[Adrian Fry]

John, I suspect you have the winner there. Funny how your prose description of this poem in your ealier post made me think the poem would be simply horrible but the poem itself strikes me as craftsmanly and clever.

[John Whitworth]

Thank you, Adrian. I am relieved that the poem does not sound unpleasant. Did I mention the German film 'Guter Junge'? It is not horrible either, just very sad.

[Gail White]

Well done, John - just the right touch. When I start thinking blasphemy, I think of things like Mary Magdalene talking birth control with the Virgin Mary -- you know, stuff that would get your entry thrown out right off the bat.

[John Whitworth]

I think, Gail, that must be right in the frame. The point of blasphemy is that it is deeply shocking. It is one of the crimes of Jesus. 'Property is theft' in a nineteenth century context, would have been blasphemous, and a lot of the stuff that Nietzsche said about the sins of the weak.

And nowadays, that stuff about IQ and race, or, to people like us, suggestions that women's duty lies at home, what Hitler said about church, children and cooking.

[Adrian Fry]

I don't want to wax too philosophical here (yes I do) but I've always felt there is something childish about setting out to blaspheme. I remember, age 8 or so, cursing God and Jesus in an attempt to get him to strike me dead. I can't see that the artists, cartoonists and comedians who regularly try shocking in this manner are any different. To blaspheme is, I think, to accept that religious ideas and images have power.

[Roger Slater]

Of course they have power, Adrian. But that's not the same as saying they have validity or are true. Their power is what makes it not childish to take them on.

[Terese Coe]

I found something in my files that sears but doesn't rhyme or scan. My thanks to the contest (I'll probably find another that does rhyme and scan any minute now) for allowing me to find the first, which file I never would have looked at otherwise!

[John Whitworth]

But Adrian, one may not set out to blaspheme. I presume Christ did not. But then other people set up a cacophony because you said what seemed to you the plain truth. I do not claim to be Christ (not yet anyhow) but I have found this occasionally. It is often called giving offence, and one is not supposed to do it.

There is a poem by the late Peter Reading. I wonder if I can remember it.

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

I do not claim to be Christ (not yet anyhow)

John, when you have your annual checkup, make sure that your doctor examines your hands and feet for incipient signs of holes.