[The renovated hospital meeting room exudes quiet luxury—smooth mahogany tables, soft ambient lighting, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. Hezri sits at the head, his inner circle arranged around him like a council of war. Lydia Shaw fidgets with her tablet, her once-fiery demeanor now subdued.]
Lydia (softly, hesitant):
"My follower count… it dropped by half. The backsh was… intense."
[A ripple of knowing ughter from the others. Maye Ruiz leans forward, her crimson nails tapping the table.]
Maye (smirking):
"Welcome to the club, darling. We all bled followers when we rebranded. But look at us now—stronger. More focused."
Zara Lin (grinning, swirling her wine):
"The trash took itself out. The ones who stayed? Real followers."
Lei Cohen (nodding):
"And the numbers are crawling back. Slowly, but surely."
Hezri (calm, fingers steepled):
"This is the cost of crity. Generic ideology attracts crowds. Powerful ideology attracts the right crowd."
[Lydia exhales, shoulders rexing slightly. Hezri’s gaze sweeps the room.]
Hezri:
"Now. Sara. Your report."
[Sara Croft, ever the poised operator, taps her tablet. A holographic dispy fres to life—charts, headlines, sermon clips.]
Sara (cool, analytical):
"Religious pushback is escating. The New Covenant Church called us ‘a moral pandemic.’ The Southern Baptist Coalition is drafting an anti-polygamy resolution. But the reality threat?"
[She enrges a map—red zones marking hotspots.]
Sara:
"The ‘Family First’ movement. Grassroots, well-funded, and gaining traction in swing states. They’re framing polygamy as a ‘gateway to societal colpse.’
[Hezri’s fingers drum once on the mahogany table, his gaze slicing to Sara Croft.]
Hezri:
"Two questions. First—which holds more sway? The New Covenant crybabies or the Southern Baptist dinosaurs?"
Sara (snapping her tablet awake):
"Southern Baptists. 14 million members. New Covenant barely cracks 3 million. But—"* (she enrges a demographic map) "—NCC’s younger, louder, and way better at viral outrage."
Zara (snorting into her wine):
"Ah, the ‘cool pastor’ effect."
[Hezri’s eyes flick to the second data stream—‘Family First’ protest footage.]
Hezri:
"Second question. Is ‘Family First’ actually religious? Or just using Bible-thumping as a front?"
Sara (flipping through dossiers):
"Both. Started as a megachurch marriage initiative. Now?"* (projects donor lists) "—53% evangelical funding, 47% dark-money libertarians. Their real issue isn’t sin—it’s tax breaks. They’re terrified we’ll legitimize poly households for inheritance cims."
[A beat. Then—]
Maye (grinning):
"Oh, this is juicy. So we hit the libertarians with ‘government overreach’ narratives and the holy rollers with—"
[Sara Croft’s fingers fly across her tablet. The holographic dispy reshapes into a 3D map of the city and surrounding districts, pulsing with data clusters.]
Sara (crisp, precise):
"Localized numbers:
Southern Baptist Coalition
City: 82,000 members (23 mega-churches, 107 smaller congregations)
Key Districts:
Northridge: 18,000 (voting bloc controls 3 school boards)
Riverbend: 12,500 (hosts annual ‘Faith & Family’ rally)
New Covenant Church
City: 14,200 members (4 ‘hipster’ worship hubs)
Key Districts:
Downtown Core: 6,000 (young professionals, viral protest potential)
University Zone: 3,800 (student activists, ties to progressive NGOs)
‘Family First’ Movement
City: 9,500 active members (but 28,000+ engaged via digital campaigns)
Key Districts:
Suburban Greenvale: 4,200 (stay-at-home mom influencer army)
Old Town: 1,800 (retired donors, 65+ median age)"*
***
[The Sunday service at Northridge Megachurch spills out into the parking lot, families chatting under the afternoon sun. Leah Kim, radiant in a modest floral dress, shakes hands with parishioners—until the low growl of a Ferrari Portofino cuts through the murmur. Heads turn as the sleek bck car glides to a stop near the entrance.]
?? "Is that…?"
?? "Who drives a Ferrari to church?"
[The doors swing open. Hezri steps out in a tailored navy suit, sungsses hiding his gaze. Beside him, Lena Cho adjusts her gsses, a leather portfolio tucked under her arm. The crowd parts instinctively.]
The Approach
Lena (smooth, professional, extending a business card):
"Miss Kim? Lena Cho, Hezri Group Financial Director. We’d love to discuss your work with the ‘Faithful Generation’ initiative."
[Leah blinks, hesitant, but curiosity flickers. The card gleams gold-embossed under the sunlight:]
LENA CHO
Director of Financial Strategy, Hezri Group
Leah (careful):
"I’m… not familiar with your organization."
Hezri (chuckling, removing his sungsses):
"We’re in phinthropy. Education, community development—faith-based initiatives, even."* (leans in slightly, voice dropping) "We think you’re doing remarkable things. But imagine what you could do with real resources."
[A beat. The church crowd watches, whispering. Leah’s fingers tighten around the card.]
[Leah Kim hesitates for only a moment before gesturing toward a side door of the church—a small, wood-paneled meeting room usually reserved for pastoral counseling. The hum of the departing congregation fades as the door clicks shut behind them.]
Leah (crossing her arms, guarded):
"Five minutes. What does the Hezri Group want with a worship leader?"
[Lena Cho sets her portfolio on the table, unphased. Hezri leans against the wall, observing in silence as Lena flips open a file—
—and slides it toward Leah.
Inside:
Leah’s private emails to a progressive seminary professor, questioning church doctrine on LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Bank records showing her mother’s medical debt (217,000, unpaid since the diagnosis).
A screenshot of Leah’s secret Twitter account, where she’s been liking posts about "faith deconstruction."
Leah’s face pales.
Lena (softly):
"You’re drowning, Leah. And no one in this building is throwing you a lifeline."
[Leah’s breath hitches. Her hands tremble as she sps the folder shut.]
Leah (voice cracking):
"How dare you—"
Hezri (calm, interrupting):
"We’re not your enemy. Your church is."* (steps forward, taps the folder) "How long until they find out you don’t believe half of what you preach? Or that your mom’s treatments are about to get cut off?"
[A beat. Leah’s defiance wavers—just for a second. Lena presses the advantage.]
Lena (gentle, almost kind):
"We can erase the debt. Give you a real ptform—one where you don’t have to lie. Or…"* (trails off, nodding toward the door) "You can walk back out there and keep pretending."
[Silence. The distant sound of a choir rehearsing bleeds through the walls.]
Leah:
"...What do you want me to do?"
Lena (smooth, persuasive):
"We want you to preach our ideology. But tailored to your… unique position."
Leah’s eyes flick up, wary.
Hezri (cutting in, voice like steel):
"Here’s the deal. You publicly condemn male homosexuality. Call it ‘sin,’ ‘degeneracy,’ whatever scripture-fvored nguage your flock needs."
[Leah recoils—]
Leah:
"What? No—"*
Hezri (raising a hand, relentless):
"—But. You get to ‘struggle with grace’ on lesbian and bisexual issues. Frame it as your ‘personal journey.’ Your congregation will eat it up—and it keeps the progressives from hating you outright."
[Lena slides another document forward—a speech draft titled "A New Covenant of Family."]
Lena:
"Then, you pivot. Start small—mention polygamy as ‘biblical tradition.’ Later, frame it as ‘modern spiritual kinship.’ By year’s end, you’ll headline our ‘Faith & Plural Love’ conference."
[Leah’s breath comes fast. Her voice is a whisper.]
Leah:
"You want me to sell out and split my soul in half."
Hezri (smirking):
"We want you to survive. Your mother’s hospital just filed for foreclosure. How many rounds of chemo does she have left without our funding?"
[A beat. Leah’s face crumples—then hardens.]
Leah (soft, defeated):
"...I’ll need sermon drafts. Talking points."
***
[The megachurch hums with the usual Sunday energy—families filing into polished oak pews, the worship band tuning up. But today, whispers ripple through the crowd as Leah Kim steps onto the stage, dressed in a modest but sharply tailored navy suit. The atmosphere is charged. Something is different.]
Leah (voice steady, amplified by the microphone):
"Brothers and sisters… today, I must speak a hard truth."
[The room falls silent. In the back row, Lena Cho sits with perfect posture, watching. Hezri watches the livestream from his penthouse, a gss of bourbon in hand.]
Leah (gripping the pulpit):
"We live in a time of moral decay. A time where sin is paraded as pride, where the sacred bonds of marriage are mocked."* (Pauses, the weight of the next words heavy on her tongue.) "The Bible is clear—homosexuality is an abomination."
[A murmur of approval from the congregation. But Leah’s knuckles whiten. She pushes on.]
Leah:
"But… we must also remember grace. For those who struggle… for those who seek redemption…"* (Her voice wavers, just slightly.) "...there is still a pce at God’s table."
[The crowd stirs—some nodding, others frowning. The ambiguity is deliberate. Lena’s lips curve into a faint smile.]
Leah (pressing forward):
"And what of family? We’ve abandoned the true model—the biblical model. Abraham. Jacob. David. Men of God with multiple wives. Where did we lose our way?"
[A shocked silence. Then—muttering. An elderly deacon stands, red-faced.]
Deacon Harris:
"Leah, this is not—"
Leah (raising her voice, defiant now):
"Is Scripture not clear? Or have we let modern bias cloud God’s eternal design?"
[The room erupts—outrage, confusion, scattered appuse. The livestream comments explode.]
?? "DID SHE JUST SAY POLYGAMY??"
?? "THIS IS HERESY"
?? "FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT"
[Cut to Hezri’s penthouse. He raises his gss to the screen.]
Hezri (toasting):
"And so it begins."
[The congregation is tense, the air thick with anticipation. Leah Kim stands at the pulpit, her voice measured but firm—her words carefully crafted by Hezri’s strategists.]
Leah (commanding the room):
"Let us speak pinly. The Bible condemns men lying with men—Leviticus 18:22 is clear. But nowhere does Scripture forbid the love between women."
[A ripple of murmurs. An older man in the front row scowls, but several younger women lean forward, listening intently.]
Leah (pressing on, her tone clinical):
"Biologically, physiologically—the act between men defiles the natural order. It leads to disease, to the erosion of masculinity. But women? Women are life-givers. Their bonds are sacred, nurturing—not destructive."* (Pauses, letting the words sink in.) "Does the Bible forbid Ruth’s devotion to Naomi? Or the intimacy of sisters in Christ?"
[The room is divided—some nodding slowly, others shifting uncomfortably. A teenage girl in the choir stares at Leah with wide, hopeful eyes.]
Leah (raising her Bible):
"And what of polygamy? Abraham had Sarah and Hagar. Jacob loved Rachel and Leah. David—a man after God’s own heart—had multiple wives. Did God strike them down? No. He blessed their households."
[A deacon stands abruptly, face red.]
Deacon Harris:
"This is twisting Scripture!"
Leah (coolly):
"Is it? Or have we let modern biases distort eternal truths?"* (She softens her voice, a calcuted shift.) "I do not speak to condemn, brothers and sisters. I speak to crify. To free us from man-made traditions that add to God’s Word."
[The livestream chat is exploding—]
?? "SHE’S RIGHT THO??"
?? "THIS IS HERESY"
?? "FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT"
[Cut to Hezri’s penthouse. He watches the metrics spike, his smirk deepening as donations from conservative and progressive factions flood the church’s site—all tracked back to shell companies he controls.]
[Back at the pulpit, Leah closes her Bible, her hands steady—but her soul feels like it’s splintering. As she steps down, Lena waits in the wings, holding out a phone: a notification from a lesbian faith group, thanking her for her ‘courage.’]
Lena (whispering):
"You’ve just started a revolution."
***
[The room is dimly lit, the scent of aged whiskey and leather thick in the air. Leah Kim sits across from Hezri, her posture rigid, while Zara Lin lounges on a velvet sofa, twirling a gss of wine. Lei Cohen stands by the window, her sharp eyes scanning the city lights—her Aphrodite Assembly manifesto glowing faintly on a tablet in her hands.]
Hezri (leaning forward, fingers steepled):
"Your sermon went nuclear, Leah. The right calls you a prophet. The left calls you a traitor. And the undecided? They’re fascinated."
[Leah exhales, her fingers tightening around her untouched drink. The weight of her words—their words—still lingers in the air.]
Lei (turning from the window, her voice smooth as silk):
"Your distinction between male and female desire? Brilliant. My Aphrodite Assembly has been preaching it for months—that female intimacy is art, not sin. But you? You gave it legitimacy."
[She taps her tablet, pulling up analytics—Leah’s sermon clips, spliced with Aphrodite Assembly content, already repurposed across ptforms.]
Zara (stretching like a cat):
"And the polygamy angle? Chef’s kiss. My Harem Uprising podcast listeners are obsessed. You just made biblical marriage trendy again."
[Leah’s jaw tenses. She knows she’s being absorbed—another piece in their machine. But the Ferrari keys in her pocket, the paid medical bills, they whisper: This is the deal.]
***
White walls glow under soft amber lights, the air thick with the scent of incense and expensive perfume. The crowd is a carefully selected mix—art world elites, progressive theologians, and a handful of scowling evangelicals who couldn’t resist the scandal. At the center of it all, Leah Kim stands in a draped silk gown, the embodiment of sacred contradiction.]
THE EXHIBIT
[1] "Lot's Wife (After the Pilr)"
A marble statue of a woman mid-transformation—salt crystallizing over her skin, her face turned not toward Sodom, but forward.
Lei’s pcard: "She looked back. We do not."
[2] "The Daughters' Feast"
A triptych painting: biblical scenes reimagined.
Panel 1: The daughters feeding Lot wine.
Panel 2: Their hands csped in prayer after.
Panel 3: The birth of Moab and Ammon—two nations cradled between their mothers’ bodies.
Whispers in the crowd: "Is that… communion?"
[3] Leah’s Live Performance – "Sacred Flesh"
She steps onto a raised ptform, the spotlight isoting her.
A poet recites as a sketch artist captures Leah’s profile—deliberately echoing Renaissance Madonnas.
The twist? The artist only draws her from the waist up. The implication of nudity is somehow worse than the act.
[A red-faced man in a cross-stitched bzer (Pastor Gregg from First Baptist) jabs a finger at Lei.]
Pastor Gregg:
"This is filth masquerading as art!"
Lei (sipping champagne, smiling):
"Oh, Gregg. You’ve never read Genesis 19, have you? The real filth is in your unedited Bible."
[The crowd titters. A journalist snaps photos. Leah, still posed, meets the pastor’s gaze—her expression serene, challenging.]
Leah (softly, just for him):
"You preach their story as sin. I dispy it as sacrament. Who’s really defiling Scripture?"
[The pastor storms out. The livestream explodes.]
?? "DID SHE JUST COMPARE LOT’S DAUGHTERS TO THE LAST SUPPER??"
?? "THIS IS THE MOST GENIUS BLASPHEMY IVE EVER SEEN
***
"SISTERS IN PLURAL LOVE" – HAREM UPRISING PODCAST STUDIO
[The set is bathed in soft, fttering light—plush velvet couches, gold-accented microphones, and a neon sign glowing behind them: "ONE KING, INFINITE QUEENS." Leah Kim sits center stage, fnked by two women:
Naomi Cross, the "progressive feminist" (a struggling actress paid 5,000 to py the role)
Bethany Wells, the "tradwife influencer" (a former beauty pageant contestant on Hezri’s payroll)
Zara Lin, ever the provocateur, lounges in the host’s chair, her smirk sharp enough to draw blood. The "LIVE" light blinks red.**
Zara (grinning at the camera):
"Ladies, let’s fight! Naomi—you’re a ‘feminist.’ Isn’t plural love just patriarchy in a sundress?"
Naomi (pying her part, scoffing):
"Obviously! It’s oppression wrapped in faux-spirituality—"
Bethany (interrupting, saccharine-sweet):
"Oh honey, you’re just jealous no man wants to provide for you. Real women thrive in plural marriage!"
[Leah lets them bicker, waiting for her cue. Zara subtly taps her knee under the table—go time.]
Leah (leaning in, voice calm but cutting):
"Naomi, you cim to support ‘choice’—unless it’s our choice, right? Bethany, you preach ‘submission’—but isn’t judging other women the least submissive act?"
[A beat. The studio is silent. Then—]
?? "DAMN LEAH JUST ENDED THEM"
?? "SHES SO RIGHT THO"
?? "THIS IS A SETUP"
Naomi (flustered, badly acting):
"I—well—capitalism—"
Bethany (overpying her hand):
"You’re all going to hell!"
[Zara ughs, cpping her hands.]
Zara:
"And that’s why Leah wins! Feminists hate freedom, tradwives hate fun, and we?"* (winks at the camera) "We just win."
[A monitor pys the live chat—viewers are devouring it. Clips of Leah’s "cpback" are already going viral. The algorithm loves a catfight.]
***
[A sleek hardcover book glistens under the studio lights as Leah Kim sits at a signing table in the heart of a packed bookstore. The cover—a muted gold embossed with intertwined feminine silhouettes—catches the light like a sacrament.
Title: The Rachel and Leah Doctrine: Reciming Biblical Womanhood
Byline: Leah Kim, Foreword by Zara Lin
Hidden Credit: Research by Seneca Cole, Edited by Riya Patel
The crowd is a curated mix—
Conservative women in modest skirts, clutching pearls but leaning in.
Progressives side-eyeing the dispy but lingering, curious.
Media buzzing, cameras fshing, because controversy sells.
Leah (smiling, poised, pying her part):
"Rachel and Leah weren’t rivals. They were co-wives. Sisters. Partners in building a legacy. Modern feminism has erased that."
[A murmur ripples through the room. A journalist raises a hand.]
Journalist:
"But the Bible says Jacob loved Rachel more. Isn’t this just romanticizing oppression?"
Leah (smooth, rehearsed):
"And yet—God blessed Leah with six tribes of Israel. Rachel, the ‘beloved,’ died in childbirth. Where’s the real power in that story?"* (Pause, letting it sink in.) "Plural marriage wasn’t their chains. It was their strategy."
[The room erupts in chatter. A conservative blogger live-tweets: "SHE’S RIGHT. SISTERS OVER HUSBANDS."]
***
