Volume 1, Issue 3, June 1994

One summer when camping in Algonquin Park I socialized with a young family from Detroit. The mother was a sister of a Roman Catholic priest, James Kavangah, who felt compelled to leave his church because of his liberal views. She explained to me how torn their family was over accepting new concepts and renewal of their religion.

The following is a poem written by Rev. James Kavangah.

I HAVE LOST MY EASY GOD

"I have lost my easy God - the one whose name I knew since childhood.
I knew his temper, his sullen outrage, his ritual forgiveness.
I knew the strength of his arm, the sound of his insistent voice....
I never told him how he frightened me, How he followed me as a child
When I played with friends or begged for candy on Halloween.
He was a predictable God, I was the unpredictable one.
He was unchanging, omnipotent, all-seeing,
I was volatile and helpless....
Now my easy God is gone - he knew too much to be real,
He talked too much to listen, he knew my words before I spoke.
But I knew his answers as well-computerized and turned to dogma,
His imperatives tatooed on my breast, his aloofness canonized in ritual.
Now he is gone - my easy, stuffy God - God, the father-master, the mother-whiner, the dull whoring God who offered love bought by an infant's fear...."

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.