Calvinettes (WT)

Esther grew up in an conservative Christian home. She went to church twice on Sunday, and Christian school Monday through Friday. She joined Calvinettes, like Girl Scouts only Christian and named after the famous Reformation theologian John Calvin.

Staunch Protestants, the VandenBergs didn’t celebrate Halloween, which her parents called a “Catholic holiday.” Instead they watched film strips of Martin Luther launching the Reformation by nailing his 95 grievances against the Catholic church to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church.

The church’s crisp black and white moral structure gives Esther stability, and she thrills in awe of God and the loving, gracious message of Jesus Christ. She throws her heart and soul into her Christian life.

Until.

Until in high school someone outs her best friend Lisa as a lesbian. Esther can’t reconcile Lisa’s deep faith with her obvious sin. Then she learns her youth pastor tried to rape the youth intern. The intern gets the blame, the youth pastor moves on to bigger roles in the church.

The final blow comes after Esther becomes a teacher. The star of the school play takes her life when her parents insist she’ll go to hell if she’s gay. Soon after Esther discovers Ashley’s body, a man in her church parking lot argues that Christians should take the nation back, outlaw abortion, gay marriage and get rid of illegal immigrants.

Esther confronts the cruelty of the dogma she’s followed all her life. She questions whether God authored the Bible, or if men who wrote the Bible put words into God’s mouth. Things she believed all her life now seem unlikely: the parting of the Red Sea, the virgin birth, the resurrection.

As her moral framework suddenly collapses, can Esther salvage the spiritual energy that once enlivened her soul? What about all the goodness she witnessed in Christ’s name? Is she even a Christian?

It all comes to a head around her mother’s death bed when Mom asks Esther, “Will I see you in heaven?”