1. Back to Flo

    1. The argument—85-7; the irresolution; the atmosphere

    2. Billie Holiday, "Don’t Explain"—play song and look at lyrics

    3. Baldwin and sexuality as salvation and trap—his own and others

      4.

  2. Gabriel

    1. His guilt 95-7—inner struggle with sex; homecoming from prostitute—story of his conversion and salvation—turning point—do people have them? Do they become perfect?—stable?—are they unreal? Desire as sin?

    2. His proposal to Deborah—better to marry than burn—113; Elisha speaking in tongues—rebirth; labor—Book of Acts chapter 2

      1. Pentecostal; ecstatic celebration; the Spirit

    3. He’s good, but neither sex nor fertility is provided

    4. Esther’s alternative 125-6; another fall

    5. Encounter with Royal 141-3—the lynching; Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"

    6. Back to Elisha in tongues and the growth of evil 149

      7.

  3. Elizabeth

    1. She’s orphaned and John’s an unwanted child—she chooses Richard over God: 157

    2. Richard’s death and her guilt and fear of God 174

    3. Meeting Gabriel; he will be her strength and salvation—she will provide him with children who will redeem him and the curse on his past

    4. Reminds her of John’s birth; of the unwanted child; ironic and bitter; John’s painful birth—babies crying 188-9--—Billie Holiday's "God bless the child"
      5.

IV. What’s meaning of John’s birth; what does he carry from the heritage of these three people?