You Be The Judge, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

Jephthah went to battle
Against the Ammonites
Asked for God’s favor
Help him win the fight

He promised him
A burnt offering
That of anything
First to be entering

His doorway.

Then it came to be
He found victory
It was his virgin daughter
To first make entry

He told Mizpeh
The promise he had made
He had to sacrifice her
For the reward he had been paid

Out to the mountain tops
Two months for to bewail
It was all about her virginity
This story does so tell

Would this logic work
If it wasn’t in that holy book
Would it be ok
If the Soldiers of D-Day

Said:
“God help me
Beat the Germans
The nasty Arians
And when I get back
And my daughter
Walks through the door
Fire the virgin for sure”?

This isn’t God’s enemy
This is his loyalist
A man with faith
A man with trust

I like what Christopher Hitchens said
About Isaac and Abraham
He wouldn’t give a damn
If you asked him to do such a deed

His answer would be emphatic
Resounding with no static
To ask for something barbaric
Would be immoral and sick

Would you collect kindle
For Katherine, Kaylee, or Carol?
Would you murder your child
If God requested such bile?

I hope not, I hope
You have better morals
Than the this character
Who asks you to kill your child.
(end)

This poem is based on the bible verse Judges 11:30-39.