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Mother Government

We modern people don’t believe
that pointless rituals relieve
the crushing angst felt deep within,
that we once thought was caused by sin.
But Mother Government has shown
to all of us that she alone
has what it takes to intercede
and give us what we truly need.

She says to look to Government
from birth until our interment,
and worship at the empty womb,
instead of at some empty tomb.
We’re told each infant sacrifice
we make to Mother will suffice
to have her hear our mournful groans,
it’s clear that blood alone atones.

She taught us that we can’t be wrong
when led by feelings that are strong,
so truth is what is true for me,
with which no one can disagree.
But woe to those who have the view
that there’s just one Truth that is true.
When that’s said Mother says she must
lash out with rage since she is just.

Somehow, she knows each word we say
and sees what we post every day,
so all of us, from best to least,
should know that her appointed priest
may knock, but if we show respect
and reverently genuflect,
we may receive a token of
our dear, exalted Mother’s love.

But those who foolishly still scorn,
much better if they’d not been born.
Her priests control the FBI
and every other deep-state spy.
They make dissenters gnash their teeth
by crushing each of them beneath
the weight of her bureaucracy,
until they choose to bend their knee.

She’s in control of all we see
and those who say so publicly,
and send their tithes to her instead
will all receive their daily bread.
We modern people now repeat
her mantras so that we can eat
and live secure, since we believe
in power that we can perceive.

.

.

Warren Bonham is a private equity investor who lives in Southlake, Texas.

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25 Responses

  1. Ben grinberg

    Right is might I once told myself. And then right became things I didn’t understand and time slowed down and sped up at the same time. So I called it faith. Thank you for the poem.

    Reply
  2. Russel Winick

    And many, cloaked in self-appointed superiority, think this is all as it should be. Excellent, flowing, truth-telling, Warren.

    Reply
    • Warren Bonham

      Self-appointed superiority is a perfect way to put it. Too many have fallen for it.

      Reply
  3. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Powerful poem of great significance and satire that is aimed directly at the evils of today’s misplaced trust in government rather than God wherein sycophants and “genuflectors” become the blessed.

    Reply
  4. Joseph S. Salemi

    Bonham’s use of the word “Mother” to describe government is really the metaphorical key to this poem. And it is supported overwhelmingly by his use of ecclesiastical language throughout.

    “Mother Government” is parallel to Mother Church, as in the Latin expression “Sacra Ecclesia, Mater et Magistra” (Holy Church, Mother and Teacher). This description is commonly used by Catholics to refer to the Church.

    Bonham paints a picture of an all-consuming, overarching, rule-making religious institution that governs every aspect of human life from the cradle to the grave. It imposes orthodoxy, it regulates, it teaches, and it demands both obedience and tribute.

    Consider some of the diction: “worship,” “blood atones,” “appointed priest,” “genuflect,” “tithes,” “mantras.” All of these have religious/ecclesiastic echoes, and clearly point to a secular “Mother Church.” Bonham suggests that wherever there is an “ecclesia” (etymologically, an assembly of persons coming together for public worship), there will be enforced conformity, the squelching of dissenters, bureaucratic tyranny, and groupthink.

    Left-liberalism desperately wants to have a Church. Why not? It seems like an excellent way to control people.

    Reply
  5. Margaret Coats

    Warren, it’s not really paradoxical that this poem makes me feel good. There is a joy in knowledge of the truth–even the truth about evil–and more joy in knowing that another shares the perception so well that he can describe it so fully and so artistically. This poem is an intellectual monologue in the plural, spoken by believers in statist or communitarian religion. You describe the ones most abhorrent to faith because they understand quite well their absorbing hostility to the Church, and steal its vocabulary for their own. Joseph Salemi has made a most perceptive comment on this.

    But although this is a creed telling what “we don’t believe” at the beginning, and specifying “we believe in the power we perceive” at the end, the comparison fails to be a proper one. Rather, Mother Government is something entirely opposed to Mother Church. Not just an organization willing to martyr adherents of the true Church, or just one falsely presenting itself as a congregation of believers. Mother Government is the false goddess herself. This corresponds well to the feminist and feminizing trends now corrupting even true religion. Her priests are not sacred ministers, but bureaucratic slaves. The false believers, though condescending and contemptuous toward the true, are themselves emasculated and infantilized slaves. Please excuse me for here bringing in one apt observation of God’s order in religion opposed to the statist. It’s best seen in the solemn ritual of a traditional Mass, which is said to be the most horrifying of sights to a feminist, with its full hierarchy of all male clergy.

    But your poem understands other important aspects. There is in the government cult a heavy reliance on feelings and worldly needs, as opposed to doctrine, with all beliefs treated in a relativist manner. You even make it central to statist dogma to adhere to this relativism, or suffer the punishment of traitors like Judas, “better off had he not been born.”

    Great treatment of one of the most important of themes.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Yes, Margaret — but “Mother Government” is in fact “a congregation of believers.” That is what Bonham’s poem is saying. It is a group of persons consciously fixated on certain doctrines, and very anxious to spread them universally. We may not accept those doctrines, but it is undeniable that these believers have structured themselves very much on the model of an ecclesiastical community.

      No need for Catholics to be upset about it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Joseph, notice the development of tone through the poem, and you’ll see why I say “at the end, the comparison [of government to church] fails to be a proper one.” Government can be said to act as “mother and teacher” to adherents in the first half of the poem, but even there, Mother Government is entirely other than the congregational body of her believers, who perforce accept her decrees. They possess no “sense of the faithful” capable of accord as members or children. In the latter half of the poem, it becomes quite clear that they (and the bureaucracy of priests who substitute for hierarchy), are slaves. See the surveillance, the enforced submission, and the totalitarian control Bonham describes. This is no church-like structure the speakers choose for themselves because they are intellectually or even emotionally convinced and thus want to be missionaries to the world. I acknowledge that the poem represents a creed, but again, look at the variant expressions of it at the beginning and the end. At the beginning, it’s a “we don’t believe” the very things religious persons believe. Condescending self-definition, but otherwise, the articles of belief are what Mother tells them under threat. And when we come to the positive “credo” of the speaker-believers at the poem’s end, it’s mere belief in the effective power enforcing belief. This power is by no means theirs. They are not even the priests sent out to crush dissent. They are fearful subjects of a totalitarian state in total control of their lives. They pay up and parrot the mantras so they can eat. Very unlike the model of an ecclesial community.

      Reply
  6. Joseph S. Salemi

    You’re assuming that an ecclesial community is always a voluntary association. That is not always the case. Many members are there purely by accident of birth, and may remain there solely to keep peace with their families or to please their friends or to stay in the good graces of society. Such persons may have no doctrinal beliefs at all, but merely parrot what they have been taught is acceptable, all-around orthodox conformism.

    This is certainly the case with an ecclesial community like the supporters of left-liberal government. Many of the left-liberal church’s members are true believers, but others are merely camp followers or timeservers who know what will grease the skids for social acceptance and success.

    True believers in the left-liberal church certainly do have “a sense of the faithful,” and those other members who are just along for the perks are also aware of that “sense.” That is why the left-liberal church’s position on anything can be predicted with ease, and why dissent from that “sense of the faithful” can bring swift excommunication. This happens every day in contemporary society, and is very well known. Ask anybody who’s been cancelled, or fired, or publicly pilloried on social media. Ask Susan Bryant.

    At the start of Bonham’s poem, the speakers state clearly what they DO NOT believe — a normal practice for ecclesial communities that wish to differentiate themselves from recusants or heretics. The speakers then go on to give a brief outline of their loyal obedience to the church (“Mother Government”). There is no contradiction or dilemma here, whether the speakers are doing this out of genuine conviction, or fear of punishments and sanctions.

    If the speakers are “slaves,” that may be apparent to us but it isn’t necessarily so to them. The tone? I don’t notice a single word that suggests rebellion or dissatisfaction. They are content with their situation, and with the guiding authority of their church (“ecclesial community”) and the benefits it brings to them. In fact, the entire satiric point of Bonham’s poem is the credulity or lack of character revealed by these speakers. As for those who lead the ecclesial community, they don’t care about either motivation, as long as the obedience holds and the tithes come in.

    “Belief in the effective power of enforcing belief” is a tool in every “ecclesial community.”

    Reply
      • Warren Bonham

        That was a great debate and made me go back and reread the poem to test whether the words aligned with what I intended to communicate. My ire was directed (primarily) towards our cynical leaders who believe in nothing more than power and who are all too happy to take advantage of our need to be led and the comfort we seem to find in ritual. While condemning belief in a higher power and all of the trappings and rituals typically associated with religion, they have merely put themselves on God’s throne which they have supplemented with surveillance and coercion just in case.
        The use of a group as the narrator did complicate things. While there are true believers in the group who latch onto one of the teachings of our government (relativism, infant sacrifice, etc.), a large portion just follow the path of least resistance (the power they can perceive). There may have been a better format for the poem, but I think this is likely what led to the spirited debate.
        I appreciate the detailed comments and continue to learn from those on this site who are much better educated than I am.

  7. Brian A. Yapko

    Excellent poem, Warren, with a much-needed message concerning our “nanny-state” government and it’s demonic attempt to make us rely upon it for everything — literally every aspect of our being. The religious aspects of the poem are frightening as they underscore how worship of the state appears to be the end-game. There is nothing new about theocracies, but that’s not quite what you present here. God has nothing to do with it. Your governmental object of veneration is a cynical substitute for God. To me, this dystopian piece seems as much influenced by science fiction as it does history — especially in the way you have personified the state into a “Mother” who is anything but. “She” reminds me of “IT” from the old science fiction book “A Wrinkle in Time.” But there are many such state-worship examples in fantasy and science fiction.

    Unfortunately, your description of our hapless present is scarcely fantasy. It is quite literally the Deep State endgame.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      To Warren and Brian — the only point I wanted to make is that a church is a church, no matter who runs it or what the doctrines are. The liberal-left and the Deep State definitely want to establish a universal “ecclesial community” to which everyone is beholden, whether they are true believers or merely social conformists. I think Warren’s poem is quite clear on this. He makes the point very strongly and unambiguously.

      The Left-Liberal Church is in the process of birth right now. A great many of its doctrines are publicly visible to anyone: deep environmentalism, gender feminism, the championing of perversion and transsexualism, abortion as a sacrament, demonization of fossil fuels, obsession with climate change, anti-white racism, hatred of the police, socialism, DEI, and above all what I have called “alterity” — the generalized worship of anything that is “other” in relationship to Western culture.

      Does this movement include a hatred of established traditional churches? Yes, of course. But frankly, that is just a sideshow. The left-liberals are no longer afraid of the traditional churches, since most of the leadership of those churches are in secret but deep sympathy with the new emerging religion.

      Reply
      • Brian A. Yapko

        Joe, I have found your observations to be 100% true. That is one of the reasons I have stepped away from the high churches. I can no longer attend Episcopal or Lutheran they are completely indoctrinated in woke nonsense, including critical race theory, the right to abortion and transgender “sacraments.” I now attend a non-denominational, evangelic church which is vigorously pro-Israel, anti-woke, biblical and which believes in God without irony or apology. I’ve never been happier with a church.

      • Warren Bonham

        I’m also in the non-denominational, evangelical camp although I got there without doing a tour of duty in one of the high churches so I’ve not seen firsthand the issues noted above. My experience lines up with Brian’s description. The bible is truly the core without any seasoning from the cultural currents.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        Agreed, except I’m afraid that’s a bit optimistic. It’s not “in the process of birth;” rather, it’s already taken over the world. We think otherwise because of freedoms that still exist, but those are a bone thrown to us by the Deep State so we don’t think things are as bad as they are. I still remember you telling us that Fox News is only allowed to be on the air so people like us think we have a voice.

        Furthermore, it’s not just the leadership of churches, nor is it much of a secret, especially among the younger generations. I’m coming to believe more and more that the traditional, Christian, Western way is close to becoming (if it isn’t already) the same kind of lost cause as the Southern cause became after the Civil War; in fact, it’s already demonized in the same way (for the record, this does not constitute an endorsement of slavery; that I have to say so just proves my point).

        Of course, we must still hold fast to the traditions we’ve been taught, as the Bible says. But we must face the truth head-on and not tell ourselves that things are other than what they are.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Joshua, thanks for your comments. I was told that truth about Fox News several years ago by an old friend (in radio broadcasting) whose wife works for Fox. She is a true conservative, and she said that the place was mostly filled with garden-variety liberals who had contempt for the entire operation. Anyone at Fox who is an on-screen personage can express conservative views, but NO ONE there can dare to say that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats, or defend the actions on January 6th. If you do, you are immediately dismissed.

        In other words, the ruling elite at Fox News says “Let the rabble say whatever makes them feel good, but if they touch on anything that really questions our hegemony, clamp down hard on them.”

  8. Mike Bryant

    This great poem takes a wonderfully wry, and apt, look at our governments which, like religions, have evolved. The socialists became the fascists became the managerial states. All of these top down ideologies are the exact opposite of what the founders envisioned.

    Orwell’s “1984” was a warning about these managerial states, which have now taken over the earth. These states, including the U.S.A., have become the religion of the managers and billions of the managed who embrace the cock-eyed ideologies, rites, sacrifices and sacraments of humanism, transhumanism, expertism and blind faith.

    Is there anything more dangerous than an ideologue who doesn’t know he’s wrong? – Seymour Hersh

    To that I would answer, yes… not just “an ideologue” but the multitudes of them in our federal, state and local governments along with their enablers.

    Reply
    • Warren Bonham

      The founders look smarter and smarter every day. They gave us a Constitution that was set up so power would be pushed down to the lowest level whenever possible. These ideologues can’t help themselves. They’ve made the Constitution a living document that needs to constantly be reinterpreted, much like many churches do with the bible.

      Reply
      • Russel Winick

        In any event Warren, I hope it was immensely satisfying for you to have written a poem that generated such deep analysis and heavy discussion, much of it Russell and Chamberlainesque. Outstanding work!

      • Mike Bryant

        Warren your observation on the Constitution reminds me of these words:

        “The first Principles of the Christian religion are founded, not on disputable conclusions, opinions, or conjectures, or on human sanctions, but on the express words of Christ and his Apostles; and we are to hold fast the form of sound words. 2 Tim. 1:13. And further, it is not enough that a proposition be true or in the express words of scripture: it must also appear to have been taught in the days of the Apostles.” – Isaac Newton

        Instead of standing on the shoulders of giants… too many cling to the reinterpretations of nobodies in every sphere of life.

  9. Joshua C. Frank

    Warren, I agree 100% that this is exactly how things are today… except it’s not just government. It’s literally every institution in existence anymore. In any case, you’ve expressed it very well.

    Reply
  10. Yael

    Wow! This is a great poem as well as a fascinating comments section. It reminds me of classical western Protestant theology of the 18th and 19th centuries. American Protestant denominations in the past believed that the Catholic church is Mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation, or the “little horn” power in the book of Daniel chapters 7 and 8.
    The State was believed to be the “scarlet coloured beast” with 7 heads and 10 horns of Revelation 17:3 on which the harlot woman Mystery Babylon sits. The image to the beast, which enforces the mark of the beast and is mentioned in Revelation chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, and 20, was considered to be the future state of the USA. It starts out innocent like a lamb but ends up speaking like a dragon (Revelation 13:11) as it turns into a tyrannical quasi-religious power structure much like the Catholic church during medieval Europe. One of the founders of the Seventh-Day Adventist church was Ellen G. White who was a writer, and also considered by many to have the prophetic gift. She published a book in 1888 titled The Great Controversy, where she describes how the government of the USA will become the image beast, modeled after the original beast, the Church of Rome. For anyone interested, the book The Great Controversy is still widely circulated and available for free in most major languages: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132/toc
    Since the 1980s there is also a short abbreviated version available of the 1888 book, for modern readers who shun large books. It’s called National Sunday Law and is also available in over 70 languages:
    http://reg9.com/

    Reply

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