Lair of Dreams

SARAH SNOW

Yes, yes, hallelujah, indeed, friends. (Pause) What does it mean to be a steward of Americanism? What does God ask of us here in this most blessed of nations? God says, “Be shepherds to the flock of freedom! Turn back that old, crafty Mr. Wolf and keep my precious flock safe!” And what do we answer? Do we answer, “Gee, Lord, that wolf doesn’t seem like such a bad fellow? He might take a sheep now and then; that’s what wolves do. I’m busy over here with my own concerns. Let someone else tend to the flock.”


(Sarah Snow looks into the audience, allowing her gaze to travel across the room slowly. A woman answers, “No.”)


SARAH SNOW

Oh, amen, sister, amen! We answer, “Yes, Lord! We will be your shepherds of freedom! We will watch over your flock and see it grow, see it spread into every land! We will defend the borders of that freedom from all threats, by whatever means we must.”


(A stagehand produces a handkerchief, which Sarah Snow puts to her brow, blotting. She drinks from a glass of water.)


SARAH SNOW

But sometimes, brothers and sisters, sometimes we don’t know what the wolf looks like. Sometimes that wolf creeps in wearing sheep’s clothing, with false papers or an anarchist’s heart, or with the ability to read your deepest secrets from your personal property. Sometimes the wolf smiles a friendly smile and says, “Why, I love these sheep, I love freedom,” and waits for you to turn your back.

We have to keep vigilant against these threats to our flock. We must be suspicious of the wolf among us. We have to strike at the wolf, to turn him out like Jesus turned the moneylenders from the temple!

(Calls of “Amen!”)


SARAH SNOW

Now, I hear some people say, “But Sarah, if we do that, aren’t we giving up our freedoms? Aren’t we betraying the very ideals we claim to be defending?”

Freedom demands sacrifices, brothers and sisters.

Do you allow your children to do whatever they like? Of course not. You want to keep them safe. And so you say to them, “You may not play in that yard. Stay away from those children down the block; they aren’t the sort you want to associate with.” And what do you do when your children disobey? You punish them. You do it out of love and a desire to keep them safe. But you have to do it; you have to do it if you love your children.

Well, we love America. And just like our precious children, we want to shepherd America. To keep her safe.

But there are the wrong sort of children down the street, brothers and sisters. Anarchists who hate our freedoms and want to destroy it with bombs and bloodshed and unions. Bootleggers and gamblers who pollute our morals with sin. And so-called soothsayers who claim they can do what only God Almighty Himself can do, who put themselves above democracy, above God. Listen now to the word of the Lord!


(She holds up a Bible, opening it to the page she needs, reading aloud.)


SARAH SNOW

“There shall not be found among you anyone who… practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.”


(Sarah Snow closes the Bible and clutches it to her chest with her left hand, raising her right hand high.)


SARAH SNOW

Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us be the Lord’s faithful shepherd and drive the wolf out before us! Drive him out! Expose him for what he is—a wolf who would eat us from within. Only then can we be safe and sound. Only then can America shine a light on the rest of the world like a true shepherd of democracy, like a missionary of Manifest Destiny. Hallelujah!


(This time, the radio audience erupts into a rousing, full chorus of “Hallelujah!” without prompting. Sarah Snow smiles, then raises a hand to quiet the people.)


SARAH SNOW

God bless you, God bless all true Americans, and God bless the United States of America. Now please join me in singing “Christian, Dost Thou See Them?”


(An organ hums. The choir takes up the hymn.)


SARAH SNOW

Christian! dost thou see them

on the holy ground,

How the powers of darkness

Rage thy steps around?

Christian, up and smite them,

Counting gain but loss,

Smite them by the merit

of the Holy Cross!