The Promise of Heaven and the Fires of Hell

I saw your portrait hanging in the room, your sad eyes of blue.

I saw your white Caucasian skin and didn’t think you were a Jew.

I saw the way they had murdered you, what a sad and ugly site.

I saw your emancipated state and it filled me full of fright.

I heard your messages of love, and turn the other cheek

And listened to your admiration for the mild and the meek.

The promises you asked for were promises I could not keep

As I would prefer to be a goat than to flock with your sheep.

I wondered what you did in that desert with the devil you would have us dread

And whether he is really evil or just the voices in your head.

Stories of your miracles held my young mind in awe,

But somewhere between the promise of heaven and the fires of hell there seemed to be a flaw.

What about the God of Job and the tortures Job endured

That doesn’t seem to fit with your message of love and the sick that you cured.

I can’t buy this battle between heaven and hell, it is far too simplistic.

It looks to me like a partnership, the relationship is symbiotic.

Without a hell we wouldn’t need a heaven, the story seems too shallow.

This simplistic juxpositioning of good and evil is just too hard to swallow.

 Craig (12/05/2018)

 Copyright Craig Buller 2018. All rights reserved