Because I am not Baptist,
I can never know God;
I can’t be friends with Jesus;
I’ll never be saved.
Because I am not Baptist,
I won’t be elected to the Rotary Board;
I won’t make the right business connections;
I better buy fire insurance now.
Thing is, in my privilege, I could pass.
I’m no Phillip Green; I need not say:
‘I’m an Episcopalian.”
I am an unrecognized foreigner.
Because I am not Baptist,
I need not judge love;
I need not place myself
On the role of life by
Condemning others to Hell.
Because I am not Baptist,
I am as comfortable in a Quonset hut
In a poorly maintained field
As in a lavish cathedral.
Because I am not Baptist,
I will let my lips declare the Love
That brings Love, the Love
that brings true friends together.
Inspired by a poem by Hermann Hesse; his was "Because I am not Catholic."
