TO THE PSEUDO-CHRISTIANS
by Michael Langston

You are like a prospector who, searching long and hard, finds what he believes is a priceless gold nugget. But what he has found, upon closer examination, turns out not to be gold at all, but is instead fool’s gold.

2 You are as a man who, dissatisfied with what he owns, sells all his worldly goods for what he believes is a handsome price. But only later, when it is then too late, does he discover that the money he has received is not genuine, but is in fact counterfeit.

3 You are like a traveler who, on his way to the Celestial City, looks for a place to rest from his journey and stops for the night at a wayside inn. But when he is there, he is deceived by the innkeeper into believing that he has reached his destination. And preferring the comfort of the inn to the hardship of the journey, he thus does not continue that journey, and so never reaches the Celestial City.

4 You are as a woman who, without having access to any firsthand knowledge, receives all her information at the end of a long line of gossip. But that information, in passing from one person to another, so becomes distorted. And upon reaching the end such person, it thus is without its original truth.

5 You are as a child who, standing at the window, perceives a tiny insect crawling across the face of the glass. But watching it intently and with his eyes focused sharply upon it, he thus does not see what lies outside that window.

6 You are as a man who, sitting down to dinner, is served what he thinks is a wholesome and savory stew. But along with the potatoes and carrots and gravy, what looks like the beef isn’t really beef at all, but is in reality horse manure.

7 You are like an old man who, after an attack of appendicitis, is straightway taken to the nearest hospital. But rather than surgery to take out the appendix, he is given a drug to take away the pain.

8 You are as a man holding a red-hot poker in one hand and taking an aspirin with the other.

9 You are as sheep mistaking a wolf for the shepherd.