Anonymous – You Tricked Us

Poem from a leaver written during the Girl’s Employment Court Case:

 

You tricked us

You tried to say it was words of Jesus

When we worked for days with no pay

“Love is a sacrifice”, you’d say.

Sometimes the truth of love was enough,

But so often even when my life was rough,

I had to give more

and more was still not enough.

The hours and days worked with no time to rest,

Still I did my very best,

To be responsible and on time, to give, give give,

a life of serving we were taught to live

But where was the giving of love back to me,

I felt like it only came from my family,

And not the family of God, the church,

Well maybe sometimes it did, but it really hurt

 

This idea of “love that hurts” was a twisted lie

From “those he chastises, or chastens, to them he draws nigh”.

And for certain He does

For He is Above,

But you are not God, neither am I

You are not God, your Son did not die

For the sins if the world

For your sin and mine.

Who gave you the authority to pass out grades

on who is “holiest” and who is to blame?

When we are hurt by you is it fair to blame God,

To call it “his loving rod”?

How do we share in the good gifts from above

If they are taken away from us by those we “ought to love”.

 

The community catchphrases “all things in common” and “united as one”,

A plan to win the race without having to run?

Yes, we ought to love each other,

But what made it harder is the one who calls himself “brother”.

The one who would listen and then go tattle,

creating trouble

Rather than discussing the issue first like christians should,

Perhaps getting all the brownie points he could.

This was modeled too often causing distrust and contempt,

Many community young people felt exempt,

then harrassed and told they need to “repent”.

shouted at and shamed, afraid,

Put on the outside, they carried the blame.

Shunned from the group and fallen from grace,

Stricken from having a place.

It became mental games, manipulation, or thunder,

If you were struck by the leaders lightening you were going under.

And if my team leaders yelled and riled me too, they take no fault, they simply copied you,

Their shepherds and servents, men called to lead,

set apart but not holy yet still a different breed.

Yes, anger has been reflected onto sinners unsaved,

Consciences pricked but condemnation heavy all the way.

Is this your right ?

 

What about judgement day?

Consequences are great, its safe to say,

but not using the bible to lead His sheep astray,

from giving God his glory to abuse through rules and restrictions,

Creating a cult through severe forms of religion-

its called asceticism.

Attempting to save face in public reports,

of leaders involved in criminal courts.

Owning our shame is hard to do,

guilt has a way of deceiving you.

Even owning our wrongs will not make them right,

hence we have the human plight.

When we preach the gospel we must first preach it to ourselves,

said Luther, a preacher himself.