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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Whose Bad Books?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Christopher Norris, with image by Martin Gollan<\/em><\/p>\n 1<\/p>\n Our pastor, he said \u2018Praise the Lord, He said \u2018The grapes of wrath are stored I harkened, took it all on board, But then I thought: \u2018There\u2019s things ignored 2<\/p>\n That Jesus, he had stuff to say You know, the bits not only they Truth, justice, peace on earth – let\u2019s pray A good man, Jesus, when he\u2019d play 3<\/p>\n But Christ-as-God\u2019s the one who\u2019ll see Old monks devised the Trinity Still look around and you\u2019ll agree: The one to whom they bend the knee, It holds the one and only key, And when the tribal lords decree I hear it in their hymnody, It\u2019s in the blood-filled oratory, 4<\/p>\n But nearer home I saw it fill A woman elderly and ill Don\u2019t blame their parents\u2019 lack of skill, No, we\u2019ll not walk safe streets until 5<\/p>\n For the Lord tells us: eye-for-eye That\u2019s what he said, the lawyer guy, It\u2019s how they think, the folk who buy It\u2019s him, the Moloch-god, who\u2019ll pry Those old books have the sinners fry, O there\u2019s good bits, you can\u2019t deny, Yet always there\u2019s some sinner nigh, Our pastor has his own supply But that\u2019s the itch they satisfy, 6<\/p>\n And now each latest bulletin The same old talk – \u2018wages of sin\u2019, It\u2019s still the same old tales they spin, Sometimes I think the guys who\u2019d pin Since that\u2019s the mythic origin The truth \u2018all one beneath the skin, For it\u2019s the vengeful god within 7<\/p>\n I catch the bible-bashing tone I catch it in the battle-zone But you\u2019ve a language all your own, It\u2019s your God churns the flesh and bone, He taunts the victims as they groan For it\u2019s a savage seed they\u2019ve sown, Whose Bad Books? by Christopher Norris, with image by Martin Gollan 1 Our pastor, he said \u2018Praise the Lord,Give praise unto His name,And spread the gospel news…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":15946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[1857,2845,1876],"class_list":["post-15948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-bible","tag-gaza","tag-jesus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Give praise unto His name,
And spread the gospel news abroad:
To save your souls He came!\u2019.<\/p>\n
For those who bear the blame
That drags us mortals Satan-ward
To feed the Devil\u2019s flame\u2019.<\/p>\n
And told my kids \u2018For shame,
Listen up else you\u2019ll be zero-scored
When God decides the game\u2019.<\/p>\n
In all that he\u2019d proclaim,
Things apt to strike a jarring chord
With folk outside the frame.<\/p>\n
That goes for black and white,
Good news our pastor could convey
And help set old wrongs right.<\/p>\n
But us black folks can cite
Because there ain\u2019t no earthly way
They\u2019ll spread the racist blight.<\/p>\n
Those words shed kindly light
And quench the flame whose kindling may
Burn fierce in darkest night.<\/p>\n
It down, that touch of spite
That blasted the fig-tree to pay
Those chatterers back alright!<\/p>\n
You burn in Hell should you
Risk any word or deed that He
Deems wicked or taboo.<\/p>\n
In hopes that it might do
To silence such rank heresy
Amongst the errant crew.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s God, not Christ, that slew
Those legions of the damned whose plea
The wrong God listened to.<\/p>\n
The God of Soldier Blue,
Is He whose old book\u2019s held to be
The sole book good and true.<\/p>\n
The single passe-partout
Vouchsafed by Him to guarantee
They pay the homage due.<\/p>\n
Some holy war or new
Crusade to wage they\u2019ll soon make free
With Joshua\u2019s hullabaloo.<\/p>\n
With our old pastor, too,
When he takes such unChristian glee
In tales of butchery.<\/p>\n
The martial tropes on cue,
The monotheists\u2019 battle-spree
To get a God\u2019s-eye view.<\/p>\n
The airwaves, tv screens,
And op eds: \u2018they went out to kill,
Those two black female teens.<\/p>\n
They killed by brutal means,
A Bible teacher who\u2019d instil
God\u2019s grace in wolverines.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t blame it on their genes,
Don\u2019t say it\u2019s what their home-lives drill
Them into – death-machines!<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve junked those childhood scenes
Of violence, want, and horrorsville
So justice intervenes.<\/p>\n
And tooth-for-tooth\u2019s the law,
And those two girls have got to die
To quit the moral score\u2019.<\/p>\n
And the DA then swore
That it would anger God on high
If sins weren\u2019t answered for.<\/p>\n
That vengeful line – what more
Effective way to block the cry
Of conscience they ignore?<\/p>\n
Into the hate-filled core
Of minds long driven far awry
By that god-awful lore.<\/p>\n
And their god wipe the floor
With infidels who dare to try
The penalties in store.<\/p>\n
Like passages that soar
On prophet-wings to touch the sky
Or heaven\u2019s gleaming shore.<\/p>\n
Some tribe to shock and awe,
Or angel to touch Jacob\u2019s thigh:
\u2018Not yours but God\u2019s, this war!\u2019.<\/p>\n
Of bible-quotes he\u2019ll draw
So swiftly on you never spy
Some massacre in the raw.<\/p>\n
The itch of tooth and claw
To hear him conjure deeds we\u2019d shy
From once through the church-door.<\/p>\n
From Gaza lets us know
Once more how massacres begin
When preachers run the show.<\/p>\n
\u2018God\u2019s children\u2019 or \u2018God\u2019s foe\u2019,
\u2018We chosen ones\u2019, \u2018you devil\u2019s kin\u2019,
And suchlike to-and-fro.<\/p>\n
The tales that strike a blow
For each hate-manual and its twin –
Two creeds, same war-tableaux.<\/p>\n
The death-rap on those low-
Life scapegoat girls are mirrored in
The siege of Jericho,<\/p>\n
Of what the victims owe
To bible-lore when victors win
On points scored long ago.<\/p>\n
All kindred, bro and bro\u2019,
Gets lost each time the trumpets\u2019 din
Brings yet more grief and woe.<\/p>\n
That answers when they blow
And spike some war-primed endorphin
With carnage to bestow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In that DA\u2019s appeal
For the death-sentence to be thrown
At those too hurt to heal.<\/p>\n
Reports of those whose zeal
For far-off kills by bomb or drone
They\u2019re hard-put to conceal.<\/p>\n
You holy men who deal
In sanctifying missions flown
Or fusillades of steel.<\/p>\n
Whips up the hate they feel,
His chosen ones, or sees them blown
To bits unless they kneel.<\/p>\n
On the inquisitor\u2019s wheel,
And tells his flock \u2018Let them atone
Beneath the Seventh Seal\u2019.<\/p>\n
Those scriptures that reveal
Depths of malignity unknown
Till blind faith makes them real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"