Trigger warning, Christians! I take some swipes here.
© 2023, Steven E. Cutts
a Studio C recording, August 2024
Hey, Jesus, if you’re thinkin’ ‘about returning,
there might not be a better time than now –
not to whisk us all away – no, a different sort of judgement day
about some misinterpretations that you might disavow.
Perhaps I shouldn’t offer criticism.
I’ll admit up front, there’s lots that I don’t know.
I never learned your Church’s catechism,
But I’ve heard plenty ‘bout your lessons from long ago.
I’m sure you preached that we should love our neighbor,
but neighbor is now narrowly defined.
A neighbor has to look like us; he has to talk like us, has to pray with us.
I’ll bet that not quite what you had in mind.
There’re still money changers in the temple.
We’re still not sharing all our fish or loaves.
We do unto others so that we come out on top.
That’s just human nature, I suppose.
From what I’ve read, you always honored women:
Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well.
Some churches still stick women in the back pew;
they’re under patriarchy’s tiresome spell.
Some have resurrected you in their own image
with a look that is both muscular and white.
The USA, they say, is a Christian nation
and leave no room to doubt that they are right.
Hey, Jesus . . .
. . . You could set them straight: whom to love not hate.
There’s plenty that you could substantiate
and lots of misinterpretations that you might disavow.