POOR PASTOR'S PRAYER Options

[Alan]

POOR PASTOR'S PRAYER
"Religious people must do more than offer prayers if the world
is to become a better place to live" - The Dalai Lama

The world is bad, so I am off
to mind that which I own.
Not my responsibility
the foul seeds man has sown.

Behind my mental, metal walls,
and large padlock with key,
I'll pray and hope and worry some
that nothing will touch me.

Near neighbour's gone, they came for him;
I wonder what he's done ?
No matter, that is his look-out,
pass me another bun.

No buns, you say, well, what the heck,
the baker's taken too ?
That neighbour's trade was baking bread ?
Well, that I never knew.

So get more locks, and mouth more prayers,
the world's an evil place.
A poor pastor* can have no peace,
a national disgrace.

Alan McAlpine Douglas

*http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Politics/niemoller.shtml
Pastor Martin Niemoller was someone who did far more than pray.
This poem means to describe his early attitudes.

He wrote this in 1945 :

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

[JLY]

Alan,
The poem of 1945 I have heard many times over the years. It was referred to by many in order to illustrate the consequences of going through life with selfish blinders on.

Your take is quite good and the message is one that is probably more timely today than it was in 1945. We face many more challenges today that our parents did. In the 1940's the enemy was quite obvious, today we are never sure: it could be them, it could be you or it could be me.

JLY