Author’s note: Although I may take inspiration from true life experiences, none of these characters are meant to describe or call out any specific person.
Abigail wove through the crowds of people in the narthex to find her friends Beth, Cindy, and Danielle. Although the four of them went to school together and had just seen each other the previous night, they were never short of things to talk about. Abigail grinned at her friends as she joined them. “Hi.”
“Look,” Beth said, gripping fistfulls of her skirt to draw their attention to it. “I got a new skirt.”
“It’s so cute!” the girls chorused.
Abigail took in the skirt. It was totally in style, the color was pretty, and it fit Beth perfectly. “Beth, it looks amazing on you!”
“I’m so glad to get a new skirt,” Beth said. “My old one was from like five years ago. It was ready to go in the thrift bin.”
“I know. It’s so embarrassing to wear a dress that is too small.” Cindy’s eyes glinted. “Did you see what Edith is wearing today?”
The girls all twisted around to see what Edith was wearing. Edith was in seventh grade and still growing, so Abigail had never really thought much about how tight her clothes were. Nor did she care to think about what the girl wore. Edith was several years younger than the friends, but somehow she always ended up being the topic of their conversation.
“That girl needs a new outfit badly,” Danielle was saying. “She wears the same thing every week, and it does not fit her.”
“You know, she tried to hang out with us yesterday?” Beth asked.
“Oh no,” Cindy said. “That would have been horrible. She wasn’t invited.” Abigail remembered seeing Edith at McDonald’s with her older sister Francesca, who sometimes joined the friend group. “I mean, she was hanging out with Francesca, so I guess she kinda wanted to keep hanging out with her when we asked Francesca to come with us to Target.”
“Yes, but she always tries to join the conversation, and she does not get what we are talking about, like, ever.” Danielle crossed her arms and laughed. “Last night, I was telling Francesca about my date with Zachary, and Edith kept butting in to ask me whether I liked Zach. Like, what? Why would I go out with him if I didn’t like him? Also, isn’t she like twelve? She doesn’t need to be thinking about boys.”
“Maybe she should think about them more,” Cindy giggled. “Then she might dress better.”
“I mean, I don’t think Edith really has control over what she wears,” Abigail mentioned. Edith was actually a really sweet girl. It wasn’t like she bought her own clothes. Edith and Francesca’s family had a lot of kids. They probably just tried to get as much use out of their clothes as they could.
“Well, she put it on, didn’t she?” Beth asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” Abigail answered. “But she doesn’t buy her own clothes. And it’s almost the end of the season. Her mom is probably waiting until then to have her try on some different clothes.”
“It’s a shame she doesn’t fit into Francesca’s clothes yet. They would look a lot better on her. And they might make her a little less annoying.” Danielle glanced at Edith. “Look how she’s hovering around Francesca’s shoulder. How does she not pick up the social cue to leave?”
“I know!” Cindy agreed. “Why is she always hanging around? Like, I just want to talk about her, but I can’t when she’s there.”
Abigail felt her face begin to heat. Had her friends not been listening to the sermon that morning? The text had been Lord’s Day 43, about the ninth commandment. Reverend had specifically addressed slandering. She hated to hear her friends slandering someone who clearly couldn’t help her situation. Edith had no control over what she wore, and she was bound to hang around her sister at church if her friends went to a different church! “Um, can we not talk about Edith anymore?”
“But it’s fun!” her friends complained.
“Not really,” Abigail stated.
The girls harrumphed at her.
“Hey, Cindy, did you mom say we could hang out at your house next week?” Abigail asked to turn the conversation.
“She told me she would get back to me. She wanted to have somebody over for dinner and didn’t know if she wanted—. That dress is way too short.” Cindy stopped talking to nod toward their classmate, Gisela, as she walked past.
Beth’s jaw dropped. “That dress is brand new! How could she buy it and wear it to church, of all places?”
“Okay, how did we go from talking bad about one person’s clothes to talking bad about another person?” Abigail wondered. Her friends would hate her for being a killjoy, but she really couldn’t stand how much they worried about other people’s clothes.
“I’ll admit, Edith can’t help what she wears. I get that. But Gisela buys her own clothes and chooses to wear inappropriate things to church.” Cindy shared a glance with Danielle, and the two giggled.
“That doesn’t mean we should talk bad about her,” Abigail reminded them. She stepped back from the group for a few seconds to check the clock in the back of the sanctuary. “It’s like 11:13. Is Rev. in the room yet?”
“I dunno, but a bunch of kids are going,” Beth said.
They made their way through the narthex toward the classroom for their Young Peoples’ Society meeting. As they grabbed their Bibles and Psalters and took their seats, Danielle whispered, “Text the GC when you get home. I have some tea to spill.”
Abigail gasped. She always wanted to hear tea. School drama never failed to entertain. “Did something funny happen on your date with Zachary?”
“No, it’s about Xander.” Danielle waggled her eyebrows at Cindy.
Xander was a boy in their class who had had a crush on Cindy since the fourth grade. Cindy was always trying to avoid him, and Abigail couldn’t blame her. Xander was kind of ugly and the type of guy who never covered his sneezes.
She flipped through her Bible to find the passage that the society would be studying. Society meetings were always boring. Knowing that there was tea to hear afterward would make it more bearable. Her hands stopped on a page of the Bible that was dog-eared. She pulled at the corner to flatten it out, and her eyes caught on the verse that had been hidden.
It was Romans 1: 29–30. “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents.”
Several times over, Abigail read through the list. “Whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,” it said. Right after slanderers were haters of God. They were in the same category. Her heart beat faster as the weight of the verse settled upon her. Quickly, she flipped the page to see what came next. Verse 31 was a list of further sins, but verse 32 summed up what happened to those who committed all of them. The latter part of the verse read, “They which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Abigail had never felt so called out in her life. She had tried to apply the sermon to her life when she had told her friends to stop talking about Edith and Gisela. But then she had gotten all excited to hear the tea about Xander. It was all slander, wasn’t it? Why should one type of slander be forbidden and another type be okay? It didn’t matter whether the gossip was true or not. It was wrong no matter what. It was all worthy of death.
She was worthy of death—she, who took pleasure in the sins listed in Romans 1: 29–31. Yeah, hearing all the drama was fun, but that was exactly what the world said to excuse their unrighteousness, fornication, and wickedness.
At that moment, Reverend came into the room, and Abigail resolved not to let her friends talk bad about people anymore. She tried to focus on Reverend’s opening prayer instead of thinking about the tea and drama that was to be heard.
“We thank thee for sending thy only begotten Son to save us from our sins,” Reverend prayed. “We are wholly unworthy sinners, Lord, deserving of death apart from Him. Help us to live lives of thankfulness toward Him for His great sacrifice and continuing work in heaven on our behalf. Hear us for His sake. Amen.”
Abigail opened her eyes. Her hands stalled on the pages of her Bible as she read Romans 1:32 once again. Sinners were worthy of death, certainly. But according to God, she was no longer worthy of it. She was a sinner, but Christ had died for her. His righteousness was imputed to her.
“Help me not to slander,” she prayed silently before she got distracted by the society discussion. “Help me to live my life in thankfulness. I would be dead if not for Him.” “Abby,” Beth hissed from beside her. “I need to share with you. Philippians 3?” Quickly, Abigail turned the pages. Later, she would tell her friends to stop talking bad about people. Hopefully, they would listen.
Claire Mancusi
Young Calvinists 