How long
will priests and preachers
be allowed  to abuse our children?
How long
until we realize that the “godly”
are not gods?
They are men,
sometimes women,
flawed,
full of sin,
one of us.
Believing themselves to be better
makes them bolder,
believing they will be sheltered
by the lies of the church
gives them a false sense of power.
Believing themselves to be blameless,
they say it was
the devil’s temptation -
they were just too weak
and not strong like their Jesus.
How long
will we revere them as saints?
How long
will they cast themselves as shepherds,
leading the poor mindless sheep?
Justifying their actions
by claiming to teach,
Absolving themselves
with a prayer of forgiveness,
knowing the peace of confession.
How long
will it take for the victims to be absolved?
Pushed away from the church
by the hands and tongues
of wicked men.
They believe
they will be greeted in heaven,
while we believe
they deserve worse than hell -
what sort of god
would let them into heaven
on a technicality,
these men who know
all the loopholes of sin?
I guess it doesn’t matter
what you do,
or how often you do it,
as long as you pray for forgiveness
after you’re done.
What kind of god
would turn away the victims,
who worry that they are
forgotten,
unloved,
unworthy,
and dirty?
Who worry
that there may not be a god
at all.
How long
will their pain last?
Will the guilty
enjoy paradise for eternity
while the innocent agonize
through all of life
and death?