Oh Dear God,

A man with the straight face just proclaimed

CRT leads to marxism.

When asked what that means

well he doesn’t know

but he knows it bad.

One woman desperately wants to go back

to the Ten Commandments

and days that felt better

when everyone was nice and good and well-behaved.

Good God, Can’t we all just say the pledge!

And two grumpy old men,

who aren’t nearly as charming as Matthau and Lemmon,

didn’t pay taxes so

Omaha teachers could “buy books about Social Justice.”

They only want to pay for traditional values

Like the ones our slaveholding, misogynistic Founding Father’s had.

And the middle age man is sure

comprehensive sex education means

children are given mirrors

to look at their privates right there in public

school.

Of course he didn’t actually read the Health Standards…

but he is pretty sure all the same.

The doctor with the peer-reviewed journal article

on adolescent health got the same two minutes

as the woman that fears the coming wrath of God

and quoted Romans 2:18.

Oh Dear God

The Dog Whistles sound but it’s not a test of the Emergency Alert System:

CRT leads to racism and lower test scores and sad white kids.

CSE leads to HPV and homosexuality, oh and “they are a predators dream”

Immigrants are flooding our boarders, they threaten all that is good…well unless

we need them to work in our kitchens or farms

or any where we can keep them scraping to survive.

Jimmy’s got a gun and he's cocking it the Nebraska way.

We are racing to the bottom as each candidate proclaims

their hatred for immigrants, CRT, the “transgender craze,”

“Washington Liberals” who honestly are not that liberal

and of course, reproductive rights.

That’s right, don’t forget they are 110% pro-life but have they read the stats on teen suicide and maternal health

and the ways you can actually reduce abortion?

Do they not understand that some folks just need to pee?

P.S. Don’t say GAY

Does that mean the sweetheart with two moms

will not talk about her Disney vacation until she is in the fourth grade?

Does that mean no one will be who they are?

Does it all go away if we just don’t use the words?

If so, I would like to propose

Don’t say Billionaires and Oligarchs and Putin

Don’t say Genocide and Poverty and violence (and that covers all of the kinds).

Can this be retro active?

Let’s add President Trump and nuclear weapons and Emperor Charlemagne too.

Dear God

It is hard to be. It hard to be in relationship.

To say with honest hearts,

“I hear you and also what you are saying hurts people I love.”

“I hear you and what you are saying hurts me.”

“I hear you and would you be open to hearing me?”

To risk indifference, to risk hurt and harm,

to risk time and time and time and time and wonder if it will matter,

to risk for the sacred truth of the vulnerable known and unknown,

near and far.

To keep showing up but still have boundaries

to keep showing up and asking questions,

to keep watching the news and wondering why,

to stay in relationship rather than trying to win,

to seek reason and learning when fear is fanning the flames.

Big Mama God

Oh how much I wish You would step in,

like really step in

and say No,

Our toddler hearts need just a touch of re-direction.

No, my dear ones, your were made for more.

Love is your birth right, we are not going to hurt or harm or wound or dominate our kin.

But, You, like a mama hen

draw us under your wing

teaching us to do the same.

Grant us the courage to stay the course,

to stay gentle and curious

brave and strong.

May it be so, Amen