To the “Christians” by Francis W. L. Adams. Upton Sinclair, ed. 1915. The Cry for Justice

Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

To the “Christians”

By Francis W. L. Adams

(English poet and rebel, 1862–1893; his life, a brief struggle with poverty and disease, was ended by his own hand)


TAKE, then, your paltry Christ,
Your gentleman God.
We want the carpenter’s son,
With his saw and hod.

We want the man who loved	5
The poor and the oppressed,
Who hated the Rich man and King
And the Scribe and the Priest.

We want the Galilean
Who knew cross and rod.	10
It’s your “good taste” that prefers
A bastard “God!”