Going to Meet The Man OR GOD is NO Homophobe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Today's poem takes its title from a wonderful novel by that outstanding American black writer, James Baldwin; it appeared on my gay-interest blog in August 2011. I had already removed it from both blogs for some time after a stream of abusive emails became not only boring, but also threatened to clog up my PC; I reinstated it on that blog later.
Now, regular readers will know that I subscribe to no religion but find spiritual relief and inspiration in nature where religion offers me only division and bigotry. Even so, I will always defend anyone’s right to follow the religion of their choice regardless of ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
Now and again, someone emails me to relate how they have been made to feel rejected by their respective religious communities for being gay. Invariably, they are devastated. What has happened to world religions? I was raised to believe that religion was synonymous with humanitarianism, but discovered my mistake as I grew older. While I have met some lovely religious minded people who would help anyone, regardless of their gender, sexuality or religious persuasion, I have to say that, in my personal experience, these have been relatively few.
As far as I'm concerned, so-called religious people who practice any form of socio-cultural-religious bigotry are a disgrace to their religion and its founders. I have said as much more than once on the blogs and also on You Tube - e.g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrTjc2373IU (Answering Leviticus.)
GOING TO MEET THE MAN or GOD IS NO HOMOPHOBE
A young man went to heaven,
and knocked at the door;
an angel came, looked him over,
told him he’d have to wait
a wee longer. A second angel arrived,
carrying the Book, stood there,
scratched his head, gave the poor lad
a hard, old-fashioned look.
When yet a third angel came to see
whatever could the matter be,
the youth managed to say,
‘Is there a problem ’cause I’m gay?’
The angels muttered piously,
‘Know, truth will have its way.’
The young man broke down
and turned to leave when Someone
took him, oh, so gently
by the sleeve, reminding loud
and clear...
"Who seeks shall enter."
Copyright R. N. Taber 2002; 2010
[Note: Slightly revised (2010) from an earlier version that appears in First Person Plural by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2002 and other poetry publications.]
Today's poem takes its title from a wonderful novel by that outstanding American black writer, James Baldwin; it appeared on my gay-interest blog in August 2011. I had already removed it from both blogs for some time after a stream of abusive emails became not only boring, but also threatened to clog up my PC; I reinstated it on that blog later.
Now, regular readers will know that I subscribe to no religion but find spiritual relief and inspiration in nature where religion offers me only division and bigotry. Even so, I will always defend anyone’s right to follow the religion of their choice regardless of ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
Now and again, someone emails me to relate how they have been made to feel rejected by their respective religious communities for being gay. Invariably, they are devastated. What has happened to world religions? I was raised to believe that religion was synonymous with humanitarianism, but discovered my mistake as I grew older. While I have met some lovely religious minded people who would help anyone, regardless of their gender, sexuality or religious persuasion, I have to say that, in my personal experience, these have been relatively few.
As far as I'm concerned, so-called religious people who practice any form of socio-cultural-religious bigotry are a disgrace to their religion and its founders. I have said as much more than once on the blogs and also on You Tube - e.g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrTjc2373IU (Answering Leviticus.)
GOING TO MEET THE MAN or GOD IS NO HOMOPHOBE
A young man went to heaven,
and knocked at the door;
an angel came, looked him over,
told him he’d have to wait
a wee longer. A second angel arrived,
carrying the Book, stood there,
scratched his head, gave the poor lad
a hard, old-fashioned look.
When yet a third angel came to see
whatever could the matter be,
the youth managed to say,
‘Is there a problem ’cause I’m gay?’
The angels muttered piously,
‘Know, truth will have its way.’
The young man broke down
and turned to leave when Someone
took him, oh, so gently
by the sleeve, reminding loud
and clear...
"Who seeks shall enter."
Copyright R. N. Taber 2002; 2010
[Note: Slightly revised (2010) from an earlier version that appears in First Person Plural by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2002 and other poetry publications.]
Labels: bigotry, culture, death, dogma, human nature, human spirit, hypocrisy, James Baldwin, life, love, mind-body-spirit, nature, personal space, poetry, religion, self-awareness, sexuality, society, spirituality
posted by R. N. Taber | 09:22
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