You prop up a straw man argument
when the real argument you are fighting against
is hard to defeat.
You replace their argument with your own version
a version that is a parody of the original argument
minus any wit
but bearing a strong scent of desperation,
a ripe odor like rotting vegetation.
You smirked
when they said
people will die
and answered,
We are all going to die.
You knew that none of them were ignorant of death.
But you pretended your opponents
were so stupid
that they actually didn’t know
humans are mortal.
You propped up your first straw man,
Who announced,
People live forever!
That’s a pretty easy argument
to knock down.
You doubled down when they objected,
standing in the tombstones
issuing a sneered apology
comparing their supposed ignorance of inevitable death
To belief in the Toothfairy.
Your second straw man:
Your opposition believes the Toothfairy is real.
A straw man blended with a non-sequiter.
But you weren’t done
Producing staw men.
You then invited people
To seek eternal life
By embracing your Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
I suspect you are embracing
a straw man Jesus,
a misrepresentation
of the man recorded in the gospels.
I’ve seen a lot of versions of Jesus
put forth by many different people,
but nihilist Jesus is a new one.
I don’t recall Jesus
smirking at the lame and the leperous,
the blind and the bleeding,
and saying, Tough luck.
Can’t help you.
We are all going to die.
To say everyone is going to die
Is truth.
But context matters.
You were saying that because everyone is going to die,
we don’t need to care about them or heal them
or care about their quality of life
while they are here.
We just need to let them die.
Embracing eternal life,
we can ignore this one.
With every person Jesus met,
he showed concern,
not just for their souls,
but for their very earthy bodies as well.
for their health,
for their well-being,
physically and mentally.
This set of blind eyes.
This rotting flesh.
This bent back.
This set of motionless legs.
If you are concerned about the afterlife,
you might want to review the parable
of the sheep and the goats.
You know the part.
God separates the sheep from the goats
and tells the sheep they are inheriting
The Kingdom of God
Because they - among other things -
Took care of Jesus
When he was sick.
And they don’t recall doing that,
and Jesus tells them
That whatever they do for the least of these -
Like, for instance, caring for the sick -
you do it for me.
When you callously looked at that crowd
And said We are all going to die
You said it to Jesus.
Tough luck, Jesus,
I’m not helping you when you are sick.
You are going to die.
A straw man can be
Something you prop up
In place of your opponents’ real argument.
A straw man (or woman)
Can also be a front man
Used to cover up
Dirty dealings.
A straw man (or woman)
Can also be defined
As a person without substance
Or integrity.
It seems that in making
Straw men so often,
You have become one yourself.
Or maybe you were made of straw
To begin with
And straw simply creates more straw.
You sent your straw man argument
and your straw man Jesus
out to dance in front of a real argument.
the real argument is this:
we are supposed to care for
and take care of each other.
We aren’t supposed to treat each other
as being as disposable
as straw.
