Vermin

"Vermin" is a short story by Harry Turtledove. It was first published in Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1993 and in Counting Up, Counting Down DelRey, 2002. It is a science fiction story set in the distant future, on a world colonized by a human religious order the Holy Mission Church. The colony, called New Zion, is based on Church principles: adherence to God and Jesus Christ, an aversion to technology, strict patriarchy, and a generally repressive attitude towards sexuality.