New memoir A God Awful God arrives December 8, 2026. Read the opening scene free

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Holiness and Baloneyness and Gatekeepers

You can only keep the gates locked until the key shows up. 

Gatekeepers scurried and hurried to strengthen their grip on the little sinking ship.

“Tighten the rules and silence those fools who dare to refuse the mandate of silence!”

As chains tightened and loopholes became less loopy, things became incredibly kooky.

Holiness turned into balonyness, which produced a coronary stoniness, bordering on felonious. 

“Called unto holiness” turned into “stalled in our holiness” and yet the ordained Titanic band played on. 

Gatekeepers kept gating while waiting for voices to be voiceless. 

Pious Dopes in their tower wielded their power, forcing the faithful to undergo trials. 

But you can only keep the gates locked until the key shows up.

Some how and some way the dove, of love swung low, like a sweet chariot. 

Can you hear the distant melody of love, calling from some where over the alphabet rainbow?

Gates, chains and locks will never trump love because love is THE key. 

It flings open the gates of rejection. 

It sets the prisoners free. 

It invites all to the table. 

It topples those in their towers. 

And it turns balonyness back into holiness.

You can’t keep the gates locked because the key of love HAS shown up. 

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Randall Hartman was a pastor for nearly forty years. He writes about faith, fear, and finding a God worth trusting. More about Randall