{"id":3383,"date":"2020-02-04T17:55:53","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T22:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=3383"},"modified":"2020-02-04T17:56:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T22:56:34","slug":"poem-loyalty-oafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/04\/poem-loyalty-oafs\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Loyalty Oafs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Loyalty Oafs<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Loyalty oafs<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Would halve you<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Believe<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>In idol vanity<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Sowing their wiled oaths<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>AWOL keeping us a part<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>With litmus tests<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>In a whirled of acid<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>And base<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Brands that burn<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>And scar us<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>In too submission<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Not with standing<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Be sides<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Withal there is<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>An incalculably better weigh<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Yes is yes<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>No is no<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Each making us stronger<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>And unafraid<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Of know boundaries<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a world with multiple, overlapping allegiances, loyalty can seem a highly partisan and intensely tribal battle for alleged hearts and minds. Commingle this with the purported virtue of compromise in the professed art of politics, and such &#8220;things&#8221; as values, boundaries and even ultimate concerns can easily be lost in the melee.<\/p>\n<p>I am struck by the directness and simplicity of the biblical precept: <em>&#8220;Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. Anything more than this comes from the evil one.&#8221;<\/em> (Matthew 5:37) Given the contemporary situation of senators, specifically Republic senators, and more specifically, Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell, in the swearing in as jurors in an impeachment trial where you can confess that you aren&#8217;t impartial and then take an oath that you will be impartial. The above biblical precept is part of Jesus&#8217; sermon on the mount concerning the law of solemn pledges: \u00a0<em>\u201cAgain you have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago: Don\u2019t make a false solemn pledge, but you should follow through on what you have pledged to the Lord. But I say to you that you must not pledge at all. You must not pledge by heaven, because it\u2019s God\u2019s throne. You must not pledge by the earth, because it\u2019s God\u2019s footstool. You must not pledge by Jerusalem, because it\u2019s the city of the great king. And you must not pledge by your head, because you can\u2019t turn one hair white or black. Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. Anything more than this comes from the evil one.&#8221;<\/em> (Matthew 5:33-37)\u00a0 Of course, farcical Christians in a farcical Christian nation are well suited by swearing on a Bible that instructs them to forgo pledges.<\/p>\n<p>May our values, boundaries and ultimate concerns be evidenced by our actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Loyalty Oafs Loyalty oafs Would halve you Believe In idol vanity Sowing their wiled oaths AWOL keeping us a part With litmus tests In a whirled of acid And base Brands that burn And scar us In too submission Not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/04\/poem-loyalty-oafs\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[360,204,25,330,392,65,431,506,783,735,24,157,740,658,94,215,119,237,478,650,429],"class_list":["post-3383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-art","tag-bible","tag-christian","tag-compromise","tag-evil","tag-god","tag-heart","tag-heaven","tag-impeachment","tag-jerusalem","tag-jesus","tag-law","tag-partisan","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-politics","tag-republican","tag-simplicity","tag-values","tag-vanity","tag-virtue"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>POEM: Loyalty Oafs | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun&#039;s Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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