The Gospel of Joanne Starr

CONTAINS EXPLICIT ADULT CONTENT AND STRONG LANGUAGE.

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Life’s too short, so f*** it!

A voice from within said, ‘Do not be afraid to have the child. The girl will be special. She will set the world free. Humanity will shake off its prison bonds. It is time to be honest with ourselves. It is time to be truthful. It is time we were free.’

This is the Gospel of Joanne Starr, the creed of a twenty-something woman in modern Britain preaching personal and social freedom on a scale never before seen; there is no God, there is no afterlife, so enjoy what you’ve got while you can.

Sex is to be enjoyed. ‘Screw who you like, any way you like, but do it safely and with consent,’ Joanne says.

Like all messiahs, her light burns brightly and she changes the world forever – but not without her share of tragedy.

‘The astonishing life story of a true revolutionary, I feel privileged to have met her,’ says TV journalist Michael Lyle.

A novella by JA Calvet

Excerpt:

Then Joanne reactivated her Freedom! magazine and gave her first lecture at the university.

The hall was packed. Joanne took the platform and addressed her audience.

‘Everyone wants to be happy,’ she said. ‘The key to happiness is identifying what you want from your life. Your time is short, so make the best of it. Don’t regret your losses. Don’t expect perfection and justice from a world in which people are flawed and self-absorbed. Don’t set unrealistic targets for yourself and others. Try to be amenable and reasonable. Try to live in peace with your fellow man.’

Someone shouted up, ‘Listen to her! She thinks she’s Jesus!’

Joanne turned to face him, and addressing the audience whilst looking at the man, she said, ‘Whenever anyone challenges you, test to see if they have a point. If they prove you wrong, be mature enough to admit it. If they don’t prove you wrong, be mature enough to respect their view, even if you can’t agree with it.

‘There will be opposition to the lifestyle I am recommending. To be free, one must be ready for harassment and ready to defend one’s right to be free. Don’t let anyone rob you of that basic human right: freedom.

‘All that said – don’t think I hate the religious preachers. There is a lot of wisdom in books like the Bible and the Qur’an. For example, treating others the way you wish to be treated is a philosophy worth cultivating. I’m all for mutual respect. But these religious books are not beyond scrutiny, nor are they beyond question.’

At that point in the delivery, two young persons and a college professor left the hall, each deeply disturbed by what Joanne had said.

Unflustered, she continued, ‘Some religious people spend so much of their time worrying about how they are living their lives that they fail to really live life to the full. Others are so preoccupied with judging their fellow humans they don’t see what narrow little minds they have. Don’t concern yourselves too much with what others do and don’t do.

‘That said, I’m not advocating a life without boundaries, nor am I promoting a life without respect for law. Without the law, life would be chaos. The law can be used to protect certain rights. It can also be employed to fight for rights not yet secured.

‘Again, some of the old ways hold true. I would hope that every person in this building would honour the rule “Thou shall not kill.” If you have made an agreement to have only one sexual partner, and you know your partner would be deeply wounded if you violated the agreement, stick to what you agreed.