Langston Hughes wrote "Goodbye, Christ" in 1931. It was published in a left-leaning publication called The Negro Worker in 1932.
Ten years later, on January 1, 1941, Hughes was scheduled to deliver a talk about Negro folk songs at the Pasadena Hotel. Members of Aimee Semple McPherson’s Temple of the Four Square Gospel picketed the hotel with a sound truck playing “God Bless America.” Likely they became aware of the poem because McPherson is mentioned in it.
The protestors passed out copies of Hughes’ poem, “Goodbye, Christ,” even though they had not secured permission to copy and distribute it. A few weeks later, The Saturday Evening Post, heretofore no friend to Black writers, also mentioned in the poem, also printed the poem without permission.
The poem had received little attention until these two events. But Hughes was criticized for his “revolutionary” writings and apparent sympathy for the Soviet form of government. On March 24, 1953, Hughes was called to testify before the Senate Committee on Government Operations.
What Does the Poem Reveal?
“Goodbye, Christ” is a dramatic monologue. The speaker is addressing Christ, telling him to leave because He is no longer wanted. In the first verse paragraph, the speaker explains to Christ that things are different now from the way they were back in Christ’s day; the speaker figures that back then Christ’s presence might have been appreciated, but now “[t]he popes and the preachers’ve / Made too much money from [your story].”
And that complaint is addressed in the poem that certain individuals and organizations have used the name of Christ to make money: “They've pawned you / Till you've done wore out.”
But the speaker makes it clear that it is not only Christianity that has been desecrated, but he also includes Hinduism when he tells Christ “please take Saint Gandhi with you when you go.” And it’s not only white people like McPherson, but also “big black Saint Becton,” a charlatan preacher Hughes mentions in his autobiography, The Big Sea.
Hughes is, in no way, repudiating Jesus Christ and true religion. He is, however, excoriating those whom he considers charlatans, who have profited only financially without highlighting the true meaning of Christ’s (or other religion’s) words.
Hughes on “Goodbye, Christ”
In Faith Berry’s Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Writing of Langston Hughes, Berry brings together for a large collection of writings for which Hughes did not seek wide publication. Some of his early left-leaning poems that appeared in obscure publications managed to circulate, and Hughes was labeled a Communist, which he always denied in his speeches.
About “Goodbye, Christ,” Hughes explains:
“Goodbye, Christ” does not represent my personal viewpoint. It was long ago withdrawn from circulation and has been reprinted recently without my knowledge or consent. ... I have never been a member of the Communist party. ... Would that Christ came back to save us all. We do not know how to save ourselves.
No doubt, Hughes did believe that the communist form of government would be more favorable to Blacks, but he surely became aware that his VIP treatment in Russia was a ruse, calculated to make Blacks think that communism was friendlier to Blacks.
In his Senate Testimony, March 24, 1953, he admits, ”I never read the theoretical books of socialism or communism or the Democratic or Republican parties for that matter, and so my interest in whatever may be considered political has been non-theoretical, non-sectarian, and largely emotional and born out of my own need to find some way of thinking about this whole problem of myself.”
So in “Goodbye, Christ,” the following verse paragraph probably defined the poet’s attitude at its emotional depths:
- Goodbye,
- Christ Jesus Lord God Jehova,
- Beat it on away from here now.
- Make way for a new guy with no religion at all—
- A real guy named
- Marx Communist Lenin Peasant Stalin Worker ME—
- I said, ME!
Although Hughes spent a year in Russia and came back to America writing glowing reports of the wonderful equalities enjoyed by all Russians, yet he did come back, and he did say, “’Goodbye, Christ’ does not represent my personal viewpoint’.”
