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meridian_roseTitle: Hypocrisy
Fandom: Original. Prose poetry.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 514
Prompt: For the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
therealljidol prompt "hair shirt"
Summary: Sometimes you hide who you are because the kickback would be worse than the daily humiliation.
Content Notes: Religion, homophobia, and the intersection thereof.
Morning, he says and she nods and smiles
Because she can't afford to fall out with her neighbours
Especially one who runs the neighbourhood watch, who
Sits on every local community board he can
He's a magistrate for crying out loud.
You look very smart, he says.
It's not a compliment really, not for her
He means she looks modest, covered up, demure.
She gives another smile, one that doesn't reach her eyes.
Thank you, she says, with saccharine sweetness.
They get to the bus stop. He's walking to the local shop
But he decides to wait with her.
Oh, joy. Please let the bus come soon.
You remind me of my daughter, he says
And she stifles a sigh.
This paragon of Christian virtue
Hasn't spoken to his daughter in two years
Not since the day she told him she was gay.
He prays for her, he says, but it's hardly out of compassion
More a longing for her to be straight.
He prays for forgiveness, he says, but she knows it is
Not for the way he has treated his daughter
But for his supposed wrongdoing in raising her
"Letting her" turn out this way
Allowing her to be a disgrace to his name.
He claims he begs to be punished for not
Punishing her enough to keep her "right".
He won't hear that sexual orientation is inbuilt
That you cannot chose who you are attracted to
That no amount of pain can change it.
She dislikes him intently and her fake smile
Becomes harder to maintain each time.
She hates his dismissal of his only child
Of how he has made himself a martyr
Wounded by her "sin".
She hates his false piety, the way he humblebrags
Of his charity work and his faith.
She's pretty sure the Bible has something to say
About preaching in the street for your own glory
Instead of praying in private.
She hates how he makes every conversation
About him and his woes and tribulations
Before shrugging it off with pithy Biblical quotes
Acting as though it's an honour to be so tested
As if he's being both tried and rewarded.
She thinks he's the sort to wear a hair shirt
And talk of how it itches, but how that itching is
A glorious gift. Even though in his hypocrisy
He's wearing it with the hair side out
So everyone can see his devoutness.
The bus arrives and she gets on, her smile
Vanishing as soon as the vehicle moves off.
She is more like his daughter than he knows;
Before the man she's now dating,
She was with a woman.
If she didn't think it would cause her problems
She'd tell him her truth, although bisexuality
Probably doesn't exist in his mind or his vocabulary.
But then maybe he'd stop buttonholing her.
Walking her to the bus stop.
Would stop him casually insulting her with his
Weary declarations of his failings, his despair
At his sinful child
But she dare not risk it. She's not out to everyone.
No need to make a hair shirt for herself.
In the UK Magistrates are volunteers who hear cases in courts in their community
She's pretty sure the Bible has something to say / About preaching in the street for your own glory x
In Molière's play, Tartuffe, the title character is shown to be a religious hypocrite when he wears a hair shirt with the hair lining facing outward, so that it can be seen, rather than felt. Cilice
Her neighbour is the sort to be homophobic regardless, but he's using his religion as an excuse. There are plenty of progressive religious people and organisations who would be saddened at his behaviour towards his daughter, and some beautiful outreach efforts to counter anti-gay sentiment in the Church, but the fact remains that homophobia is at the forefront of fundamentalist beliefs (and it is often fundamentalists whose views are most reported), to the extent that a survey for a book on non-Christians attitudes to Christians found that 91% of those surveyed described Christians as antihomosexual (87% used the adjective "judgmental" and 85% the term "hypocritical").
Fandom: Original. Prose poetry.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 514
Prompt: For the
therealljidol prompt "hair shirt"Summary: Sometimes you hide who you are because the kickback would be worse than the daily humiliation.
Content Notes: Religion, homophobia, and the intersection thereof.
Morning, he says and she nods and smiles
Because she can't afford to fall out with her neighbours
Especially one who runs the neighbourhood watch, who
Sits on every local community board he can
He's a magistrate for crying out loud.
You look very smart, he says.
It's not a compliment really, not for her
He means she looks modest, covered up, demure.
She gives another smile, one that doesn't reach her eyes.
Thank you, she says, with saccharine sweetness.
They get to the bus stop. He's walking to the local shop
But he decides to wait with her.
Oh, joy. Please let the bus come soon.
You remind me of my daughter, he says
And she stifles a sigh.
This paragon of Christian virtue
Hasn't spoken to his daughter in two years
Not since the day she told him she was gay.
He prays for her, he says, but it's hardly out of compassion
More a longing for her to be straight.
He prays for forgiveness, he says, but she knows it is
Not for the way he has treated his daughter
But for his supposed wrongdoing in raising her
"Letting her" turn out this way
Allowing her to be a disgrace to his name.
He claims he begs to be punished for not
Punishing her enough to keep her "right".
He won't hear that sexual orientation is inbuilt
That you cannot chose who you are attracted to
That no amount of pain can change it.
She dislikes him intently and her fake smile
Becomes harder to maintain each time.
She hates his dismissal of his only child
Of how he has made himself a martyr
Wounded by her "sin".
She hates his false piety, the way he humblebrags
Of his charity work and his faith.
She's pretty sure the Bible has something to say
About preaching in the street for your own glory
Instead of praying in private.
She hates how he makes every conversation
About him and his woes and tribulations
Before shrugging it off with pithy Biblical quotes
Acting as though it's an honour to be so tested
As if he's being both tried and rewarded.
She thinks he's the sort to wear a hair shirt
And talk of how it itches, but how that itching is
A glorious gift. Even though in his hypocrisy
He's wearing it with the hair side out
So everyone can see his devoutness.
The bus arrives and she gets on, her smile
Vanishing as soon as the vehicle moves off.
She is more like his daughter than he knows;
Before the man she's now dating,
She was with a woman.
If she didn't think it would cause her problems
She'd tell him her truth, although bisexuality
Probably doesn't exist in his mind or his vocabulary.
But then maybe he'd stop buttonholing her.
Walking her to the bus stop.
Would stop him casually insulting her with his
Weary declarations of his failings, his despair
At his sinful child
But she dare not risk it. She's not out to everyone.
No need to make a hair shirt for herself.
In the UK Magistrates are volunteers who hear cases in courts in their community
She's pretty sure the Bible has something to say / About preaching in the street for your own glory x
In Molière's play, Tartuffe, the title character is shown to be a religious hypocrite when he wears a hair shirt with the hair lining facing outward, so that it can be seen, rather than felt. Cilice
Her neighbour is the sort to be homophobic regardless, but he's using his religion as an excuse. There are plenty of progressive religious people and organisations who would be saddened at his behaviour towards his daughter, and some beautiful outreach efforts to counter anti-gay sentiment in the Church, but the fact remains that homophobia is at the forefront of fundamentalist beliefs (and it is often fundamentalists whose views are most reported), to the extent that a survey for a book on non-Christians attitudes to Christians found that 91% of those surveyed described Christians as antihomosexual (87% used the adjective "judgmental" and 85% the term "hypocritical").
no subject
Date: 2014-10-24 09:39 am (UTC)