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God and Country (Haiku) by dougsoderstrom

Prayers to Jesus, Flags a waving, Missiles launched from pews.

dougsoderstrom 16-Sep-02/9:54 AM
Dear Balthazar:

I guess that my own understanding of a haiku may not be perfect, but I think that what I have written falls within the more general guidelines of haiku.

And, by the way, my last line, I believe, does "turn a twist" in relation to the first two lines. The first two lines allude to Robert Bellah's idea of "civil religion."------the coming together of God and country, and most people in our culture, as well as those in most other societies, think that this is the naturally right thing to do. However, in line with a new book that I am now reading ("when Religion Becomes Evil" by Charles Kimball), there is little doubt in my mind that the blending of these two factors (that is, that of God and country) has caused more people to die, more wars to be waged, and more evil to be perpetrated than anything else in the world. And given this quite lethal combination of factors, there is little doubt that the two most pernicious religions of all are that of Christianity and the Moslem faith. So at this point in my life I believe I can no longer refer to myself as a Christian. However, that being said, the more that I seem to withdraw from the Christian Religion, the more that I feel myself drawn to wanting to be able to someday become (to someday be able to think and act like) Jesus.

Doug




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