Faith (a poem)

If you want a faith that you do not have to struggle with, the solution is simple:
Grab it by the throat and squeeze.

When it can no longer eat or drink or breathe
its resistance will falter, weaken and cease.

It will lie there limply,
not moving, not changing, not growing,
and never challenging you to change.

You must take care to properly preserve it:
drain the meaning from the rituals,
replace the organs of flesh with improved ones:
organs of wood, stone or iron.
Put it on a pedestal under glass
so that no one can approach it or touch it,
perhaps inadvertently breathing life back into it.

Because in the end, the only faith that doesn't grow you,
that doesn't challenge you,
that doesn't bring you to tears or your knees...

The only safe faith is a dead one.

Of course, safe for you is not necessarily safe for those around you.

Consider yourself warned.