Gimme That Old-Time Religion
Give Me That Old-Time Religion
As one New Yorker said, the guy who mugs
You in New York, your wallet as his haul,
At least has goals, unlike the other thugs
Who kill and maim and have no aim at all.
Much like irrational brutes, our Christian God
Lacks logic, his tsunamis wiping out
All kinds —small babies, matrons, thieves and bawds —
And once, quite oddly, all the most devout . . .
In Lisbon long ago on All Saints Day
An earthquake and a great tsunami drowned
All citizens who’d gone to church to pray —
Their whores, though, lived —outcast to higher ground!
So give me Grecian gods, for they’re like us:
They loved and loathed, engaged in war and treason,
And normally, I know, were scandalous —
But when they sinned, they did so for a reason.
