Universalism Rap

I was, a few months ago, carpet bombed by the muse. I don't read music, I don't play an instrument, and essentially sing only in groups. I rarely write any sort of poetry. So finding myself suddenly with what was clearly song and... rap... was more than unexpected.

Worse, it demanded it be presented. And now it has been; sung as part of a sermon, sung to a camp, and shared in print with classmates.

So now I'm unleashing it. Feel free to rap it yourself, however the spirit moves you. I just ask that if you use it in a service or such--or reprint it--that you keep my name associated with it.

As I've performed it, the refrain's sung and the rest is a sort of spoken word rap.

Universalism Rap
© Patrick McLaughlin (with many thanks to Marcia Stanard for her assistance)

It's a crazy idea, in the end love wins
and God's looking forward to forgiving sins.
It's a crazy idea, being loved so well,
No one in the end gets damned to hell.

If you go back to the second century,
Origen preached to folks like you and me,
saying God doesn’t hate, God’s all about love,
and salvation happens when push comes to shove.

It says love is patient; love is kind.
We know that love is crazy and can be kind of blind.
It says love’s forgiving; it sure isn’t hate—
and even devils are forgiven when it gets real late.

It makes plain sense, said Hosea Ballou.
Eternal punishment, it just can’t be true!
So he wrote it and preached it in the 19^th C—
and made a whole lot of people just crazy.

It's a crazy idea, in the end love wins
and God's looking forward to forgiving sins.
It's a crazy idea, being loved so well,
No one in the end gets damned to hell.

He wasn’t alone; there was also John Murray,
whose tale reads like Job in the Bible story.
His family all died; he was jailed for debt—
so his country and his pulpit and his faith he fled.

His ship stuck off New Jersey, at Good Luck Point,
where he met a man – Potter – who owned a joint;
a church he’d built, for someone to come preaching
universal salvation (he knew about the teaching).

Murray was done, “I’ll be gone on the sea!”
Potter insisted, said there’d be no breeze.
“I know god sent you here this church to fill,”
and Murray preached, ‘cause on Sunday it was still.

It's a crazy idea, in the end love wins
and God's looking forward to forgiving sins.
It's a crazy idea, being loved so well,
No one in the end gets damned to hell.

Like Jesus planting mustard in the parable field,
this crazy idea that all souls get healed.
And most who preach it just get the sack—
but universal salvation keeps coming back.

It’s a gospel of inclusion that some teach.
Final reconciliation might be preached.
They’re just different words for God’s great scheme—
everyone’s included in that final dream.

It's a crazy idea, in the end love wins
and God's looking forward to forgiving sins.
It's a crazy idea, being loved so well,
No one in the end gets damned to hell.

So follow the logic when you teach God's love;
your hope isn't just in heaven above—
because heaven's on earth, wherever love's found
and everywhere we go is holy ground.
‘Cause truth's not held in just one place;
God's been talking to the whole human race.
There's not one truth, or just one way,
and there's not gonna be any judgment day.

Because heaven's on earth, wherever love's found,
and everywhere we go is holy ground.
Yes, heaven's on earth, wherever love's found
and everywhere we go is holy ground.

It's a crazy idea, in the end love wins
and God's looking forward to forgiving sins.
It's a crazy idea, being loved so well,
No one in the end gets damned to hell.

It's a crazy idea, being loved so well,
No one in the end gets damned to hell.

Nuh-uh. No hell. Amen.