"...When Jesus sat at a long table with His twelve disciples, He already knew that someone harbored dark intentions. He knew it was Judas. Yet He still sat with him, shared bread with him, and poured him wine."
"This was not kindness, not magnanimity, nor had it anything to do with mercy."
"This was faith... faith that destiny would render a fair judgment. Faith that sacrifice would cleanse sin. Faith that among His followers, there could be not only the good, but also the wicked..."
Early that morning at Linzhong Lakefront, an Atlas Academy student in a yellow robe stood on the shore, holding up a copy of The Bible and preaching loudly to the fishmen about the Lord's glory.
The passing Red Robes all gave him strange looks.
Zheng Qing was among them. He was worried that the Yellow Robe would be stoned to death by the ill-tempered fishmen in the lake. Several pairs of fierce, dark-yellow eyes had already surfaced.
But Xiao Xiao told him not to worry so much.
"Most fishmen don't think about things that deeply," Xiao Xiao explained casually as he flipped through the school paper in his hand. "Jesus, kindness, mercy, sin, faith... I seriously doubt many fishmen understand what any of those words mean."
"The fishmen have priests. They have faith too." Zheng Qing disagreed with Doctor's view.
"That isn't faith, only worship. Ancient totem worship." Xiao Xiao multitasked, reading the newspaper article while still having the spare attention for a rather abstruse conversation with Zheng Qing. "True faith comes in two forms. One is inward-facing, the firmness of self-awareness; the other is outward-facing, the firmness that relies upon others. The fishmen's worship is not firm. It is easily shaken. That is why their rituals cannot be called true faith."
"The firmness that