"Religious Freedom" a poem by Charles Anthony Hood

Playing in the woods of Northwest Alabama…

Was a highlight of my childhood—a thrill.

Back then, I didn’t know anything about pop culture.

I was raised in a cult that forbade television,

So, I was not allowed to watch television like other kids.

I learned to retreat into my own imagination.

I learned to be OK with aloneness and…

I learned to enjoy my own company.

Not watching television made my imagination…

Work overtime—I existed in a world I invented.

Television they called, “the One-eyed devil.”

They didn’t like it because it exposed us to a new world.

I had a secret, though, a story I couldn’t tell.

I had a boyfriend—our cult’s most forbidden, hated form…

Of sexuality: The Holy Bible says so right there “in black and white.”

I was never fully committed to the church in which I was raised.

I declared at the age of 18 I did not believe in my church.

So many contradictions, things that are senseless, and…

Lies (so many lies)—a church committed to hypocritical self-deceit.

I could no longer declare my allegiance to a lie.

There was a freedom in declaring my old religion what it was—

A lie told over and over until it took root…

And impregnated the adherents’ minds with ignorance and naiveite.

I declared once and for all, my mind would no longer be a hostage!

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Charles Anthony Hood

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