Missionaries

I am ten in a crowd
In a Baptist Church
Basement meeting hall
Where a missionary couple
Is it extolling their celestial
Record saving heathen souls
But also teaching useful skills
In third world countries when
Someone asks me if I am their
Child to which I try and convey
My respect for them which is
Taken as a yes which brings
General laughter as I have a
Jewish Mother and more a target
For conversion than part of the
Missionary apparatus to convert.
I try and explain but the joke is too
Good for folks to let go of so I
Become the target of jibs about
Trying to pass myself off as
A brave crusading missionary.
I attend a Presbyterian Church
Though more as an inquisitor
Than an acolyte since I want
To question everything and
Trinitarian Christians want
Me to accept it all on faith.
My mother is Jewish my
Father Baptist so they have
Compromised on Presbyterian
Since it has both guilt and Jesus
Though I do inquire at Temple
And a revival for second opinions
Only to discover everybody is
Only selling their own view
So I become a Unitarian Christian
Accepting the divine message
Of forgiving others and myself
But not a divine messenger,
Not even a finish carpenter
For whom I have great respect.
So, I stand in the crowd in the
Church basement as my
Family teases me about
My false claims to be a
Missionary which is one
Of the triggers to my
Determination to
Teach objectivity
Over subjectivity
In college for 46
Years to 13th-
Graders so
As to try to
Balance
What I
Saw
As the
Inmates
Running the
Insane asylum
World of absolute
Truths and the sweetness
Of absolute faith I
Have always
Questioned,
Color me
Reform
Jewish
But it
Is OK
If you do not
Stay within the lines,
God the universe forgives you.