OctPoWriMo 21 - Sweet

How sweet are Your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 119:103

I found the honey in the tomb

And it was sweet.

I took it home

And shared it ‘round

And it was sweet.

You mixed it with a bitter drug

And called it great.

You built a shrine and locked it up

To keep the lepers out.

But honey doesn’t spoil

And, beneath the acrid bane,

It is sweet.

You’ve tried to keep it to yourself;

You walled it off to keep it safe;

But it was not meant to be hoarded.

Fling wide the gates,

Break down the walls,

And share with all.

It is sweet.

 

OctPoWriMo 19 - No Opiate

I saw a prophet on the street:

His head was bowed in base defeat.

He had no home and naught to eat,

While pastors lie and steal and cheat,

And gratify our itching ears;

They pander for the cash and cheers.

And then the roar of masses strong

Drowns out the gentle tender song

Of Love. The rough and angry throng

Are but a clanging, strident gong.

True love is patient; love is kind;

But sometimes love is hard to find.

Religion is no opiate—

It is a cancer breeding hate.

The Church had promise to be great,

But then we closed and locked the gate.

To love is all we’re called to do—

Instead we fight o’er what is true.

The sweetness of the Word is lost;

The grace and welcome we have tossed.

We must return now to the Cross,

And burn away our filthy dross,

Our rags and rubbish, and the mould,

So all remains is purest gold.

 

O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

I know that not everyone believes the same things I do. I try not to get into arguments over politics and religion because I don't see the point. You're not going to convince me, and I'm not going to convince you. So let's talk about something else, mkay?

However, I'm going to talk about religion a little bit. A lot of people believe in something. I do. I believe that the universe was created by God. I believe that I was created by God. I don't believe that I evolved from apes or monkeys or anything. A lot of people believe as I do, that everything was created by a deity of some kind. That's our prerogative. However, many do not believe this. That's their prerogative. Let's not argue about it.

When I was in university, a science professor told my class, "Science can't prove anything. It merely disproves theories until there is only one remaining, and that is the accepted explanation until another theory comes along. Then the process starts over." Since science cannot disprove God, this gets a little sticky. Shall we dismiss the spiritual, and claim that it is disproven, because it cannot be measured through the scientific method? What about those people who claim personal experience of the supernatural? Are they all loonies?

I've seen people on the internetz claim that, yes, we are all loonies. Every single person who believes in any kind of religious or spiritual anything is insane. That's a lot of nutters walking around. Should we be afraid? They could be capable of anything.

Or maybe we're all just stupid. We believe in the supernatural because we'd believe anything. We probably believe that Dr Who is real too. (Hey, don't bring the Doctor into this! Sorry.) Well, if we'd believe anything, why do we insist on sticking to one thing? Why don't we change our minds every time someone challenges us? "Oh, yeah. You make sense. You've convinced me. I have now changed my entire world view." I know I don't do that. Some of my beliefs have slowly changed over time, but none of those changes have been very large, and it takes a long time.

We are not crazy. We are not imagining things. We are not stupid. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Hamlet Act 1, Scene 5)

Not Human

Their skin is a different colour
They're not human
Their god is not like ours
They're not human
Their bodies are so much smaller
They're not human
We just have more power
They're not human
(And we are?)