Reflections on Fundamentalism and Paganism
The statues by which some faiths pray
To help or to for them intercede
Angers those of a fundamentalist streak
Who see such as an evil deed.
The statues that came down with a thundering crash
As militants chanted “God is great”
Caused the world look aghast at Afghan sacrilege
Committed by fanatics of the Islamic State…
A hundred years before or more
On the River Min, along the Chinese coast,
Some Anglo Irish women preached too
A faith known well to most…
They sent their converts home to smash
Their idols there apart
How many more of such were lost
As they unbinded feet and mind and heart?
Many a grotto at an Irish roadside stands
Often beside a Holy Well
Fanatics too told to our folks
Praying there, they would end up in hell.
The Buddhism we that know today
The auld Zen and the Ying and Yang
If far from the faith that was practiced that day
When the Church bells there first rang.
A child to the preacher woman asked
What is it. the source of your faces smile?
“The light of Christ” was the reply
As the preacher to talk stopped a while.
“You have no man to rule you down,
To govern you”, was the retort the child had
A truth that would make modern feminists proud
Though it would make the auld Buddhism look bad!
