A Letter to Hypocrisy

Published on by Tosha Michelle

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Disclaimer. The following is not an attack on Christianity. It is simply a commentary on the hypocrisy of self professed Christians who only seem to advocate fear, hate, and intolerance. I’m also a bit perplexed over the demonizing of Starbucks cups and peace-loving Muslims. Note, the only religion terrorists know is hate

Dear Potentially Clueless,

Your rally cries taste like stale coffee.
You with your righteous indignation.
You who think your religion is the only one that matters.
You who have cleansed your lips with hate.
The sheerness of your nothingness confounds me.
I want to cover my mouth and nose to avoid your plague.
Where did your humanity go?
Do you really ask yourself what would Jesus do?
Do you even care anymore?
When did the Bride of Christ turn into the whore of intolerance?

The beauty of the cross lies
in forgiveness, love, compassion.
Your kisses say razors,
blackened moss, barbed wire fences.
They scream Judas.
You love your religion more than God.

Do you not understand how your
sanctimonious songs will never
resonate hope or faith?
Your notes are shrills,
an emphatic kind of
warning in the undertone.

You sacrifice your Christianity
on the altar of ignorance and ego.
As I write, I’m afraid I’m becoming what I loathe.
I never want to fall into what I once was.
What I want is change. I want you to be changed.
I want to drink from the red cup of sunshine,
to eat the good fruit.
I want to know that the world is made up of possibilities.

I wait for a world where love falls like snow,
where halos slide down slopes of imperfections.
A world where God forgives our folly
and grace overshadows our need for holiness.
A world where my skin comes alive with the pitch of tenderness.
Where the green leaves are dewy,
and hope becomes a shivering, tangible thing.

Until, then I’ll sip from my red Starbucks cup
and let serenity diffuse in my mouth.
The bride of caffeine and open eyes.

-Tosha Michelle

Praying for Paris and our world.

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51 thoughts on “A Letter to Hypocrisy”

  1. Sadly, they are lost souls, who have been drinking the Kool Aid of ignorance and intolerance. Well, said, Tosha. By being silent the ignorant and hateful, win. Speaking out is one of the best weapons. Maybe, one of these lost souls will read this and start thinking

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  5. We cannot prosper by making arbitrary rules for others that deprive them of a wealth of experience. Some of these people you mention feel that enforcing the rules, or making others’ lives a misery is cleansing. It makes no sense but these are not rational people. I’m so tired of it because I see it happen on a small scale every day and I feel helpless to do anything about it.

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  6. Well said, Tosha. It is exhausting to listen and watch radicals try to divide nations and its people. They only stir up hate and indifference towards one another and it should never be tolerated.

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      1. Well said, Tosha. Thankfully, the days of the Crusaders are long past, and I hope that radical Islam follows into the dustbin of history with them.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. In reading the Bible, one can see that a lot of what we see in the Christian church today isn’t what Jesus taught. I like what you said about Jesus, the cross, forgiveness and love. Makes me think of the woman caught in adultery and the way Jesus dealt with it. Also of the sinful woman that entered the Pharisee’s house and wasbed Jesus’ feet with her hair.
    Oh, I’m also glad you mentioned praying for the world and not just Paris, because this is the daily reality in various countries. Bravo, great job.😊💕

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    1. Thank you. I’ve been wrestling with my faith for a couple of years. I’m not sure what I believe anymore, but I do know Jesus was full of love and compassion. You are so right when you say that is what churches are missing. Sadly, it is what our world is missing, too. I pray for humanity and grace. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.

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      1. Tosha, I belive you are not alone when it comes to wrestling with your faith. I think a lot of people now-a-day do, due to a lot of unanswered questions and ‘weirdness’ in the church. I never grew up in the church, but became a Christian when I was 20. I went through all the weirdness, but struggled intellectually with my faith. Have you ever heard of Culture Monk. He has an awesome blog http://culturemonk.com that you might be interested in. He wrote a few very long comments on one of my posts, https://stacilys.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/truth-can-be-created-hmmmmmm/. If you’re interested at all you can scroll down towards the bottom of the comments and they’re there. He’s currently studying for his PhD in philosophy and is on hiatus from his blog, but I believe he will be back after December 15th. He’s got an enormous following, and with reason. I highly suggest checking out some of his articles. He also struggled a lot with his faith. He said that Francis Schaeffer was kind of like his saviour when it came to his faith. Have you ever heard of Francis Schaeffer.

        Anyhow, this long comment is turning into a book. Hahaha. I did Google the whole Starbucks red cup thing. Oh my gosh. Unfortunately, I can believe that there is somebody that would actually do that. Ugh.

        Have a great week Tosha.
        🙂

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Thank you. I appreciate your comment and the thought and time that went into it. I am familiar with his blog. I think I subscribe here and on YouTube. I’m always interested in philosophy and religion. I’m not familiar with Francis Schaeffer. I will check out his work. I hope you’re having a lovely day. 🙂

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      3. Thanks Tosha. My day has been crazy busy, hence the late reply 🙂
        Oh yes, I love Kenneth’s blog. I think he will be back up and posting after December 15th. At least I hope so.
        Have a great evening.
        🙂

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  12. Hi Tosha…Thanks for sharing this post with us—all…Esther Ling posted just a few days ago that: “Morality is to ethics what religion is to faith … A shameful thong”…You both are writing—Truth! Wishing you— Love and Peace…Phil

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  13. I agree that the Starbucks thing is dumb….so many people stand behind their “sign” of religion and do the most outrageous things. I’m heartbroken over the attack in Paris, it could happen anywhere. So now how will we treat our neighbor’s? How much suspicion has been reintroduced into our society? How much more fear? It is a divided time.

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    1. Wendy, I agree with you. The Starbucks thing is absurd. The attack on Paris beyond reprehensible. However, as scary as it all it. We can’t give into fear. That’s what those heartless bastards want. We have to keep living and moving forward.

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  14. In my humble opinion, we need an end to the hypocrisy of ALL organized religions (not just Christianity) and a way back to spiritually based practices (which is exactly what the origins of religion are all about, right?- non-harming, non-stealing, loving kindness, purity, contentment with what is, self study, moderation/de-emphasis on materialism and surrender to God). It isn’t any wonder to me that so many of our youth today are proclaiming to be agnostic or atheist…..they have also lost faith….

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    1. I agree. As I mentioned to someone in an earlier comment, for this post, I felt I needed to write about the religion I know best. Truthfully, I’m not a fan of fan of religion in general or dogma. I used to wear my Christianity like a banner. Growing up in the south, raised by a super strict, God fearing to the extreme grandmother, I was taught to feel guilty about most things. Fearful of most things. It’s taken me ages, to rise above that indoctrination. Today, I believe love, humanity, and grace and shun fear based religions.

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      1. Lovely comments, everyone! Thank you.

        Tosha, I couldn’t agree more about “love, humanity and grace.” After all, isn’t love the greatest of ALL commandments? I also agree that many of us struggle with our faith. I know I do. I’m glad I’m not alone.

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  17. Excellent work.

    Bright eyes dig up a question from generations ago:
    You want to know why the wind blew us
    Together, how our sons will grow, when we will
    Meet again, where will we be as one again?
    Training gives you the desire to examine cause and
    Effect. Experiences about as wide apart as possible
    Come at us, yet we harmonize, learn each other’s secrets,
    Give what we know the other will love, provide
    Sanctuary in a world spinning out of control for so
    Many. This I offer to distinguish myself from regular
    Men, be they handsome or young: a complete heart
    With continued support, undying gratitude, massage
    Therapy, attempts at cooking, quite a way with words.
    I expect you to smile when we chat, remain a solid
    Force, a muse for my art, the reason I will always
    Yearn for more, forever the target of happy life,
    Memories (plans?) and a fresh heart, made whole
    By the time we spent sincerely swirled, sufficiently
    Molded to continually receive jolts of good news,
    Connected forever by this love, complex, alive, strong.

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