I sat in the lounge with my schoolmates, having a rare theological discussion.
One was angry because the Women's Center meeting that week had been
Closed to him.  He said he was mad at the snub, even though he laughed
And said he would only have gone to disrupt, to poke fun at the silly girls club.
And the father looked on with approval.

The other was angry too.  "We couldn't have a boy's club!" he fumed,
(in this kingdom where the chosen ones call all men equal, and they mean it)
"If they told me I couldn't come, I'd say: (have sexual intercourse with) 'em,"
He said, and stuck his middle finger in the air to drive the point home.
And the father looked on with approval.

My protests were casually ignored, as I was inept at this theologizing in the
Student lounge (they moved on to deriding affirmative action in god's name).
So I walked out into the quad littered with purple ribbons, one for each daughter,
Raped, mutilated, abused, beaten, imprisoned, to drive the theological point home
That the father looks on with approval.

Smirks exchange in exegesis classes where the real theologizing goes on, carried out by
Experts in the field.  Scholarly consensus carries the weight of orthodoxy, dictating
What can and cannot be said, hence lived.  And if you try to listen in this deafening
Roar of name-dropping, they will brand you heretic, pagan; they will beat you down
While the father looks on with approval.

God's wisdom is foolishness to men.
God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Our Father, who art in heaven...Thy will be done...in us.
"You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you?"

You want theology?  We are the children only a Mother could love.

April 2, 1994