
Ecks' final guest on the program was the Reverend Caiaphas Zee, a
prominent Southern Baptist minister who had formed a mega church
empire after a failed presidential bid, and now seemed content to
advise the politicians he could not supplant.  Standing in his pulpit,
clad in his black cassock and starched white collar, with a simple
wooden cross hanging from a cord around his neck, he seemed the very
personification of a prophet of God.

Zee: "Captain, you are a liar and a thief."

Mercuriou: "I've said everything I intend to say on that issue."

Zee: "Then let me say more!  We have laws not because they are made by
man, but because they are commanded by God!  We are told 'thou shall
not steal'!"

Mercuriou: "If that's all you want to debate..."

Mercuriou reached again for the switch, but Zee thundered on.

Zee: "Throw the switch, Captain, go ahead!  That's all I want to
debate!  'Thou Shall Not Steal'!  'Thou Shall Not Steal'!"

Mercuriou paused, then threw the switch.  Nothing happened.  He grinned.

Mercuriou: "OK, Reverend, so maybe I won't switch you off just yet."

Zee: "Thou Shall Not Steal, Captain, _Thou_Shall_Not_Steal_!  God
_commands_ capitalism, because the civil magistrate is not to go
beyond his authority to enforce God's laws!"

Mercuriou: "God's laws or man's laws?"

Zee: "God's laws, Captain, and the United States has adhered to them!
It's not perfect, mind you, we still have a million unborn babies
slaughtered every year, music and movies that hype drugs and
drunkenness, and all manner of sexual debauchery imaginable!"

Mercuriou: "Yet capitalism is moral... _why_?"

Zee: "Because God does not allow the government to steal!  We tithe to
the church to support it, including its charities, and the government
is to tax a small portion more, primarily for law enforcement.  And
many people give quite a bit more than ten percent to the church, let
me assure you.  We have some _very_ generous members in our
congregation."

Mercuriou: "You've got this nightmare of capitalism that's another
slavery all over again..."

Zee: "Capitalism is not another slavery!  We don't bind men in chains
to force them to work!"

Mercuriou: "It is another slavery, Reverend!  It's another depraved
philosophy that has become entrenched in our society; many people do
not choose to work; they are forced to.  The chains are poverty and
homelessness, hopelessness and despair!  Your majority today, just
like in the 1800s, can see nothing wrong with it, and democracy,
again, is completely incapable of making the basic moral value
judgements necessary to govern a society!"

Zee: "We did and do make those value judgements, captain!  Slavery was
against God's will!  Those who rejected freedom fought against it, but
freedom ultimately prevailed!"

Mercuriou: "Freedom ultimately prevailed!  Where were the checks and
balances?  Where was the Bill of Rights?  Where were the noble
statesmen, deliberating together in a free and cooperative government
to advance the great banner of liberty?  It took the bloodiest war in
U.S. history to end slavery, so what can democracy really be worth?
And if it takes the same thing to end capitalism?  How many more
'successes' like the Civil War can this country afford?"

Zee: "The Civil War was a success, captain, however bloody it may have
been; sometimes you have to fight for freedom!  The abolitionists
tried for many years to work within that system; but it was too badly
flawed.  Finally, one of the greatest Presidents this country ever
produced took a stand for liberty and freed the slaves!"

Mercuriou: "Reverend, if we had gone to war with Russia over Cuban
missiles, or the Suez Canal, or any other stupid thing, there'd be
people to this day touring the radioactive ruins of Washington, and
New York, and Los Angeles saying it was all worth it; communism had to
be stopped; freedom had to prevail.  People love war; your own Bible
has enough of it.  People are greedy, too.  Find those saints of yours
and put _them_ in charge of the government, we know where the majority
will lead us!"

Zee: "What's your solution, overthrow any government whose laws you
don't like?"

Mercuriou: "You look somberly at the laws, and look somberly at the
men who make the laws, and come to a conclusion that the men are
self-serving materialists consumed with their economic and political
theories of capitalism and democracy, and that their laws are
convoluted, misguided, and unjust."

Zee: "Many people would agree with those criticisms, captain; perhaps
you should have become a politician instead of a thief!  Nobody will
listen to you now!"

Ecks interrupted before Mercuriou could fire back.

Ecks: "Well, our time is growing short, captain, and it looks like our
prison system is going to remain a little short, too.  I don't think
it's worth the expense to apprehend you right now."

Mercuriou now broke out into a long, genuine laugh.  Ecks paused for a
moment, then kept talking.

Ecks: "I suppose there's no harm in leaving you be.  You'll eventually
have to come back down.  In the meantime, when you make it Mars, if
you make it to Mars, do us a favor.  Have the dignity to plant an
American flag there.  It's the least you can do for the country that
footed the bill."
