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[Translator - Pot ]
[Proofreader - Kawaii ]
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Chapter 26: Campbell Cathedral Revival Meeting (3)
In modern Protestant church programs for elementary, middle, and high school students, there is a strategy called the ‘Talent Festival.’
Children who attend services faithfully, pay attention without dozing off, practice and perform praise dances on stage, or achieve excellent results in Bible study are given
‘Talents’ a form of mock currency.
These talents can then be used at a talent market held every six months or annually, where children can purchase toys, snacks, or school supplies.
Ray plans to establish this talent system at Campbell Cathedral.
"The talent... system?"
"Yes, if you collect stamps distributed by our cathedral, you can use them at the 'Talent Festival' held every quarter."
"Talent Festival?"
Ray explained the Talent Festival.
The most crucial part was this:
"Holy water will also be available at the Talent Festival, so if you participate diligently, you'll be able to obtain some~"
Holy water would be available.
They're giving away holy water again, even low-grade holy water worth several months of living expenses for a family of four?
The citizens showed great interest and raised their hands.
"So, how do we earn these talents?"
"Well, those who faithfully attend the cathedral, those who come early to help with cleaning and preparations before mass, those who attend Bible study, and those who achieve excellent results in Bible study will be given 'talents'."
Talent Festival.
And talents.
Typically, this is an event limited to youth departments to encourage children's emotional development and proper faith practices.
The more diligently they read the Bible, listen to their instructors, stay awake during worship, and attend regularly, the more talents they accumulate in their hands, which are rewarded at the Talent Festival.
"Tsk! If you keep fighting with your friends, I'll confiscate your talents!"
"Oh my, Kyungchan, you came for Wednesday service too? That's an extra 50 talents!"
And so, clutching their little bundles of hard-earned talents, the great Talent Festival day arrives, and the flexing begins.
"Cup ramen for 3 talents? What a deal!"
"I want a mini car! What? 500 talents? Why is it so expensive? From a macroeconomic perspective, no one could afford such a price!"
"Talent Festivals are always hyperinflation, kiddo."
In any case, the Talent Festival often motivates children with weak faith to attend church diligently.
"We're going to expand this to all of Campbell's citizens."
This was Ray's third key card for the Campbell Cathedral revival.
"Everyone, the holy water offered as a prize at the Talent Festival is blessed by none other than Bishop Yuna of Campbell Cathedral! Everyone~ please work hard to collect talents~"
That night, the citizens of Campbell returned home with special experiences from the cathedral in their hearts.
Group praise dancing.
Significantly shortened mass.
And generous prizes like holy water.
Having gained satisfaction, peace, and practical benefits from their religious activities, they realized that Campbell Cathedral would become an important place for them in the future.
"Now, now! The methods for earning talents are written here, so take this and read it carefully!"
"Holy water! Holy water!"
"From now on, I should bring all my children!"
"Extra talents for volunteer work?"
"Can't resist those talents!"
Of course, the intentions behind it were quite impure.
***
After the successful mass, Aaron looked distinctly displeased.
"I feel like the essence of the mass has been polluted. It seems like everyone is coming just for the holy water."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, young master doesn't understand."
"What did you say?"
Aaron bristled at Jenny's words.
Jenny shrugged her shoulders and glanced at Ray.
"It seems our sister has noticed something. Please share."
"Hehehe, come to think of it, Ray's brother is really cunning too."
Jenny snickered. Aaron and Henry looked confused.
"Um... brother, sisters. What exactly is going on?"
"Take a good look. Here's how to earn talents."
Jenny picked up the pamphlet explaining how to earn talents.
"Oh, this?!"
Henry's eyes widened.
「Those belonging to the Sun-Moon Cult or claiming to be false prophets will have their talents confiscated.」
「All confiscated talents will be awarded to the person who reports them.」
"...!"
"Ray, you... was this your plan from the beginning?"
Aaron stared directly at Ray.
Ray grinned, confirming it.
"The Sun-Moon Cult overlaps with Campbell Cathedral in terms of believers and orientation. People believe in the Sun, so they have to choose one or the other."
“They're heretics. They are not a branch of our Theocracy.”
"That's our claim. From their side, they're probably saying, 'We're being persecuted~ It's just that our doctrine is a bit different!'"
This is the typical pattern of most Christian cults.
"Oh, aren't Protestants just an offshoot that broke away from Catholicism? We just interpret the doctrine a bit differently!"
"Isn't this just a territorial fight? Persecuting other beliefs to monopolize believers?"
"We're being oppressed! Large religions persecuting small ones!"
Pretending to be victims and underdogs while claiming ‘religious freedom’ is a common trait of Christian cults.
"There's nothing more effective than fellow believers for filtering out New Heav... no, cult members who've infiltrated the church. How could the few of us catch them all?"
And naturally, Sun believers would have to choose between the Solar Theocracy or the Sun-Moon cult.
"This way, as more people join our church, fewer believers will go to the other side. In competition, others must fail for us to prosper."
That was also why they offered holy water as a shocking prize.
Anyway, this increases our weight class.
By attracting a massive influx of believers and building up size, we can use that size to overpower the opposition.
"Bible study seems like a good method too. Gospel study, was it? It creates a hole to draw believers away from them."
"Wow, as expected of you, Brother. How did you come up with such an idea?"
"Hehe... This comes from being a seasoned cult-buster... no, it's just natural."
"......"
Aaron honestly admired Ray.
What Ray used for the reform of Campbell Cathedral were extremely simple things.
He mixed hymn songs to cover the boring sermons and created participatory masses where everyone could join in.
The workload of the priests serving at the cathedral would increase somewhat, but as the number of believers increased, so would the offerings, so increasing their wages would resolve any complaints.
Until now, the priests had too little to do, which was the problem.
How meticulous and cunning.
Aaron felt as if Ray had hundreds of snakes inside him.
But still.
"Is this... proper faith?"
As a devout believer, Aaron questioned whether this approach was right.
"Those attending mass all come for their desires. They can't be called true believers."
"Hmm~ Isn't that just you thinking too idealistically?"
"What?"
Aaron frowned at Jenny's seemingly sarcastic rebuttal.
But Jenny didn't back down and continued.
"Noble folk like you with warm backs and no worries about meals can talk about true faith while taking care of everything. But commoners aren't like that."
For commoners, every day is a struggle.
When the morning sun rises, they must get up and work to the bone, occasionally sitting on the roadside to eat their meals.
For them, religious activities without rewards are close to luxury.
"Commoners participate in mass to find rest. They don't come to add weight to their already harsh lives."
"The problem is trying to solve this with material rewards."
"It's just sprinkling a few leftover holy waters. Don't be so rigid."
"Please, you two, stop fighting. Brother Ray, say something to stop them!"
As Aaron and Jenny's theological debate continued, Ray just watched without intervening.
This is a good phenomenon.
Old religions tend to stagnate like still water.
Older religious people don't easily engage like this. They have accumulated too much knowledge and experience.
"Ah, the benefits of youth."
This level of debate is healthy.
Ray grinned as he put his arms around both of them.
"If you're done arguing, let's prepare for Friday mass. Isn't it our duty to send as many people to heaven as possible?"
And it was also the armed organization's mission to send evil ones to hell as quickly as possible.
***
The dramatic changes at Campbell Cathedral caused a stir throughout the city.
Providing dancing and singing that would normally only happen at festivals a few times a year, dramatically shortened mass times, and above all, the announcement of holy water drawings and Talent Festivals.
As these shocking news items were reported one after another, they grabbed the citizens' attention.
"I heard they're doing it on Friday too?"
"Weekday masses give more talents!"
"Should I visit the cathedral after so long?"
Thus, Friday mass, weekend mass, and then Wednesday mass... In less than two weeks, Campbell Cathedral, which could accommodate over twenty thousand people, was packed to capacity.
"We're sorry, everyone! We can only accept this many people for today's mass! Please join us for the next mass!"
They even had to turn people away.
When things reached this point, Ray implemented special measures as if he had been waiting for this moment.
"We're starting a second weekend mass. From 1 PM to 2 PM!"
It was truly a magnificent show of strength.
Campbell Cathedral was built large and magnificent to strengthen the authority of the church in Campbell, a religious battleground.
Without the many priests who were stationed there and maintained the cathedral despite its decline, it would have been impossible to handle this influx.
"This-this is the first time! For the first time since this cathedral was built, it's completely full! Sob...!"
"Bishop!"
"You've worked so hard all this time!"
The nuns embraced Bishop Yuna, who was shedding tears of joy.
They too were devout believers who had held their positions solely out of faith.
Considering the empty cathedral that had only dozens of attendees even during weekend masses, they couldn't help but be moved by the sight of the cathedral packed with believers.
Campbell Cathedral, which originally had only about 2-3 thousand believers, had now become a mainstream religion in Campbell.
"Well, we can't maintain this number entirely."
People are just flocking in for the special event now.
Maintaining this trend would depend entirely on Bishop Yuna's abilities.
But with such a massive influx, even doing the basics should be fine.
'Now, a declining cathedral has suddenly grown enormously. The heretics' next move is predictable.'
Ray scanned the seats packed with believers.
"Those harvester bastards are all dead."
***
The ones who suffered the most from Campbell Cathedral's sudden revival were, needless to say, the Sun-Moon cult.
"How the hell did this happen?!"
Riman, the leader of the Sun-Moon cult, berated his evangelists with a loud voice.
"They were all falling apart! We could have absorbed all the Solar Theocracy believers!"
"Well, that... they suddenly started offering holy water as prizes..."
Campbell Cathedral used several weak methods for this revival.
Holy water drawings, Talent Festivals, methods unimaginable for religions of this era.
Additionally, the Solar Theocracy, which had plenty of money, placed advertisements everywhere, so it was impossible not to attract attention.
"Send out evangelists right now! We can't let them thrive! True faith only exists in our church!"
Seeing the immediate decrease in the Sun-Moon cult's membership, the cult leader's eyes rolled back in fury.
Thus, harvesters were dispatched under the leader's wrath.
The Sun-Moon cult's evangelists infiltrated Campbell Cathedral, pretending to be ordinary believers.
As trained, they first tried to establish gospel study rooms.
"Brother, how about we study the Bible separately? I heard they serve food too."
"Huh? Don't we already have Bible study after mass?"
"What?"
Campbell Cathedral had added Bible study as a new program.
They simply included regular believers in what the priests and nuns had been doing routinely.
"Hmm... they've prepared countermeasures after being targeted so often."
Then they would use different methods.
They were trained professional troublemakers. There are many ways to cause trouble in other denominations and extract believers.
"Brother?"
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a young boy grabbed the evangelist's shoulder.
Could he have noticed?
No, that's impossible. He just infiltrated, how could anyone have noticed?
"I need some help. Could you assist me for a moment?"
"......"
The evangelist considered.
Yes, by building rapport and interacting with the internal staff, he could potentially do more significant damage from deeper inside.
'This boy is young, so his guard will be low. If I'm lucky, I might be able to dig deeper.'
The evangelist had to revise that thought within 10 minutes.
"Puhuk...! Cough! Cough!"
The evangelist knelt with a bloody face. Blood from his burst nose was dripping onto the floor.
With eyes full of terror, he looked up at the black-haired boy with an oak club slung over his shoulder.
The boy had taken him to the backyard and started beating him without warning.
"Why, why are you doing this... What did I do wrong..."
"Hey, sir? The teacher said to keep your posture straight. You'll die if you get hit wrong."
"Why, whyyy..."
"Aish~ Think about why you're being beaten, sir."
This is insane! Are these really priests from the church?
Especially that black-haired boy, his methods were unspeakably cruel.
"Yeah~ I'm doing something I've only dreamed of. An era without human rights has its perks."
Ray seemed strangely excited.
"What are you saying? People have inherent human rights from birth. Don't show your lack of education."
Aaron criticized while adjusting his club.
"Well, heretics don't need human rights, right?"
"How barbaric. Basic rights are important."
"That's a pretty high standard for the medieval period."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's a thing, Teacher Aaron. Let's restart physical therapy. Time for heretic disinfection~!"
"...You're really enjoying this."
Aaron wouldn't understand.
The frustration of a pastor who was powerless because of things like human rights and religious freedom.
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[Translator - Pot ]
[Proofreader - Kawaii ]
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