Halos for Hookers

(This is a true story in every detail, but names are substituted for real persons)

Some years past at the dinner table, our daughter, "Thelma", a bank teller at the time, uneasily said, "Papa, I need to talk to you privately - not as a father, but a pastor." Here was her dilemma:

That day her manager had closed the door for privacy after a summons to his office. "This will come as a surprise to you," he said, "but 'Jane' has requested that you be her personal teller." The fact was that this was only the first of two unexpected surprises. The second came close to the level of shocking when he identified "Jane" (a new, but regular customer) as the manager of three, local, well-known massage parlors. "She wants the same teller to handle all of her transactions and has personally asked for you." And with this he amusingly observed that, "Out of all of my tellers, she would have to ask for the preacher's daughter!"

"Thelma" quizzically searched my eyes in earnest expectation, certain that her pastor would bail her out of this seemingly compromising situation.

After a few thoughtful moments, my logical response was that she - and all of the other tellers - regularly received deposts from far more unsavory women than an avowed hooker, but just did not know about it. I observed that "Jane" was admittedly and openly a "professional" who sold her body for money, and, while generally considered a social blight, was at least not a hypocrite. She was what she was known to be - a hooker.

Far worse were the cheating, unfaithful wives (or husbands) who daily came and went from the bank in robes of public respectability, but were in truth carrying on deceitful, adulterous liaisons behind their spouses' backs. Immorality on any level reaps a horrible harvest, but sinks to it's lowest when robed in deception.

Even in a world of admittedly declining morals, nearly all of us value and respect integrity, and reject hypocrisy. In most cultures of the world we regard genuineness as the most desired trait in any person, and insist that only in honesty can true relationships occur and endure.

A puzzle about illicit lovers persists to any thoughtful mind. How can a cheater be trusted?

Copyright by W.L. Boone