Goodbye+Christ

Goodbye Christ Samantha Slagoski

1 Listen, Christ, 2 You did alright in your day, I reckon- 3 But that day’s gone now. 4 They ghosted you up a swell story, too, 5 Called it Bible- 6 But it’s dead now, 7 The popes and the preachers’ve 8 Made too much money from it. 9 They’ve sold you to too many

10 Kings, generals, robbers, and killers- 11 Even to the Tzar and the Cossacks, 12 Even to Rockefeller’s Church, 13 Even to THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. 14 You ain’t no good no more. 15 They’ve pawned you 16 Till you’ve done wore out.

17 Goodbye, 18 Christ Jesus Lord God Jehova, 19 Beat it on away from here now. 20 Make way for a new guy with no religion at all- 21 A real guy named 22 Marx Communist Lenin Peasant Stalin Worker ME- 23 I said, ME!

24 Go ahead on now, 25 You’re getting in the way of things, Lord. 26 And please take Saint Gandhi with you when you go, 27 And Saint Pope Pius, 28 And Saint Aimee McPherson, 29 And big black Saint Becton 30 Of the Consecrated Dime. 31 And step on the gas, Christ! 32 Move!

33 Don’t be so slow about movin! 34 The world is mine from now on- 35 And nobody’s gonna sell ME 36 To a king, or a general, 37 Or a millionaire.

**Author** Langston Hughes

** Time and circumstances of publication ** Written in 1931, published in 1932 in //The Negro Worker.//

** Context ** Hughes turned to the political left and began to be interested in socialism which heavily influenced his poems //Goodbye Christ// and //Good Morning Revolution//.

** How does the poem fit within the author’s body of work? ** Hughes started his poetry strongly influenced by jazz and the Harlem Renaissance shown in the poem //The Weary Blues//, written in 1930, and followed by //Afro-American Fragment//. //Goodbye Christ// is a change in the type of work Hughes wrote and is influenced by socialism and his new political orientation from visiting Russia.

** Type of poem ** //Goodbye Christ// is a dramatic monologue.

** Synopsis of the poem ** In the poem, the speaker is addressing Christ and telling him to leave because he is no longer wanted. The first verse has the speaker explaining to Christ that things are different than they were back in Christ’s day and that “the popes and preachers’ve made too much money from [the Bible].” (7-8) Hughes addresses individuals and organizations that have used the name of Christ for profit. The speaker makes it clear that Christianity is not the only religion that has been corrupted, but also includes Hinduism when he tells Christ to “please take Saint Gandhi with you when you go”. (26) He refers to McPherson, Saint Becton, and Pope Pius as well. The poem does not reject Jesus Christ and true religion, but does reject those who use Christ and religion for corrupt purposes.

** Theme of the poem ** Hughes writes the poem in free verse and uses colloquial language to show that the speaker, as he claims, is a worker or “peasant” (22). The use of diction helps make the poem seem informal and more like an average person is speaking to Christ. There are five stanzas; the first addresses Christ and the theme of the corruption of religion. The second mentions places and organizations that have used religion. The third reveals who the speaker is—a worker, a communist peasant who is tired of the exploitation. The next stanza refers to specific people who have used religion for greedy purposes. The final stanza is the shortest and ends in the speaker’s resolve that he will not be exploited like religion. The word “me” is capitalized three times in the poem to emphasize the speaker and also gives the tone an angry or frustrated feel.

** Imagery ** The poem uses imagery to reveal the nature of those who exploit religion. The speaker says that those people have “pawned [Christ] until [he’s] done wore out”. (16) The word “pawn” immediately brings up the image of a corrupt person borrowing money in exchange for their personal property, and seems to fit more than “selling” would have. Imagery is also used to illustrate the state that religion has taken. The speaker says “step on the gas, Christ! Move! Don’t be so slow about movin’!” (33) This illustrates the stagnant way that religion has been used for centuries by corrupt people; like any slow driver, the people behind want them to move out of the way to let traffic by and create progress. The people have “ghosted [Christ] up a swell story” (4) and “called it Bible—but it’s dead now”. (5-6)

** Tone ** The tone is emotional and frustrated. The relatively short lines show how the speaker is eager to let religion step aside because “the world is [the speaker’s] from now on”. (34)

** Allusions **

**The Saturday Evening Post**- Hughes was upset with //The Saturday Evening Post// because the editors would not publish works by African-American authors. The //POST// retaliated to Hughes’ negative reference by publishing “Goodbye Christ” without Hughes permission in its Dec. 21, 1940 issue.

**Pope Pius**- Supporter of Franco’s anti-union fascist government during the Spanish Civil War. During his 39-year regime, Franco destroyed every aspect of workers’ organizations, imprisoning, torturing, and executing hundreds of thousands of labor activists and supporters.

**Aimee McPherson**- Evangelist, founder, and head of the Church of the Four-Square Gospel, a 5,300-seat church in Echo Park, California. Hughes was scheduled to deliver a talk about Negro folk songs at the Pasadena Hotel. Members of McPherson’s Temple of the Four Square Gospel picketed the hotel with a sound truck playing “God Bless America.”

**Saint Becton**- George Wilson Becton was leader of the Harlem-based sect called The World’s Gospel Feast. He lived in an extravagant apartment, wore fine clothes, and bought real estate. When asked about the wealth, he said “If Jesus were alive, he would dress like me”. Becton is criticized as a charlatan in Hughes’ autobiography //The Big Sea// in which he said, “Dr. Becton was a charlatan if there ever was one, but he filled the huge church—because he gave a good show”.

**Gandhi**- Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement.

**Consecrated Dime**- Every member of Becton’s congregation was to put a dime a day into an envelope and on Sunday Becton would collect the envelopes, each containing seventy cents. Then he would consecrate the dimes to God during the service but put them in his pocket afterward.

The poem shows that religion in a pure form is not bad, but that people take it and use it to gain profit, and thus corrupts religion itself. Some of Hughes’ early left-leaning poems that appeared in publications managed to travel and Hughes was labeled a Communist, which he always denied. Even today the use of religion for crooked motives is prevalent and people still are frustrated with the way it is used to turn a profit.

[|Bible Answers]