...for the Bible tells me so

Yes, Jesus loves me, but do you?
I wonder that when I see older women clutching their Dooney & Burke purses
and ex-Klansmen turned conservative leaders spew their bigotry...?
I am curious to know if you love me the way Jesus does.
You know, giving to the poor
                  teaching the uneducated
                  never talking beneath my understanding
                  forgiving me when I mess up
                  keeping your snide comments to yourself
                  feeding the hungry
                  et cetera, et cetera.

I was humming the children's choral classic earlier this morning after I read the paper.
I inquired to myself, "Does Jesus love me because the Bible says so, or because He really does?"
All of those years in Aunt Liz's Sunday School classes, and this is my question?
Nearly twenty-four years after accepting Christ as my personal savior
listening to loads of ministerial malarkey misdirected to the masses
while wistfully reading other passages in my own Bible
I am still blindly reciting "for the Bible tells me so?"
I am sorta Pharisee - I grew up in Baptist doctrine:
                    Communion on First Sunday
                    no drinking nor wildly provocative dancing
                    please don't swear
                    watch the reverend whoop and holler and do cartwheels as his so-called asthma consumes the                            cordless microphone he preaches from
                    (sounds more like emphysema; may just wanna quit smoking)
                    back to back offerings
                    "we got a special 'nouncement to make: de cemetery need mowin'. All mens come out Surt'dee                          at eight a' clock wit mowers."
and when the invitation to discipleship comes, everyone either flails around
or gets that sick "You're going to hell, boy!" look on his face.
Let's not forget to support the Democrat for elected office
because Kennedy and Clinton were ones
although the next time we'll see this feller will be in four years.
Repeat cycle.
For the Bible tells me so?
Give me a break!
Jesus wasn't a politician, for starters.

I listened to some nut hope failure upon the President.
Did the Bible tell me that Barack Obama will be a colossal failure?
Didn't think so.
It doesn't say specifically that George W. Bush was a spectacular fraud, either.
I also heard folks says fornication is wrong because the Bible tells me so,
 but what about cohabitation?
I can hear it now: They shackin' up, ain't that a shame.
                            Dat boy should know better.
                            Can't she do right? Aw, she knocked up.
                            Oh well, pray tell dey stop livin' in sin.

After all of this, Jesus does love me
for the Bible tells me so.
(He loves too because He chose to)