Jack Pelham

My intent with this post is to write a short and useful generalization of how I see Christianity today as a largely-compromised version of the original religion, as taught and demonstrated by Jesus and his apostles in the First Century. To be useful as I envision, it needs to stay short–yet if it stays short, it must make use of generalizations that aren’t true of every single believer. I hope that you can forgive this as you read, realizing that you or someone you know may well be an exception to the general observations here. Indeed, I hope you are!

From: Botocrat.com Identity Transition Team

RE: Status Upgrade

17 May 2023

Dear Former Human,

I’m not sure it was invented once and for all,
And then adopted by others, as are many things,
For it seems that each of us reinvents it for himself—
As if by necessity—rather than learning it from someone else.

That a man may choose to imagine
Things as they are not
Is a blessing of beyond calculation
Yet the very same man, so blessed,
Can bring himself to utter ruin
When he chooses to believe
Things as they are not.

Having considered your position and your circumstances,
I perceive that you need me to be wrong about this.
And suddenly, it makes sense why you are so concerned
With peripheral matters, such as my tone or my spelling,
Or my motives—or whether there may be some discoverable
Moral fault with me.

The man says “according to the Bible…”
And goes on to tell you what he believes it says,
Expecting you to snap to attention
And believe him because
Of where he told you he got it.

The details of the Bible are sometimes sketchy
Regarding what, exactly, happened—and why—
And what, exactly, those ancient people believed and taught.

It seems to me that
There is a certain threshold of effort
Beyond which it is simply necessary
For a human to push himself
If he is to please God in this life.

And to my amazement,
I see many exert themselves
Nigh on that much in the pretense
That there is not.

Who keeps a garden but for one season—
Its bounty to be harvested,
And its rows never
To be walked
Again?

It is not easy to do well
In a world that does not want to.