I cannot believe in a God of the Few Condemning the souls of the Many My reason insists That this cannot be true For His love is eternal in plenty
Hate is the ruse Of the faithless man Believing himself undeserving And holding below him The countless souls With faith neither strong nor unswerving
But I hold before me Compassionate God Amused at my fumblings apparent Loving and kind In the tenderest way Forgiving me when I am errant
For all His creation Must something destroy Destruction can be a thing grand Consider volcanoes Destroying themselves In process creating new land
My soul is consumed With the fires of love Which leaves my heart painful and raw Yet as the ash settles And soon falls away What's left is the love of God's law
God's law can be summed up In one single word And Love is the word that is meant His law is but Love In its purest form The Original Element
I cannot believe There is only one way To honor and worship God If that were the truth We would all be the same And this world unspeakably odd
But God in His wisdom Made each one unique Both in how we view Him above And in our great challenge That noblest of quests Creating yet new ways to Love.
1999
This poem has appeared before in print and online in Stash Magazine, of St. Petersburg, Florida, which is now defunct. It also appeared online on the website of www.Deist.com, also based out of the Tampa Bay area, which was devoted to the furthering of Deism, which is a non-denominational belief in God through reason; the website now belongs to an unrelated business which has nothing to do with religion or philosophy.