Steven Losee - Christian Scribe

  Here are the first two chapters of my mystery novel ONE LAST HIT: CHAPTER 1      Looking out at a Brooklyn night can be like listening to an old blues tune: endlessly sad in a detached kind of way.  That might be why I prefer classical music, especially when I'm on my perch.      I feel I ought to make one thing very clear, right at the beginning: I'm no Spartan crusader.  My three-room apartment on the fourth floor has a waterbed, recliner, couch, two overstuffed chairs, complete kitchen set, complete and modern entertainment center, and hot-and-cold running water.        But my favorite place to sit, when I need to think or sulk, or just for those deep kind of times at night, is on my perch, a.k.a. windowsill.  Sometimes I go all the way onto the fire escape landing for a more panoramic view of the street.      That's where I was one night in early October, as I took slow sips of hot coffee and...

 It's frustrating looking up the meaning of the Greek word "daimonizomai", because sooner or later everyone falls back on "possessed by demons".  What frustrates me is the word "possessed".  If we remove that word from the "religious" context, it always means "owned".       I think everyone agrees that a demon can't "own" a human being.  In fact, this whole idea of "possession" is, I believe, pagan rather than Christian in origin.  In many pagan rituals, the "god" being invoked is said to "possess" either the priest, the shaman or the sacrifice, who begins to "manifest" (ie levitate, change in appearance, behave like a wild animal, reveal secrets, etc.).  Since they are liars anyway, it's foolish to accept their terms except to refute them.     I know there are people who venerate the King James Version, and I have no arguments until they start to idolize it.  In fact, that (...