[ Go to http://www.churchonfire.net/2020/05/11/proposition-of-a-desperate-woman/ ]

I notice Rosie’s hollow, sad eyes—the eyes of a miserable woman who has just finished crying. I remember vividly her first words to me, "Mind if I ask a favor?" Rosie came to me while I was doing research in the library of the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA). It is half past nine, and the library is nearly empty since it is scheduled to close in a half-hour.

I swivel in my chair to look at an attractive brunette with sad eyes and say, "Sure! A favor? What do you have in mind?"

"I am a desperate woman. I need a man willing to make long, slow love to me tonight." She says this with a muted urgency, half-whispered. I feel quite sure that she memorized this opening line, because,