(content) Killing God

[Aish]

Of course there are those who complain about God.
Sitting on his throne of faith,
his castles built with devotion,
Stockholm syndrome's spirit strain,
he watches like a movie-goer
each atrocity. This poem was cliché
from its conception. I've seen it told so many ways,
Anne Sexton bemoaning the Jew's holocaust,
Graham Greene turning a young socialite
into a martyr in The End of the Affair.
What more can I say? I give you images instead,
brutality for arguments. Strike God down,
rip out his spleen, paint HATE on the cosmos
with his intestines. Slice his genitals in twain
and see the seed which bore his son
rot among the dying stars. Feast on his organs,
spread over our plains, his heart attracting flies
in an African town where bony orphans dine for days.
This is my vision, a God torn apart,
not discussed but ripped open.

Interesting. A God ripped apart and dined upon, such as Tiamat, who has two separate intimations, one as benevolent creator, one as patriarchal warfare. Such duality is seen in Judaism and Christianity; God as love vs God as justice, but the waters are muddied. Although the Catholic and Christian view of Hell as punishment is in direct opposition to the TANAKH, as scripture never refers to Hell or an eternal torment, only the purification of the soul.
Just a personal observation, but 'God' is a bland title and could refer to any 'god', although it does come across certainly as the Judeo-Christian God, Yahweh, and most readers probably won't have a nit with it anyway.

Sitting on his throne of faith,
his castles built with devotion, My first inclination is that 'faith' and 'devotion' are human traits, used to bind malleable minds into accord and attempt to solidify many 'believers' into one homogenized mind set. You did a great job capturing the Christianese.

Stockholm syndrome's spirit strain, This is expressed flawlessly, with God as captor, and humanity as hostage.


he watches like a movie-goer
each atrocity. This is probably my favorite of your 'cliche' moments. Personally, I figure if Yahweh or Ain Sof exists, then a few thousand years to such entity would be the equivalent of a parent going into a different room for a few minutes, then returning to see the living room reduced to utter chaos. Macrocosm/microcosm. I am generally amused by all the griping done in regards to misunderstood free will. If God exists and bestowed us humankind with free will, then atrocities are the result of coalesced vagrancy.

Slice his genitals in twain
and see the seed which bore his son
rot among the dying stars. This portion amuses me. Violently descriptive. Speaks to me of all the "Holy" wars as well as individual autopsies from both scholarly dais and personal rhetoric. It is certainly the most prevalent image of God, as male progenitor and Father of an ill-begotton Messiah. I like it, because in my mind this is only one half of the whole, and although I see it all too often, I like being allowed to glimpse "His" portrayal as seen by others. A visual image of something intangible, if you will.

This is my vision, a God torn apart,
not discussed but ripped open. I think you tied it up all very well with these two lines. Discussion rips God apart anyway, no matter how simple or misguided such discussions tend to be in these days of 'blind faith'. Again, I am enjoying the parallels to Tiamat and Shiva, but more than that I feel something close to tangibility by way of social commentary.