Once Upon a Sheep Pen
A modern-day parable
If you’ve followed me for a while, then you know this is a different kind of writing than I normally do. But sometimes we need a story to share hard and difficult truths. So here you go.
Suzie Sheep sighed. She looked around the field and shook her head. None of the other sheep would listen to her; no one seemed to care. She wondered if it was a lost cause. Maybe she should just give up and leave these stubborn, silly sheep alone.
Suzie had tried to tell the other sheep about the wolves she had seen within the flock. They were wearing poorly fitting sheep costumes and didn’t even blend in very well. Suzie could clearly see their gray furry legs, long gray tails, and gleaming teeth underneath the thin cotton fluff they had tied to their bodies and heads. But when she had warned the others about the wolves, the sheep claimed that she was being too negative and judgmental. They told her to stop talking about it or she was going to give their flock a bad reputation. Instead of exposing the truth, the rest of the sheep were extra nice to the fake sheep-wolves and took their side of the argument. Suzie was pretty sure that one of the wolves winked at her when that happened; he definitely licked his teeth and grinned.
Then Jimmy got bit by one of the wolves. Instead of believing Jimmy and Suzie and recognizing that the fake sheep were actually wolves in disguise, the other sheep blamed Jimmy for getting bit. They shunned him and made him feel so terrible about himself that he stopped coming around. Jimmy sat alone under a tree. So the other sheep condemned him for his bitterness and unforgiveness.
Suzie was pretty sure that Bonnie and Billy had been eaten because she hadn’t seen them in a couple of days. These weren’t the only sheep to suddenly disappear in the last few months. But no one else seemed to notice or care.
In the corner of the field was a patch of toxic weeds. The other sheep loved to eat them. Suzie tried to warn the sheep that the weeds would hurt and maybe even kill them, but the sheep told Suzie that they’d been eating this patch of weeds for generations. It was their tradition to eat them. It was part of their identity. The older rams reminded her that she was a ewe (a female) and didn’t have any right to give opinions or ideas to rams. They were in charge and they knew what they were talking about. The rams, and even some other ewes, told Suzie that she needed to stay in her lane and mind her own business. The sheep eating the poisonous weeds seemed weak and lethargic. She could see their muscles twitching; sometimes they staggered and fell, and a few of them seemed to be blind. But they kept on eating.
Some of the sheep were clearly struggling with diseases. They were lame from foot rot and scrawny and weak from internal parasites, but the sheep insisted that they felt great. They refused to notice or acknowledge their own symptoms and when Suzie mentioned them, the other sheep got angry and called her names. It felt hopeless.
Suzie had grown up in this corner of the field. There was a fence that separated it from the rest of the pasture. The other sheep told Suzie that the grassy pasture she could see outside of the fence was not safe. They warned her that the sheep out there were dangerous and that their ideas couldn’t be trusted. But looking around at the sick, poisoned, and bitten sheep inside the pen, Suzie wasn’t so sure that they were right. The sheep outside of the fence looked healthy, and the grass out there was lush and green.
As Suzie gazed through the fence, she caught sight of someone walking towards her. It was the Shepherd. She recognized him because he often came into their fenced-off area to try and take care of the sick and injured sheep. He was the one who had first pointed out the costumes on the sheep-wolves. He had also shown her the toxic weeds and told her not to eat them. He gave her medicine to keep her safe from foot rot and parasites. The Shepherd would have helped the rest of the sheep too, but they didn’t listen to him any better than they listened to Suzie.
The Shepherd hopped the fence like it wasn’t even there. He walked over to Jimmy who was still sitting alone under the tree. They were too far away for Suzie to hear what they said, but suddenly Jimmy stood up and followed the Shepherd. There was a bounce to his steps that Suzie hadn’t seen since before he got bitten. Jimmy and the Shepherd came back to the fence. “Do you want to come with us?” the Shepherd asked Suzie. “I have a lot of great sheep out there that I’d like you to meet,” he smiled. “And the grass is delicious too,” he added.
Suzie looked back at the fenced-in area and the weak, lethargic sheep who were stumbling around inside. She saw the fake sheep-wolves licking their lips, clicking their teeth, and looking for their next victim. Suzie felt sorry for the sheep that had been her family for as long as she could remember. She hesitated.
“We can come back,” the Shepherd said gently. “We can come back and try to talk to them. And as they wake up, we will come back and get them.” Suzie looked up into the Shepherd’s kind, dark eyes.
“Okay,” she whispered.
The Shepherd helped Suzie and Jimmy over the fence and into the wide, green pasture. It was bigger and more beautiful than anything Suzie had ever seen. She turned to look back at the fenced in area that she had called her home, but to her surprise the fence was gone. Quizzically, she looked up at the Shepherd.
“Those sheep tried to build a fence to protect themselves,” the Shepherd explained. “It doesn’t really exist except in their own minds. This whole pasture is mine and is filled with my sheep. They could go anywhere they wanted here and be safe with me. But they choose to stay in that little corner filled with toxic weeds, wolves, and disease because they are afraid.” A sad smile crossed the Shepherd’s face. “But I love them, and I won’t stop trying to convince them to come with me.”
A spectacular sunset lit the evening sky as Suzie, Jimmy, and the Shepherd walked through the deep, green grass and down to a bubbling, gurgling creek. Suzie breathed in the cool air and gazed up at the colorful clouds. It was beautiful out here. She felt peace. She felt free.
There have been a number of Christian celebrities who have been exposed in the past week for abuse, financial misconduct, and more. Sean Feucht and Michael Tait are two of them. I wrote about Sean’s Burn 24/7 organization a year ago. I will never stop calling out false teachers and false teachings. As someone who spent a decade believing lies, it is something that I am passionate about.
This summer we will be digging into why the American evangelical movement and the evangelical industrial complex has been so characteristically terrible at calling out false teachers and their lies. Next week we will talk about two “biblical ideas” keeping evangelicals from telling the truth about abuse and junk happening in their churches. These ideas are based on misread and misinterpreted scriptures, and therefore they are lies.
Until then, please read this wonderful essay by
that just confirmed thoughts in my own heart.
And if you haven’t already, you should listen to
and ’s podcast All the Buried Women. Among other things, it’s an eye opening look at the SBC.As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or comments. You can find me on Threads, Instagram, Facebook, in the Substack app, and on my website. I’d love to connect with you on any of these places!
My podcasts, Religious Rebels and Looking for the Real God can be found here on Substack, and on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and anywhere you listen to podcasts.
You can order an autographed copy of my book, Religious Rebels: Finding Jesus in the Awkward Middle Way by clicking on the button below. Or you can find it on Amazon.
That was really good. Sometimes a story hits, like nothing else can!
Hello, Christy! You gained a new follower on Substack and Instagram today. Me! I came here to see what your spicy parable was all about. It's a true story. Hard relate...and, I loved it. Happy to be here.