Who Can Be Redeemed? Poem by Frank Bana

Who can be saved?
So many can be saved -
A rich man and his family,
They can be saved.

But who can be redeemed?
Only souls enslaved.
Only those sold
Can be bought back again.

Those who purchase minds and souls
By sermon, fear or flattery
May not petition for redemption
Or ask how it will set them free.

Those who traded on South Africa
While Mandela worked in jail
Those who issued bonds of war
While Iraq's children died in flames

You who claim to be redeemers
While disowning fields you've sown -
The lands you've stolen, slaves you've owned -
Will pay in different currency
Than any you have yet controlled.

Until you've lived in servitude
To justice and its wondrous law
Until you are the slaves to truth
Redemption is not yours' to know.