Poetry from a Questioning Heart...

reading the Bible
It is not in the book
but in the being
that we find spiritual truth...
and yet scriptures are
revered...elevated to a holy place,
words cherry-picked and
                         chosen,
used as weapons and as warnings,
not as wisdom or as welcome...
words quoted, cited, spoken with a towering authority-
     and all the while, the very ones who claim the words
     promote fear and hate, exclusion, war...
     while words of love, acceptance, and forgiveness
     get lost somewhere...forgotten...
and the One called God,
      the One called Love,
      the One Creator of us all
           gets pushed aside and
           Book takes center stage...
as we forget to LIVE the message
                   to BE the truth
                   to co-create a world of love
                   to worship with out daily lives

tell me

Tell me, someone, please...

tell me when 'salvation'

changed from living out God's will

on earth, in the here and now, in

the everydayness of our lives

to being a ticket to paradise

in the sweet by-and-by.

Tell me, someone, please...

tell me when 'in heaven' became

far more important than 'on earth',

when doing unto others became

a Brownie-point accruing enterprise

rather than a holy way of life.

Tell me, some one, please...

tell me when and by whom it was

decided that only one path leads

to God, while the rest are

only detours leading to perdition.

Tell me, someone, please...

tell me when and how the

God of Love became a repository

for exclusivity and judgment.

Tell me, someone, please...

tell me how you can decide the

validity and value of the God

I have come to know.

Tell me someone, please...

                       if you can...

decision-making power

Who decides how things are

'supposed' to be? Who has made the

determination that having white skin

is better than having black...or brown..

or red...or yellow? That being male and

having balls is preferable to being female

and having a uterus which can bear life?

That bringing a child into the world

to be neglected and abused is morally

superior to choosing not to have it at all?

That by denying something you do not

want to believe is true over & over & over

again, you can make your opinion reality?

Who decides what is truly 'true'? For

once some believed (some still do)

that slavery was right- denied that people

with a darker skin were even really

'human', seeing them as unthinking,

unfeeling creatures. Once some

believed (some still do) that women

were the property of men, fit only to

do the bidding, bend to the will of

father or husband, denying their

intellects, denigrating their minds.

Once some believed (some still do)

that homosexuality was a sinful choice-

seeing those whose sexuality was

different from their own as a threat

to home and hearth and family.

Who makes the rules and sets the limits,

doles out punishment or reward? Who

determines which religious path leads

ultimately to unity with God? And who

decides that my path, my thoughts,

my beliefs, my ideas have less validity

than yours? or his? or hers? or theirs?

Who decides???