Hobby Lobby Day 3: A Bit of Poetry & A Whole Lot of Rage

Why does it matter?

A reasonable question:

Why does it matter that

HL is a corporation?  Are 

not corporations simply

organizations or structures

made up of people?  And if

so, why does it matter to say

that a corporation has religion?

This a friend did ask

and this I did truly and seriously

ponder and this is what I walked

away with . . . 

Quite simply, it matters . . . 

Because it is not true

[and Truth does indeed matter]

Because it is not true 

A corporation is not a person

We call it a legal fiction

Fiction is another word for ‘not true’

Made up

Pretend

A lie

in this case

a legal lie – 

meaning a lie

we agreed would be okay

because we all know it’s

a lie in advance – 

like Santa Claus

or the Easter Bunny

or Tooth Fairy

or “Yes, you look great in that dress”

yeah, like that

as a Christian

I do have to ask

exactly how it is

that a lie –

a self-professed lie

not just a liar –

as in someone who

sometimes lies – 

but a lie –

a thing which by

its very identity is

a sham, a pretense,

a farce, a false

yes, how that ‘thing’

that is Lie, albeit legal,

can be Truth?

I’m as fond of paradox as

the next person, but I tell

you, that dog won’t hunt

even if the cows and the chickens

do finally, at the last, come

home and come home to roost

***

Hobby Lobby had a prize

it’s truth – a pack of lies

that a SCOTUS – whatever that is – 

did say was true – ah, now we’re in biz!

Turns out you can be a bad Christian

so long as you’re not no Christian at all

and you get favors – the specialness

of your own peculiar brand of spe-ci-al-ity-ness

a prize – a ring – or perhaps a calf?

Oh now, let the cheating begin – at least by half

Your idolatry of your Christianity

would rouse hilarity if you had 

even a smidgeon of charity

but you are no-thing

so how can it even be?

It cannot

The Liars Club has met

and well met and it is 

so and we are done 

and undone and there

is no more laughter

not because it is a big

thing – no – truly you

are right – in and of –

itself – not so much –

but aye, here’s the rub –

finally we are unmasked

come out of our closet

and stood in the light

to be proudly revealed

and here we are –

a Christian nation

it would make a grown woman 

weep were it not so damned

funny – Christian, you see –

the follower of the Christ he

– that Way – would seem to 

say I am to take the irony

and give it another cheek –

and yes I do and yes I will –

but every now and then I do

wonder where’s Hobby’s

cheek, for I would surely

like to smite it and be forgiven

I would surely like to witness

that act of Christian fidelity

from a piece of paper filed 

away in a court house somewhere

and yes, my blood does boil

for I have not forgotten history

and the reasons that corporations

have existence in any form, 

fictitious or otherwise –

and let me assure you, 

it is not for the worship of God

never has been

never will be

and no, God does not need my defending

but thanks to SCOTUS, now I think I have

found it and it doth make me tremble –

for here stands the place where I make

the fool’s declaration

if there be corporations in heaven

then count me out . . . 

And surely this will make you laugh

and laugh some more – when it comes

to the ‘faith’ + corporations new math

[I do so love irony]

in its origins, 

‘corporation’

could 

and 

did

refer 

to

the 

S-T-A-T-E

[now wasn’t that worth the wait?]

Yes – to the government

to that very entity 

whose requirements 

the secret

hiding

masked

owners

seek

to avoid

it too is one of them

it too, apparently may have a god

[as opposed, of course, to being one, 

as the ancients – and apparently a few

moderns – you know who you are – did

and do insist]

isn’t the irony fabulously rich?

And of course it does make sense

for a corporation to claim a religious

identity when one of the main historic

purposes of corporations was the survival

of the entity beyond the death of its members

the idea of perpetuity

isn’t that a grand word?

The other word, of course, is

eternity

You see – of course the corporation has a god

[you were merely surprised because you thought

it thought itself to be a god – we always love that one]

anything that’s going to claim infinity as its shelf life

darned well better have a god, after all

ah, but you thought our god was money

close – but not quite –

it’s not money we worship, you see –

rather, it’s money that is the expression of our faith

you sing

you praise

you thank

we make money

it’s all the same

isn’t it?

***

I think 

if I am

honest

it is a 

matter 

of jealousy

I cannot be it

but alas

it can be me

and the sweeping

grandiosity

the canard of it all

does truly take my breath

my breathing me breath

away

and since presumably

it must choose

I wonder that a corporation

would ever choose to be

a woman

I would not were I it

for if I did

on my own petard

would I not be hoist?

***