Beware the Tics

 

 

Nah, I don’t mean on animals

That provide a safe haven,

They are spelt differently,

Come on, have you forgotten?

 

So, what do you mean?

I am hearing you ask,

Well, bear with me a while

While I finish the task.

 

Not only animals as you know

But words carry tics,

Quite a few as I can recall

But for now, four will fit.

 

Yes, out of some 223 words

I’ll only choose four,

For the purpose of this discourse

I will need no more.

 

Let me say from the outset

They all relate to people,

You and I are among the four-

Sorry to burst your bubble.

 

I will start with the one

That says who I have become,

A skeptic for sure I now am

And I am not making fun.

 

I find it difficult to believe

Much of what I hear,

Most is intentional propaganda

And this I truly fear.

 

News and views went together

Now they are so unrelated

That I sometimes wonder

If the truth is now outdated.

That’s why I am now a skeptic

Not that I want to be

But when I listen to the news

The truth I cannot see.

 

Two sides in a given matter:

Which is right I cannot tell,

If I were to be tested on the truth

I wouldn’t do very well.

 

Skeptics, as far as I can see,

Are the least of these four tics,

The second I now give to you

Which for me is a critic.

 

 

 

Just like the skeptics today

Critics are on the increase,

These know so little about everything

But they talk will never cease.

 

Theirs is always another view

Different from any before

And they are extremely innovative

In giving one view more.

 

They even criticize their view

Yes, their own view they criticize

If an opposer carries the same,

They will feign surprise.

 

In the eyes of too many critics

A solution is never to be found

Since critics tend mostly to look in

And seldom look around.

 

I have a problem deciding

Which of the next two is worse

But I have unilaterally decided

To deal with a lunatic first.

 

 

Lunatics are mad people!

Nothing more and nothing less,

They ebb and flow like the sea

And never are at rest.

 

The moon controls the tides,

At least, that’s what I was told

But being by my new nature a skeptic,

To this I tenuously hold.

 

So lunar, looney, lunatic,

All words that are related

Indicating the magnitude of insanity

In which this era is inundated.

 

Finally, the last of the tics

Is none other than heretic,

This tic is extremely closely related

To its predecessor, lunatic.

 

 

Heretics evade the truth

And they do this at all costs,

Their proselytizing is foremost

As their recruit the lost.

 

The Pharisees were exposed

And censured by Jesus Christ

Whose righteousness they rejected

Feeling theirs would suffice.

 

Heretics are all around us

Trying to obscure the truth

And there are many in the church

That are of living proof.

 

Yes, skeptics and critics,

Lunatics and heretics!

These are in many ways related,

Watch out for their tricks!

 

Stewart Russell © November 11, 2023

 

Have We or Have We Not?

 

 

Have we a Constitution?

Please, somebody tell me!

I am longing to hear

From someone in authority.

 

A few lawyers have said

That Barbados has none

And this has been reinforced

By a certain gentleman.

 

He is standing his ground

This certain gentleman

And adamantly refuses to adhere

Even to Court summons.

 

 

Tell me, Dear Attorney General,

What have you to say?

You’ve been rather silent,

Is this your way?

 

If anybody could tell me

That body should be you

But for some unspoken reason

We can’t hear from you.

 

The Chief Justice is another

But this would not be proper

Since the AG is in the position

To settle this matter.

 

 

Madam Prime Minister

Are these lawyers right

That we have no Constitution?

Can you shed some light?

 

Or would you rather be silent

And let the AG speak

Regarding this important matter

That has reached a peak?

 

It is business as usual

In the Parliament and Court

But some think it is not legal

And we are making sport.

 

 

That may be for some

But not for the ones “going up”

For once sentenced by a Judge,

They are out of luck.

 

Parliament is meeting

And still passing laws,

Meanwhile, having no Constitution

Constitute a fundamental flaw.

 

Recipe for anarchy!

That’s a country without law

And if it were so with Barbados

This would be the last straw.

 

So, there must be something

That sustains law and order,

Please, someone in authority,

Tell me I need not bother.

 

 

This terribly loud silence

Is frightening me

And I cannot hear from anybody

In authority.

 

I am checking the tabloids,

The radio and television news

And all day long only hearing

Other people's views.

 

I went with my fastness

And wrote on July 29,

That we still had a Constitution,

Is what I opined.

 

I said I was not a lawyer

By any stretch of the imagination

But like a late PM I was adamant

We had a Constitution.

 

So, Madam Prime Minister,

Or smiling Attorney General,

What is the status of law and order?

Please tell the people.

 

Stewart Russell © August 8, 2023

Bible News and Biblical Views

 

 

The problem with the Bible

That we daily hear,

Are the very many contradictions

We often find in there.

 

Throughout the Old Testament

And into the New,

There are contradictions galore

That is a popular view.

 

Look at the many denominations

Which are all around,

The primary reason for this

Are these contradictions that abound.

 

These accusations and more

You will regularly hear

Day in and day out

Each and every year.

 

In this poem

I want to suggest to you

That it is about high time

That we change this view.

 

I wrote a poem

Entitled “News or Views”

In which I attempted to show

That the views often eclipse the news.

 

For having heard the news

We turned to the views

And thereupon, we adopt the views

And lose sight of the news.

 

That’s exactly what

Has happened to God’s Holy Word,

What it says it does not mean,

Isn’t that absurd?

 

 

Another term for the Gospel

Is the Good News

But the Good News has been distorted

By a myriad of views.

  

Each view, a denomination

With an adherent following,

With its Bible based views

From its pulpit loudly bellowing.

 

And since all cannot be right

The Bible is blamed

For the very many contradictions

That are preached in Jesus’ name.

 

Theologians and apologists

Argue to and fro,

Each advancing the Spirit’s conviction

That theirs is the way to go.

 

And the gullible adherents

Often blindly follow,

Convinced that their leaders

Are the only ones that know.

 

 

Therefore, I hereby announced

That the winner is the views,

The news become secondary

To the views that we choose.

 

“I believe” and “it is my opinion”

Are two of the terms we use

To relegate the Good News

And promote somebody’s views.

 

I have observed over time

With programmes on the air,

Preachers are preaching

What they want the people to hear.

 

Their views are the focus,

There is little of the Word

And the way believers drink it in

Makes one feel disturbed.

 

On the radio and television

On the Internet and from their pulpits

It’s the views about the news,

Which are given the credit.

 

 

We read Bible commentaries

And then go to the Bible

And what the commentary says

Becomes the chief principle.

 

Salvation adherents are divided

By two predominant views,

These are the views of two dead men  

Which are still making the news.

 

Each one of them wrote it

The way he saw it

And hundreds of years after

It is still the edict.

 

“In my studied opinion”,

Or “via research diligently pursued”

Has become the fulcrum

For many a denomination’s view.

 

The Catholic or Protestant

The Evangelical and Jew

These are all built up, quite evidently,

On somebody’s view.

 

The Church’s one foundation

Is Jesus Christ the Lord,

This is not the view of a songwriter

But it is God’s Holy Word.

 

That Jesus is the only Saviour

Must not be one among many views

But must be the headline and the body

Of the ever-breaking Good News.

 

 

Jesus is come to save sinners

Of which I am chief,

The Good News for me today is,

That is my belief.

 

May the radio and television broadcasts

Reach out to sinners with the Good News

As opposed to preaching to believers

To convince them of their views.

 

May the year 2021 be a watershed

For the preaching of the Good News

Across Barbados and the World

And not for the advancing of our Views.

 

Stewart Russell © January 2020