Bad Religion

I don't want
bad religion
that binds me up
in fear and guilt,
herding me into
a suffocating small space
unable to be free
to laugh
to dance
to sing
to be the myself
God has created me to be,
and not the one of
someone else's tiny imagination.

I don't want
bad religion
where those who are in
look down on the out,
bolstering their fragile egos
in the light of other
less fortunate failures.
One look condemns,
the verdict next,
the sentence carried
before a word from the accused.

I don't want
bad religion
where no one cares
if I live or die,
as long as it doesn't
take up a moment
of their busy schedules
or inconvenience them in any way.
The volume turned down
on the cries of the desperate,
and off if it becomes too irritating.

I don't want
bad religion.
God doesn't either.
That's not why Jesus came to earth
and died
so we can be tangled up
and downward dragged
by confusing legalese
and man-made print.

God
so misrepresented
by willful muddle
and downright lies.
Humanity wants nothing to do
with the One
who created,
who loves,
who cares,
and deeply longs for
relationship
sin broken, cross restored.

He's waiting for us
to say no to
bad religion
and yes and yes and yes
to His kingdom and to Him.