There’s a particularly weird sect of Christianity in Layron, a small religious town deep in rural Virginia. For the most part, it’s stock-standard Protestantism; most of the doctrinal tweaks are so minor they aren’t worth getting into.
Where it gets strange is the changes introduced in 1973. Something of an atheistic missionary was traveling around their neck of the woods, just a guy in a poorly-fitted suit with an ego that fit him even less. His success rate deep in rural Virginia was exactly as you expect: about negative 15%, by accidentally reinvigorating the faith of most towns he visited.
Initially, that’s how things were looking in Layron, with town preacher Jason more irritated by the discussions of the Epicurean paradox than anything else. So, the preacher integrated a metaphysical discussion of the Epicurean paradox into his sermon; he talked about the nature of God’s abilities, and what it truly means to test one’s virtue. Some citizens of Layron had their faith deepened by the discussion, but most were just bored.
When the missionary left, disappointed and having changed little, Jason seized on a strange opportunity. “God,” he said, “knew that man would come to us, try to tempt us with his malicious falsehoods. When he saw that we stood strong, he sent the man away; perhaps this means that God truly is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good at once. His pesky paradox means nothing to us, His faithful.”
This strange little idea festered in Layron, grew greater and stranger as the town’s idiosyncratic sect stayed isolated. Jason would research atheistic arguments against their faith; and in his sermons, God would strike them down, His power greater than mere logical inconsistency.