One Big Happy (a poem by Kelly Belmonte)

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“We live by revelation, as Christians, as artists, which means that we must be careful never to get set into rigid molds. The minute we begin to think we know all the answers, we forget the questions, and we become smug like the Pharisee who listed all his considerable virtues, and thanked God that he was not like other men.” – Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water

One Big Happy

Christians who drink
Christians who get drunk
Christians who talk about Christians who drink;
Christians who wear ripped jeans to church
Christians who never wear jeans
Who wear turtle necks and cross necklaces
Who show cleavage
Who wish they had cleavage;
Christians who say “fudge” and refer to the “F-Bomb”
Christians who say “freaking” in polite company
but “f—” with friends
Christians who say “f—“ without apology;
Christians who smoke
Christians who would never smoke
Who used to smoke
Who tried weed once
Who smoke only at home
standing out on the back porch
in 12 degrees, snow falling on their slippers;
Nominal Christians
Evangelical Christians
Catholic Christians
Doubting Christians
Born again Christians
Born again again Christians
who can’t get enough of the dunking
who keep needing to start over over again;
Christians who love Jesus
Christians who wish they knew how to love Jesus
Christians who pretend they love Jesus because
that’s what they’re supposed to do
Christians who need Jesus.


A version of this poem first appeared at

Image by Tom Darin Liskey