The Story of Serpentfoot
and

(The Bible written by Serpentfoot in the American year 201, revised 3-13-226)
Copyright © Serpentfoot in the American year 226 (2002 of the Christian (Error) “Era”)

I was not always called Serpentfoot. Three years ago—in the American year 198 (1973 as Christians count it)—I was fairly well known in Georgia as Anne Otwell, poet, editor and publisher of the POETS MONTHLY paper, president of the Poets of Georgia Club, and mayor of a ghost town once called Tulip (also previously called Sprite and Kincaid) but which I renamed Poetry, Georgia.

Serpentfoot (then Otwell), and young poet Alice Yurke, award Governor Jimmy Carter (later President Jimmy Carter) an honorary citizenship to Poetry, Georgia

(The Post Office had been called Tulip. The train station had been called Sprite. But the Area had also been well known as Kincaid because of the big peach orchard, hotel, and other facilities on top of Kincaid Mountain behind Tulip. Detroit (Michigan) killed the train, and the orchard, and the town, when peach workers, black and white, "went to Detroit" to make cars. World wars I and II also took citizens who never returned to the old town. Vandals and nature took the buildings. For more on Serpentfoot's national interests click: http://www.highlands.edu/webzine/backbytes/features17/serpentfoot/serpentfoot.htm (If that does not work go to: http://www.Yahoo.com . Then type in and go to "V.I.P. PEOPLE YOU MUST MEET!".) For more on President Jimmy Carter see: http://www.CarterCenter.org .)

It was not so well known that I had also been a Clay, Dreyfus, Burnett, Roper, Maddox, Wigley—and Burnett a second time…

That I had failed 7 times as a wife, that I was a poor mother, a disgrace to my family, that I was an atheist, that I had tried numerous jobs and occupations, that I was an alcoholic, a chain smoker--therefore a dependent on drugs, a spendthrift, and a glutton that got up to 215 pounds!

But I was so filled with enthusiasm and had so much “Positive Mental Attitude”; I was such a believer in GOOD NEWS! That I could not see any obstacles!

(That I was blind to reality and believed in “Good News” does not mean I was Christian. No! Far from it! I got my faith from those people who “put their money where their mouth is”: several of my husbands had been good salesmen, and faith to them was nothing if they couldn't act on it. The business world, that's where you find real faith! When one sinks their money into seed or machinery, they've got faith!)

And I could not see myself as a complete and total failure—not until I went broke publishing poetry, and sat here with neither the spirit, nor the postage, to keep up my correspondence with the many poets.

I felt like “digging a hole and crawling in it.” And being one ever to indulge myself, that is just what I did!

Like a bear gone to hibernate for winter, like a fat grub spun into its cocoon, I retreated here to my little ghost town, Poetry, Georgia, and lived the life of a hermit.

How bitter then was that word “retreat”. Once Billie Brown of the Associated Press, remembering that Sequoia (inventor of the Cherokee Alphabet) had been born in these hills of Chattooga County Georgia, said of us that we had, “a new history in American letters, as a poet's retreat.”(For more on the Cherokees driven out of nearby Rome, Georgia on the “Trail of Tears” see an old plat of the property stolen from Cherokee chief John Ross, in Serpentfoot's opposition to commercial use of the entire area in her article “When Habitat Hits Home”: http://www.highlands.edu/webzine/backbytes/features13/when.htm .)

How beautiful those words had seemed then—for it was as if I were again Oedipus following upon the heels of Cadmus who brought those letters into Greece.

I saw the flowering of a great literature. I dreamed that America would have an epic greater than those epics of Britain, France, Germany, Greece, and Rome. For a long time it had bothered me, as an American, that not only did the Volkswagen car, the Swiss watches, cameras, optical instruments, and radios of Germany and Japan outsell so many of our domestic models, but our best selling book too was product of Israel. I could not rest while such humiliation stood! For even fallen Greece and Rome at least had their own literature.

And if love has the capacity to raise one to noble speech, then I knew I had it in me to write that great American epic, for I do love this land, this very dust that I am. But now I was as one who had failed in love; now I was as one who had failed my country. And all for my own unworthiness. That word “retreat” was so bitter then. And, more than a retreat, it was a turning around to stare back at my great foolishness. I wanted to punish myself so I would be sure to remember. I wanted to suffer.

So I did not work. I did not make any money; I did not spend any; I did not buy any clothes; did not buy any groceries (except coffee and onions). And for over a year I lived in a one room hut with no heat and no conveniences. I fasted and fed on wild herbs, locusts and such. The ghost in my ghost town, ever prominent, was need.

The person who came out of that experience is not the same person who went in.

I lost over half of me and now weigh 107 pounds. I am more attractive than I have ever been. I am wiser. I am younger than I was! I have a new vitality! I have a new body and a new soul!

People who once knew me were amazed that this new person was me! Some of my own family did not know me!

Some thought that I had had “help from above”. Others wanted the details of my diet. Both were wrong. You can lose weight on any diet, if you can control yourself.

Self control is that magic ingredient missing from most every diet. And SELF CONTROL is that magic ingredient missing from most every religion.

I had no help “from above”. Real Need teaches one to control themselves. It was my salvation to hit the very bottom!

“Find a need and fill it”. That is the secret of success. And I knew that! “Everybody knows that!” But anything that is normal and makes sense, we ignore it. “Everything's normal there, go on”. Yes I ignored it. I had not been filling a need with my poetry paper. Oh I encouraged some children; I helped lots of folks feel good. But I had not had the courage to publish the truth. I appealed to pride and vanity and “feel good complacency”. They were false needs, like all those other false needs that had wrecked my life.

Need, the real Need, was a gentleman I never cared to know! It was my father. That hated immortal!

Those who saw me at my birth knew it but they didn't say anything. They just took one look at those puny limbs and handed over the gifts they had brought.

They knew my mother had had a constant companion, a brute called Need. Just now they had slain Him with their gifts. But they knew he would be back. Need can never be slain once and for all; Need is immortal.

And they all understood what “Fate” had in store for me. And that such “shameful crimes” might not come to pass, they took me from the House of Need.

I was “brought up” by a Christian couple, and all the time thought them my parents—though in truth they seemed as different from me as if we were from different worlds. And their many years of discipline and instruction did not convert me to their ways. Yet I attributed it to a generation gap, and still did not doubt they were my parents.

Often they taught me oracles which I did not understand. And looking back I see they did not understand the oracles either. They just taught me what they had been taught, like parrots repeating from memory not knowledge nor understanding. But an oracle you know is like a message in code; it's something you cannot understand unless you know its meaning already. (For more on Oracles see Serpentfoot's “Oracle of the 10 Teeth Found!”. Click on: http://www.highlands.edu/webzine/backbytes/features14/serpentfoot.htm .)

Fortunately that knowledge was innate, intrinsic in me, but it took me those years to figure out what I knew, not that I would belittle myself too much for that slowness since I grew up in a strange world that constantly tried to teach me contrary to the innate truths buried in me.

The oracle they often repeated was: “You will always be at war with a serpent who is a great teacher, and he shall be as a great tree lashing at your heels to spur you on, and he shall be as a cane of faith and you shall tread upon his head. And you shall know him as a cross. Tree, cane, and cross! Your father's death be on your head.”

(My paraphrasing of the oracle corrects what they actually told me, which was the confused version you find scattered in the Judeo-Christian tales of Genesis and Exodus and the New Testament etc. (i.e. see:http://www.cin.org/users/james/questions/q105.htm ) Also my above corrected version is compatible with the earlier Greek tale of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. (See: http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/oedipusthewreck . And see: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/myth.htm If that does not work, click: http://www.Yahoo.com , and type in “loxias/myth” and click “search” to go to that and other Oedipus sites.)

It was never in my heart to do such a thing! Me slay him who makes me think and study? Me slay him who makes me work and struggle? Me slay him who makes me love? Me slay my father?

Some “Good News” this was! But what could I expect from those who make war on reason, knowledge, and science! Faith was the only thing Christianity had to offer; and what good was their faith when they still have to have a policeman standing over every shoulder and government making and enforcing every decision?

What good is a faith that cannot teach the hearts and minds? What good is a faith that cannot produce morality but must forever have “morality” enforced? What good is a faith that is only a cross? -- Never a tree nor a cane!

I fled my strange home!

On my way I met a brute called Need. I struck him down for he blocked my path. And I had such a strange feeling I had been there before. Was it only something I had read? No, I was Oedipus, I had been there before. Still I didn't understand it, the memory was so dim, and it bothered me.

Often after that I thought I saw the ghost of Need fleeing like a child and like a cane on the path before me, calling, “This way! This way!” But I ignored him for I did not believe in ghosts. And besides He was only a child, so unlike the beast I had slain. This one merely called.

And one day I had the good fortune to take an old town. It wasn't much of a town, only about 120 acres, just slightly larger than the Vatican. But there was nothing here! All the old buildings were gone. It was just a town man tried to make. It was a town now peopled with trees.

I renamed the town “Poetry” and I became mayor in this little Kingdom of Poetry. I started the Poets of Georgia Club and published a poetry paper, POETS MONTHLY, with the slogan, “We're putting Poetry on the map!”

I really did put Poetry on the map, literally, by selling lots at “Poetry, Ga.”, putting it in plats, and awarding honorary citizenships to Governor, and future President, Jimmy Carter; Lieutenant Governor Lester Maddox; Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, who awarded me the key to the City; Macon Mayor Ronnie Thompson, and many other luminaries and poets. I was delighted to see Poetry (formerly Tulip) on Georgia's map beginning in “1976”. Oedipus taking the throne of Thebes for his reward was not more delighted than when I as Mayor of Poetry indulged myself and enjoyed my acclaim.

Yes I literally put Poetry on the map. But figuratively I failed to put Poetry on the map as great literature. I did publish some good poets. Ruth BaleTutt, who had been a Professor at Shorter College, was one of them. And I encouraged many more but generally I felt I was wasting my time; that I should concentrate on my own writing, and write with courage, not to sell papers, and not to publish junk just because it pleases Christian subscribers. And it lost money anyway. It was a waste like my life, a waste of money and time. Busy, Busy, Busy, and for what???

I was angry with myself and determined not to busy myself any more until I could be as wise as other creatures who are smart enough live simply without warehouses for tomorrow. And have time to lie around and meditate as horses, cows, cats and other creatures? Could I be that smart? Could I learn their secret?

When I went broke publishing poetry, I was in the ideal position to discover if I had as much sense as the other creatures to live off of the land.

Soon that ghost Need came back upon me. I had slain Need from my life, and the false Need had taken over with gluttony, alcohol, drugs, lust, pride, vanity, greed, and debt. It was as in Dante's Inferno, the gaping jaws of hell were in our land; the consumer was upon us as a plague! And all that I had was consumed. (All but for this spot in the wild at the now “undeveloped “ghost town.)

Where was this Need my ancient enemy? I cannot fight ghosts!

I would find him if I had to go to hell! No more did I fear to suffer. But like a tormented bull come to that moment of truth when the tormented will no more flee, I would turn and face my tormenter!

Myself I would make bait for this monster!

Too long he had eluded me! Now I would lay such a trap Need could not escape me. And for over a year I lived in that one room hut with no heat and no groceries except that I could forage up from the wild.

And I called out, “Need, if you are out there, show yourself! I am not going to turn you loose! And I am not going to leave this place alive until we have it out! You wanted a fight, you've got one! Come let me see the worst you can do! You fiend!”

More than any lover I courted him, that monster that is always new, that virgin fresh as war!

Then from my belly Need began to talk. He mentioned an apple, bread, wine, milk and honey, and kosher food feasting and fasting. Would I fall prey and surrender all doubt to this enemy who is the most sensible and convincing of philosophers, poets, prophets, this God that speaks straight from the gut?

And for a while I thought the great voice had an echo, for the false need had taken possession of my belly the moment he discovered its rightful owner was slain (with my action and consent of course but I had forgotten all about it.) And he was still in possession when the real Need and I chose that spot to do battle.

And for a while it was hard to tell the two apart for they both spoke of food. They just wouldn't let me keep my mind off of religion!

But I began to notice that whereas the real Need would mention an apple or a fish or a piece of calf—the false need would mention a whole bushel of apples, a whole forest of them, some still showing green and some pure red. Such a pretty picture he painted!

Then he'd go on to talk about Sunday dinners, church dinners on the ground, Thanksgiving dinner, Halloween goodies, a festive Christmas table, colored Easter Eggs, and chocolates for Saint Valentine!

It wasn't just a piece of meat the false need wanted. He wanted a whole fatted calf—“A golden calf I'm so hungry! You never would run out of wine!”

I said, “Hush! Slave and blasphemer! Already I have been glutton and alcoholic! But no more shall the bread and the wine get the better of me!”

“Esau may love that bowl of porridge; King Midas may love that bag of gold--He may even think he loves a golden calf, until hunger teaches him to be content with a calf of mere flesh and blood; Samson may love Delilah—“

“But shall that bowl of porridge, or shall that bag of gold, or shall that sex object you desire be as master over you?”

“I am an awakened Esau! I am an angry Samson! But my battle is not with you. There is one that comes behind you much greater than you. The real Need and I are about to have it out! And if you pester me any more I'll turn him loose on you!”

“I'll just lay here and not cook anything for about a week or so. I'll just pretend I'm too lazy to get up, and that would be a right easy thing for me to pretend! You'd just better hope I don't get to be president. We wouldn't just have one day of rest! We'd have more fasting than we have of feasting!”

“All that trouble and all those peptic solutions, and for what? For you! You mess up one month getting ready for Christmas; you mess up another month getting over it—and it takes some folks all year to make it up! Some never get over it. It makes me tired to think about it. It wouldn't take much for me to sleep right through it. You want to see what a lazy cook I can be? You just keep talking!”

That shut him up! He knew the truth of my words! And he knew I was mad enough to do it!

The real Need wasn't all that easy to handle. You could hardly whip him lying down! After a while I said, “Lord, I wish I had known you when you were smaller!”

“You used to flee before me on the path like a child and a cane. But you only called and I ignored you. You were most reasonable then, but you didn't make yourself understood all that well.”

“Now you are grown fierce and great as any tree, heavy as a cross, and rather than a cane of support a cane for striking, come up behind and beside me to slay me. Once you called but now I am chosen.”

“Yet even now I might escape you: Family and friends still show their concern. Christians still preach their “Good News Gospel”, and if approached right they'll make a show of being charitable, and I could always go to work. I don't have to suffer—“

“But I won't let myself avoid this fight. I have just got to know you. And not just “know you in my heart” –hate you in my spleen is more like it—But no, not love or hate, not emotionally! I want to know you intellectually; I have got to understand you in my head (not heart). I have to KNOW. More than any lover I sought you, my old enemy, and like Columbus I took the shortest way!”

“Every man I met was you, “Father”, and they suffered for it! Not once did I meet my master! Except that for money or pleasure or convenience I would throw a game!”

“And I suffered too, being at war with my other half.”

“Are you that other half that could complete my birthing process by making me whole? Surely my other half is Need.”

“But why do I seek you at all when it is either love or war? Is not hate enough? Is not love enough? Just to know you are out there somewhere—“

“Why must I find you? Why have you near? What's in a place? Why must I follow? Why is this dust searching out dust? Why is this whirling in space?”

“Why should I give up eternity, or even 20 or 50, or 70 years for a moment with you, and hope to find eternity there? Is time in a place? That it can be stirred like dust? The sun and moon stand still—or move my planet backward so that I, like the Great Player's performers, might say, 'This should have been hereafter', and my tomorrow is yesterday today.”

“Can I close this generation gap between what is and what is not, with a horizontal and vertical eternity? Make that which was, and that which will be, my now? That that I am, and that opposite half that I am not, all me, like Enoch, now?”

“I shall not complain as Hamlet if I see funeral breads turn to marriage cakes, not if the marriage is noble. I want no more such farces as we have had. I will throw no more games!”

“Marriage should come as a new birth, a new entity, a new awareness. And surely I may know that fierce father, and that husband like a cross, as I could never know you the unsure child that flees into tomorrow. And I did have to know. I just had to know! Yet all knowledge looks back on what is and was—it looks back on death. I do prefer that child Need that flees into tomorrow. I prefer that unknown untried Need over cruel necessity that makes itself known only too well.”

“And now if I shall be another to fall here at this tree, it is still my victory that at last I have found you. But I am sorry you are not that fit companion you once were, that child Need that with uncertainty only suggested, and often with such foolish obvious errors as a child makes, cried, 'This way, This way.'” I am sorry I ignored you and allowed you to become the cruel necessity my enemy.”

He said, “Have at me my child, have at me my daughter, and whether I slay you or whether you slay me, whichever of us be slain shall be reborn in the other.”

When that battle was over, I was 108 pounds lighter. I had lost over half of me, literally! And in more ways than one! I had a new body and a new soul! Need had taught me to control myself. Not that all those battles are behind me, no, not when one is dealing with that immortal that is forever reborn in one's own body, heart, and mind.

Need is not one's master. Need makes war upon its children until we measure up, EQUAL TO THAT HATED IMMORTAL!

From Need I wrested its BAD NEWS GOSPEL, that the struggle is never over, the “price is” NEVER “paid”, we never “have it made”! Not if one is Adam! Not if one is Goliath! Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy! Not if you have beauty, brains, health, money, or power. That hated immortal always comes back upon us and can not miss because its seed is in and around us.

That other half of me was there before the “Helpmate” and before “Adam”. Need was there in the chaos and void” And Need is still here today, still decreeing light out of darkness and that order come out of confusion.

Need is that father we have all slain. Need is that child born again in our own belly, heart, and mind. Need is that “Holy Ghost” and hated immortal, one's other half, companion, and mate one marries and bears like a cross.

Tree, cross, and cane, it is with us. And it is, and was, and will be. It is here, not off in some unearthly place only. Need is not a coward or pampered trifler, not a seeker of pleasure and comfort hidden behind the lines in some “Heavenly” place. But the immortal Need is always on the front lines, always where the problem is. And Need is the problem. And Need is the guide to solving the problem.

Need showed me “His” symbol (remember this is written by a woman. If a man had written it he'd probably have called his mate “her”, unless he was homosexual which would be ok too.). That symbol is the serpent which is down without feet.

He has no feet but is all foot! The great teacher of posture and “the way”! For it is Need that makes us work and struggle; Need that makes us find courage, hope, forgiveness, and healing—remember the medical symbol, the Caduceus? ; the serpent around a staff? (To see that medical symbol click on: http://www.homeopathyhome.com/caduceus/ .For other versions of it click on: http://www.Yahoo.com and type in and go to “caduceus”.) It is Need that makes us love, and that hated immortal is the only reason for faith. Need is our tree, our cross and our cane.

Face to face with Need, I remembered the “Father of our Country”, George Washington and his Fort Necessity. (See: http://www.digitalhistory.org/virginia_regiment_ftnec.htm .)

I remembered that reference to “those laws of nature” and “nature's god” in the Declaration of Independence. I treasure that document so much that I once bought a parchment reproduction of it. When I examined it a few years later, I discovered that my youngest son was one of the signers! During his grammar school years, he had put his name on it beside that of John Hancock, Button Gwinnett, and the others. He surely sensed its importance even before I realized that it meant family to me, and that the God mentioned in that document is in fact my other half. (See: http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration/decmain.html .)

I knew I had found nature's God here on this earth, not in some unearthly place, but here in my own belly. Need was that Word, language, and god made flesh in me.

I remembered that small document, our Constitution which does not become dated and dead by specifying and ordaining every specific action congress can take but becomes a living document of nature's law and nature's god by declaring that congress shall have power to do all those things necessary and proper to carry out its duties: the “Necessary and proper clause”, Article I, Section 8, last clause. (See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articlei.html#section8 .)

Those who wrote such treasure had surely discovered that innate knowledge that “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” and that “Find a Need and fill it” is the secret of success. And they had listened to the voice of that god, the only god appropriate for a free state and not slavery, Need which does not teach the obedience training of dogs and slaves but teaches us to be our own master, to control ourselves.

The serpent is not only symbol of Need, being down without feet, but also it is symbol of them not conquered by Need—it goes over, under, around, and through.

For that reason it is that standard of courage shown on an earlier, and better, American flag: The “DON'T TREAD ON ME!” of Revolutionary times. (Go to: http://www.Yahoo.com and type in and go to “DON'T TREAD ON ME!”. Site number three is particularly good.)

Without legs it walks, without arms it climbs and swims, and it is the great teacher of posture and the way. It is that immortal that taught me, Oedipus, the answer to the Sphinx's riddle. For some opinions of others on the ancient tale click on: http://www.cyberessays.com/English/123.htm , or go to http://www.Yahoo.com and type in “Oedipus answers the Sphinx's Riddle” and click on a few of the links there. As you do so, notice that most people are of the opinion that the tale of Oedipus is a tragedy, whereas I who lived it felt great victory in the discovery of who I am and that my other half is in fact that hated immortal, Need. And I felt glory not shame in my marriage to that Immortal. Yet it troubles me and makes me feel isolated when others, out of ignorance, see only shame where there is none. Yet once I too was that unknowing. Even when I became so astute as to know what man is—and to therefore be able to answer the Sphinx's riddle-- I still did not know who I was. It has taken over 2500 years for me to figure that out and to know that we are all Oedipus in various stages.)

(Note that the Sphinx and Oedipus, like the serpent, are exceptional teachers and prophets of posture and “the way”. Also note that Oedipus is descended of Cadmus, and note Cadmus's identification with the serpent and the Word, and-- PRIOR TO “THE WORD”-- the alphabet.)

And because he knows most Need the serpent is the wisest of creatures—even as man so weak is wise when he attends to the real Need and does not allow that tempter, the false need, the false God, habit, and greed to deceive and enslave him with false promises of “Good News” that he “has it made.” That struggle of evolution is never over, not even when it changes direction and devolves instead of evolving. That creating, destroying, and creating of something else, continues. There is the eternal vigilance, the eternal struggle of life. We never have it finished, created, “made”! Not in seven days, nor in an eternity of days

That hated immortal told me to publish out his BAD NEWS GOSPEL so that modern people would not be so foolish as Adam and Goliath to rely upon good news or good fortune to save them; that it is when the facts are against you that one needs faith!

And that god who is here and now told me that as a symbol of my marriage to Need, that I should change my name to Serpentfoot, for it embodied a contradiction and marriage of all that is with all that is not, and affirmed that my enemy and I were one.

For a long time I hesitated. I went to work. I ran through three more husbands. I went back to school at the University of Georgia, and Georgia Highlands College. I did a bunch of things. And I kept arguing with Need. Not Moses, nor Paul, nor Jonah was as reluctant as I to turn prophet:

I said: “Lord, and don't you take that literally, I do not take you for master though I know your power; you know what kind of life I have lived. They persecuted that good man, Jesus, what would they do to me? I who can make no pretense of perfect?

“And that poor serpent that never speaks any words of sound from his mouth, but teaches with words of flesh –teaches by example! Teaches how the lame may be healed; teaches that without legs one may go over, under, around, and through! His way is every way; his way is the way that is open; his is the way that works; or he makes a way!”

“Yet see how these liars persecute him and falsely car him “liar”! That, from those liars who rarely match their action to their Word! Those that preach but don't practice! Those narrow minded incompetents who know “only one way”! The rattlesnake is kinder than they because he doesn't mess with people unless you are about to step on him; yet these liars who preach about “Good Samaritans” have no Good Samaritan in them but they go out of their way to stomp the fallen.”

“And they get away with their deception! Few people catch on, Most are just too stupid! Shall I “Throw pearls before the swine”? Maybe they are not worth saving. It's contrary to evolution, contrary to nature to save the unfit especially when they make no attempt to improve themselves but are more bent on pulling others down to their level so they don't have to face their inferiority. And even if they deserved help, what's in it for me? I really don't need it “Lord”!”

“Just let that greedy group of Christian business folks go on to their promised “Heaven”. Let them find out what supply is without demand. Let them learn as the fool learns that “nothing is 'perfect' until it is finished” (dead). When there is no more Need, one is dead. Let these evil ones go like fish, like suckers, into that promised “Heaven”, that trap for the greedy and immoral who think they are going to get paid “for loving Jesus.” (for more on such commercialization in that religion see Butterflies Come Here To Get Rich”, click on: http://www.highlands.edu/webzine/backbytes/features15/serpentfoot.htm .)

“Let them get their just desserts. They enslave this nation to the false need, the false god, and then they call for the blood of their prey. Our prisons are full for they have forgotten those two who died beside Jesus on the cross. There is no more Good Samaritan in them, nor hardly any who will be so kind as to pass on by and mind their own business, or even ignore the fallen, but they must stop and stomp the fallen!” (25 years later Serpentfoot finds the Christian community no better than it was: See the February 2002 Issue of FCBYTES in which Serpentfoot writes about Christian warhawks who have no more use for Jesus as the “Prince of Peace”. Yet the spirit of others who preached peace lives as she shows in her article:: http://www.highlands.edu/webzine/backbytes/features19/serpentfoot.htm , or if that does not work, click on: http://www.Yahoo.com and type in : “FC Bytes—Babylonline”, and click on it; then click on “FC Bytes Home” (at top), then click on “Features”; then click on “Entrees” (not Valentine Entrees); then click on Serpentfoot's article: “The New Jesus (The only Jesus now.): MLK, Prince of Peace”.) (And for more on that new “Prince of Peace, MLK, see: http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/ and see the King Center in Atlanta: http://www.thekingcenter.org/ .)

“It is not enough for 'Christian' extremists that a man, or woman, is already sick on alcohol or drugs, but they must also throw the heavier burden of taxes and penalties on him or her and throw them in the cage with animals. And that grieving family that would come to his or her defense must often lose their home to pay for lawyers and courts.”

“And even as it was the slaves that built Egypt and Rome, likewise it is the poor working man, or woman, that carries the heavier burden here.”

“This Christian society is just like the jungle, only worse: It is the sick, the young, the old, and heavily laden they feed upon. Yes, 'Christians' now are but liars in taking that name; they don't pick up a cross and follow Jesus, but they only want 'Heavenly' comforts and pleasure; they put the cross on others! The jungle is more kind; lions and tigers do not pick the bones so clean.”

My enemy asked me: “So what are you going to do about it? Not that I need you to speak on my behalf. I do my own talking. And I make myself real clear—as you well know—when from Need I become Necessity. However, if you really care about these people who would find that the crisis state is too late—for their sake you could warn them not to wait until I send them a very clear message, not to wait until Necessity speaks in the crisis state.”

I said “Goodness, what can I do? I am no artificial sinner like that young fellow Jesus was. These sins on my head are real, and all honest come by. I mean I haven't gone out and laid claim to the world's sins to put some on my head, like what he did. It is the genuine article you've resurrected here in me!”

“And if that good man could not save them, shall they be saved by a great sinner? Needlessly I would sacrifice myself, like he did! What a waste! I don't need it.” (Unlike Christianity and most other religions which are at war with nature and science, Serpentfoot's doctrine of Need and Necessity are not only the most supreme law of our land—as shown in the “Necessary and Proper Clause” of the U.S. Constitution, Art 1, Section 8, last clause, but also her religion is compatible with and supported by science, for instance in Maslow's hierarchy of Needs: http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~epritch1/motiv.htm . If that does not work when clicked, go to: http://www.Yahoo.com and type in “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs” and click on the link there.)

“They say Christ came to earth that man might be saved; now must I—for my greater experience there—go into hell to bring them back??”

“I would be martyred. I would be sainted; and you know I do not deserve such honor. And it is no honor, for it is not them that are wise, not them that are good, not them that are noble that choose our saints for us, but it is them without understanding, them without love, them without honor that sling their rocks and arrows.”

He said, “Serpentfoot, your forebears defied both church and king that this people might have self government. But now the false need, the false god, who cannot teach self control but teaches the obedience training of dogs and slaves, and cannot teach morality but demands government enforce 'morality', which forever builds to a police state, and to such tyranny as your forbears fled. Did those brave die in vain?”

“And are you in this battle with me, like a true wife, mother, and daughter; or are you just some whore like these others looking only for 'Good Times'?”

I said, “For better or for worse, for 'Heaven' or 'Hell', into that valley of the shadow, I will go.”