Naked Intolerance
Imagine my embarrassment
When one day I discovered
Dysfunction and confusion
My ignorance uncovered
As educators taught me
That church and God were foolish
Belief in the hereafter
Was something almost ghoulish
No truth exists they told me
No hope in the hereafter
Suggesting a Creator
Just prompted hearty laughter
So, why should they condemn me
If I ignore the sorrow
Of those who suffer hardship
With no hope for tomorrow
Since animals and humans
Are just the same I learned
Well, do not try to tell me
That I should be concerned
They say my brief existence
Is void of all design
And there’s no hell or heaven
Or hope of any kind
But they had also taught me
To question things I’m told
To reason independent
Not fearing, being bold
So that is what I did, then
Not thinking they’d condemn
They wanted me to question
But not to question them
But they could never answer
A question that confused me
I asked them where the sky ends
Their mumbling amused me
It seems that if the heavens
Are infinite and boundless
Denying things eternal
Is ignorant and groundless
They spurned me for believing
And chastised my devotion
For thinking there was something
Beyond their empty notion
Their prejudice appalled me
Naïve or just deceiving
They showed such shameless loathing
Intolerance for believing ~
Poet's Comment...
While it was currently accepted thought that the universe had created itself, I found that hard to logically accept. If that was true, though, then man was only an accident and not part of some greater design of a Creator God. If I was just an accident of nature, what higher moral code obligated me to be concerned for my fellow man or to discipline my conduct in any way?
Interestingly, though, it was these believers in the God of the Bible who had historically promoted education, humanitarianism and charities of all sorts. They had built schools, universities, hospitals, rescue missions and soup kitchens. Why? Because their Creator instructed them to put others first. As a matter of fact, many of the premier institutions of learning in the United States and elsewhere were originally established as Bible schools by these Christians – schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Oxford.
Furthermore, while much of current “intellectual” thinking had a raging obsession to convince me to deny the concept of an eternal God, they simply could not deny the reality of the eternal expanse of space right over their heads. That seemed a little hypocritical and dishonest to me since the eternal obviously existed. If space was infinite… well, that was a term used to describe God. How could they refuse to admit that anything infinite could exist, when there was “infinity” right over their heads every day. How could they claim that an infinite God could not exist, when an equally hard to explain infinite universe clearly did?
I notice a distinct prejudice against the followers of Jesus and the believers in a Creator God. The notion of tolerance that was so touted by society was not extended to Christians. Instead, there was a thinly veiled social prejudice against the followers of Jesus. Indeed, Jesus described this intolerance 2,000 years ago. His words are recorded in John 17:14, “The world has only hatred for those who have taken my message to heart.”
So, I sadly realized that there would be a price to pay to follow Jesus. And I had received fair warning for the same when I read the words of Jesus in John 15:18 that said, “If the world hates you, just remember that it hated me first.”
Follow the journey as a poet wrestles with the controversial issues of life and breaks politically correct taboos in a sincere search for truth. Join him as he fearlessly asks the questions that too seldom get asked, and confronts issues that you’re not supposed to bring up, and does so through the unlikely genre of classical style poetry.
READERS COMMENTS
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Poetry is often more artistic than deep, more ethereal than substantial. Not so in this collection. Here you’ll find profound and challenging thought in beautifully flowing poetry. And not in an undisciplined style as is vogue today, but in the revered tradition of the great poets of yesteryear. But much more important than the style, you’ll be inspired and stirred by the depth of thought that is not riddled with endless unanswered questions, but rather with dawning hope, renewing purpose and genuine answers throughout this delightful poetic journey. Each poem is a brush stroke, and altogether they paint a picture of promise, expectation and hope as each poem grapples with a profound life-question and slowly breaks out of the darkness into the light.
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