What should you expect, really,
When the father is himself
Aloof and irresponsible?
Category Archives: The Will
Triggered
The one was tortured from youth with false accusations.
Another with unmeetable demands.
Another still with overbearing disapproval.
And yet another with unjust violence.
They were tormented with withering correction,
With insolent criticism.
With irresponsible impatience.
America, the Dutiful
America, the Dutiful—
The country of my dreams!—
Where politics are beautiful
And all is what it seems.
Different Ideas About What Is Evil
Some are so full of themselves
And of the culture of the camp
That they could read the whole Bible,
Stem to stern, and never perceive
That the camp and God have
Different ideas about what is evil.
Others perceive it somewhat,
In glimpses now and then, but will not
Come out from them and be separate,
Finding the staying preferable
To any wholesale reform, and
Hoping it is not unforgivable.
But others still have managed
To slip the bonds of camp,
To discover all the better
For themselves what God thinks—
Where there are no guards to quash
Such investigation, and no one
To please but God alone.
And having found the truths
The camp obscures,
Why would they ever go back,
Except to preach an unwelcome truth,
Or to try to escape it once again?
The reason the camps keep the truth
At arm’s length is that
Is that it pleases them neither
To please God, nor to admit
That they do not.
Woe to those who call evil good
Isaiah 5:20. NIV.
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
She’s All But Lost
She’s all but lost—
This idea that won’t die,
But won’t live, either—
This Great Experiment
On whether the people
Could rule themselves
Coming down to the question
Of whether they would rule themselves—
That is, whether they were willing.
The Veteran of Wickedness
The novice twists a truth and his deceit is quickly laid bare by the investigator. But the veteran of wickedness twists a thousand truths, so as to overwhelm those who would try to sort it all out. To the disproof of the one, he answers with 999 lies, making a mockery of truth by his show trial of unreasonable reasons. And then he prances around as the victor when the challenger throws up his arms and walks away.
Continue reading The Veteran of WickednessHe Rejects the Fruit of the Spirit
He rejects the fruit of the Spirit in several ways,
Including that he has no patience for studying the scriptures
That God had delivered to his generation,
Yet he expects the self-same Spirit to grant him understanding
Of those same scriptures.
What Would It Be Like?
The US Is Simply Not a Godly Nation
You can tell a people’s true religious convictions about justice and righteousness by whether they will see to it that their society is administered justly and righteously.
Continue reading The US Is Simply Not a Godly NationHe Who Sitting in the Dark House
He who sitting in the dark house
Peering from its windows
Into the daylight without
And reveling in the glory of the day
Also chooses, to our surprise,
Not to notice that he does not
Live in the daylight himself,
But in the dark house,
Where he has made for himself
A twisted religion from pretending
With the aid of its shades,
Which he may raise and lower at will.