why i HATE religion

I know of people
who go to church
every Sunday
some perhaps
everyday
but after their rosaries
and prayers
and wafers
they are still
seething
with venom

some
simply show up
dressed appropriately
for the times
of course
saying apostles creeds
kneeling on prayer rugs
making signs
of a cross
on their body
but...on their soul?

and when those
who attend church
at all costs
talk of hate
judgement
damnation
gossip
no one is safe
be it from their
words
criticism
or bombs
one thought
comes to my mind

did not Jesus say...
it is not what you put
into your body
but what comes out of it

how backwards
they have it
do we not have
enough to worry about
as humans

heartbreak
death
disease
starvation
natural disasters
sadness
of our fellow man
we really are
so very fragile
and need the cushioning
of love

it is a shame
we have to worry
about assaults
from without
from all directions

I look into faces
at the airport
trying to make their way
home
or to get to somewhere
each a story
to tell
yet
first
we look with
suspicion
and fear
rather than
compassion
wonderment
and love
and the woman
beside me
lets me go first
through
security
and gently says...
“We are all family here”
she must belong
to the religion
of the heart.....

~Jenny