"What Would You Do?"

Photo copyright "Huseyin"

"Faith makes a Christian. Life proves a Christian. Trial confirms a Christian. Death crowns a Christian." -Anonymous

Last night, I dreamt I stepped into a time machine. I didn't know where I was headed, but once it stopped, I opened my eyes to find myself in the middle of a massacre of the Latter-day Saints. Dressed in pioneer garb myself, I wandered amidst the crowd of Saints "waiting" to be beheaded by members of a western mob.

Before my eyes was a platform lined with roughly five or six wooden stumps where individuals were forced to kneel and bend their necks over the blocks before being asked a question. Each stump had its own "deputy" (mob member) who went down a list of questions, one per person; questions like, "do you believe in the Mormon faith?", and "will you deny God?"

Although I didn't recognize most people in the gathering, I nevertheless felt a kinship towards them. They were my fellow brothers and sisters dying in the name of Christ, and it upset me, to say the least. I stared in horror as Saint after Saint was decapitated for refusing to deny their God. The bodies were piled behind the mob in massive heaps.

The dream progressed scenes to me being on the run as one of the last surviving Saints in the area. I made it into someone's abandoned house and tried to hide, but a mob member found me. Just as he was pointing his gun at my chest, the dream shifted in my favor: we engaged in a conversation.

Mob Member: "This'll be the end of you devil-covenantin' folk."

Ashley: "Who told you we made bonds with Satan?"

Mob Member: (Hesitates.)

Ashley: "Do you have a family, Sir?"

Mob Member: "'Course I do. But you ain't gonna hurt 'em."

Ashley: "Why would I?"

Mob Member: "Revenge."

Ashley: "You love your family, then? And you want to spend forever with them?"

Mob Member: (Spits and cocks his gun.) "'Course."

Ashley: "Then why are you severing yourself from them by staining your hands with blood?"

I woke panting. Absolutely horrifying dream. It sounds mellow-dramatic now, but it really made me reflect on what I'd actually do if I was ever faced with that kind of situation. It's easy to say I'd give my life for God, but empty talk won't get me anywhere. Quite the time of reflection.