godless Chapter 3 Summary

  • Jason's dad on the other hand, frets over Jason's soul. Jason considers him "a borderline religious fanatic" (3.1). After spotting Jason's sketch of scantily clad Bustella, the Sirian Goddess of Techno War, his dad signed Jason up for Teen Power Outreach (TPO), a weekly meeting at the Church of the Good Shepherd.
  • The meetings are run by Allan Anderson. He insists that the kids "just call him Al, but the first meeting [Jason] went to [he] called him Just Al and it stuck" (3.5). While TPO is to give kids a chance to talk freely about God, Catholicism, and religion, Jason believes there is "a secret agenda to turn us all into monks and nuns, at least in terms of our relations with the opposite sex" (3.8). Jason enjoys "messing with Just Al's head" (3.9)—like when he says he'd like to be a nun, to be able to wear "'that cool thing'" on his head (3.20).
  • Jason is quiet at this meeting because he is thinking about water towers. When Just Al calls on him, he says he doesn't believe in God, which this group already knows about him.
  • When Magda, whom Jason finds "cute as a button" (3.28), asks what he does believe in, he starts making things up as he goes along. "'Actually I worship a different god" (3.35), the "Ten-legged One'" (3.37). Does the Church of the Ten-legged God let women be priests? Magda wants to know. Jason says the "'Ten-legged One has yet to address that particular issue'" (3.43). Although he just brought the whole thing up to mess with Just Al, he likes this new idea. "Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own customized religion? All you need is a disciple or two. And a god" (3.44).