said to me about the country and the war. He used words like nigger and kike, as if they were perfectly okay words. He talked as if Jews weren’t white. He spoke of a yellow invasion from Asia. He spoke of the Communist plan to rule the world by stirring up rebellion in the inferior races. He talked like it would have been better if we had joined the Germans and defeated Russia. I was completely amazed.

“I too was deceived,” he said. “I fought in this war, on the wrong side, killing Christians on behalf of Jews and Bolsheviks. I was given a Medal of Honor for it. And I am ashamed. I am ashamed of the medal, and I am ashamed of myself. But it is not yet quite too late. We still have a chance to save our nation and our race. It is you who are our chance. You strong, young white Christian men who can choose fertile, young white Christian women and form the breeding stock for a race of cleanliness and purity.”

He stopped and gestured toward us with both hands and bowed slightly and clapped, apparently for us. The boys in the audience began to clap back and pretty soon there was loud applause. I clapped along with the others.

“Together,” the reverend said, “we will move forward. Together we may save our race.”

More applause.

When it died down, the reverend said, “Next week we will begin systematic instruction, with some guest instructors.”

Then he stood at attention and we all stood up at attention and he put his right fist over his heart.

“White and Christian until death,” he said.

We all put our right fists over our hearts.

White and Christian until death.