At Odds

at odds with the steel casing,
mental slavery all-embracing,

cultural attitudes and mores
cannot even be ignored,

dogma driving their minds
progress always left behind,

they see regress of once was
they need it back, just because

they refuse to stop and think
about the damage they bring

about by their closed views,
the challenges are the cues

to react in knee-jerk fashion
to make cases from passion

about the majority losing ground,
how their world is upside down

I think that steel case should rust
because dogmatism is a bust

I like the challenge, I like the fight
I like to tell the evangelist I am right

and that my view is seen as valid
not as something pale and pallid

the protest is lodged, and I stand firm
I'm not bound for hell on anyone's terms

Jesus can call me out for failing the law,
but he is not me, and he knows it all

I am at odds with his steel casing,
his loving slavery all-embracing,

and I guess I deserve his fire
because I greatly raised his ire

so I'll be sent to sulfurous pyre
but at least he knows I'm not a liar

Author's Note

Context...

I live in a city that has 10 radio stations broadcasting either contemporary Christian music, Catholic shows, Seventh-Day Adventist screeds or fundamentalist rhetoric about the coming Apocalypse. I have listened to this stuff willingly to hear the same point over and over again. That Jesus will forgive sin if you accept him in a relationship and that you will be spirited away to Heaven, but the recalcitrant ones are Hell-bound. This rhetoric has ruined many souls around the world and has sparked movements against it, and there is even disagreement within Christian circles as to whether saying "Save Me Jesus" prayer is heresy! It makes my mind hurt and my heart ache overall to see this as a dominant perspective in our country.

Reviews

[...]

. ah, strong words for strong feelings ... i agree with you ... life is much more than any "rhetoric" ... perhaps there's a need for all religions to be more "real" ...

[Chris]

Ken,

To me it shows the high level of the current state of fear that so surrounds us. Uncertainty and a growing sense of personal helplessness over things beyond our control (and in some cases - beyond even understanding) are so driving our lives. Truths we ALWAYS knew - seem to be actual lies.

Rough times real and mentally.

Chris

[Ed Hart]

thinking man awash in the world of mass man