In Memory Of The Charleston, South Carolina Mass Church Shooting Victims By A Racist Terrorist!

A Nation That Has Never Let Love In

In a land that time has forgotten
 there lives a people of a much lighter hue.
 They rock back and forth on the porch
 and sip from a bottle of Mountain Dew.

But in this land that time has forgotten,
 there are others with a dark skin tone
 who simply try and go about their business.
And they just want to be left the hell alone.

Though innocent of any wrong doing,
 since they never asked to be here,
 they worshipped the god of another
 who said believe and never know fear.

So, on a hot southern night in June
 in the old weeping willow tree,
 the birds became quiet as the grave
 and no hum could be heard from a bee.

Hate slithered right up to the door
 of a church and was welcomed inside,
 where there was prayer and love everywhere.
And hate was welcomed with arms open wide.

But little did they know what was in their midst.
Or maybe in fact, they actually did
 know that life for them was at an end.
And that hate would close the coffin lid.

He hated them for the color of their skin
 over which they had no control.
They sat innocently around in a circle
 as hate filled them with many a bullet hole.

Oh god, where were you for these people
 who prayed and stayed true to their faith?
Are they truly in heaven with your son
 or is each just a lost and lonely wraith?

I cry for these souls of the south
 who never knew anything but hate,
 from those who taught them their religion.
But it was all just some worthless racist bait!

For they failed to teach it to their own.
If not, then why are these people dead?
They were killed by a son of death and hatred
 who believed that their blood would not flow red.

And to this day, hate must surely live on.
I hear the cry that the south will rise again.
And the statues and the flags that are still in view
speaks of a nation that has never let love in.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2016 Shelby I. Courtland

A year later, Charleston families still reeling from church shooting

Many were surprised when Nadine Collier stood in a South Carolina courtroom a year ago and said she forgave the young white man who had just killed her mother and eight other black churchgoers in a racially motivated attack.

Collier’s sister, the Reverend Sharon Risher, recalls wondering how she could so readily absolve Dylann Roof, 22, the man accused of opening fire during a Bible study on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

I can only shake my head over the fact that Nadine Collier ‘forgave’ that racist terrorist for killing her own mother and the other churchgoers. I am going to keep this respectful because this is in remembrance of these people who were murdered for no reason because the color of their skin was no reason to kill them. There was no way they could hide that. They could not cover it up or chop it off or pretend to be another color just for a few hours. They were indeed, born with a dark skin tone and for that, they had to die? No, they had to die because this nation is steeped in hatred and shall forever remain so!

My only hope is that these people who worshipped their god, found some…..some…..damn! I don’t even know what they could have found! And so, I shall leave it at that!

Aren’t All Religions, The True Religion? Actually, There Is No True Religion

Religion! What is it? Is it a belief of an omnipotent being who supposedly created heaven and earth and who craves adulation from us for doing so? If this is the case, then why aren’t the animals(also made by ‘God’)required to worship this omnipotent being, this ‘deity’? Is it in your ‘religious’ book that they must either be good or otherwise be thrown into the fiery pits of hell? Your ‘pets’ aren’t intelligent enough or is it that they lack the money in which to prop up the so-called palaces of worship that are required in order to head to the rapture in the hereafter?

Which religion is THE true religion? The christian religion which includes the Baptists, Methodists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Seventh-Day Adventist, Anglican/Episcopalian, Lutheran and what about Buddhism and Islam, and any non denominational ‘religion’?

Religion is fiction! Plain and simple. It is a fantasy designed to give those who need it the hope that there is more to life than just death. Some religions believe that we are reincarnated because there simply has to be a form of ‘living’ after we’re pronounced dead, right? Wrong. When you cease to breathe and your heart stops beating. You are dead. Get over it. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no seeing your loved ones again. This is it folks. So, instead of worrying about paying your tithes and saying your prayers(to an idol of some sort), you should spend what time you have just living and enjoying life to its fullest and be kind to each other because it is the right thing to do, not because you will be rewarded in some ‘heaven’ for your good deeds.

We humans have always needed something to push us to behave, to be good. We’ve also always needed an excuse for our ‘bad’ behavior. Because whether we wish to face it or not, evil is our default position. That is why we have laws and forms of punishment. It is because of our inherently evil nature. We are not inherently good. If we were made by a divine entity that was good and thrived on good, then why are we so evil? Take a look around you? When has man not been engaged in war of some sort. Hell! There have been so-called ‘Holy Wars’. If Eve and her oh so tempting apple is why we are inherently evil and in need of ‘religion to save us’, then why are we still eating apples? And why is ‘Adam’ still marrying ‘Eve’? Why have we not declared that the apple is off limits? Is it because it’s too late, and so then we shrug and just take another bite(and another ‘Eve’) because, really…what more do we have to lose?

Why was Santa Claus invented? Weren’t you told as a child, “be good or Santa will put coal and ashes in your stocking and won’t bring you any toys?” Or, “behave yourself in church today or the Easter Bunny will not leave an Easter basket for you?” What does ‘God aka religion’ ‘Santa’ and the ‘Easter Bunny’ all have in common? An inheritance. You know, something passed down through the years. I went to a Baptist church because my mother took me to a Baptist church because her mother took her to a Baptist church. I believed in Santa Claus because my parents drummed Santa Claus into me as they had had it drummed into them and so forth and so on. It is like passing the silver down from one generation to the other. We just accept it. On the other hand, we celebrate Halloween(another inheritance) by going door-to-door and receiving goodies, and just what is this holiday based on? Witches, ghosts and magic? You can’t have it both ways folks. You’re either in this religion based on all things good(lest ye be tempted) and staying away from the ‘dark’ side or you’re not really ‘religious’ at all, you’re just playing the game. But it really doesn’t matter because you’re being played anyway. You don’t want to know that you’re being played because then you would have to come to the realization that there is no ‘life after death’ and so you cling to your hope and faith that there really is a ‘God’ and a ‘heaven’. Not to mention, there’s BIG money to be made in religion, all tax free. Wow! No wonder you religious people love your ‘religion’, you get to worship in palaces, continually build, buy land and you have a ready made flock of those who are willing to pay any amount of money if you will just promise them one thing, everlasting (good)life after death. A win, win! Now, if that ain’t a sin!