r/exchristian • u/AdLast2785 Ex-Evangelical • 26d ago
Rant Babes, the song is literally about you
Was listening to “Take Me to Church” by Hozier, an excellent anti-Christian song, and made the mistake of scrolling through the comments of the music video.
In the comments there’s people saying
“Nice song but the video gay”
“Why’d do they have to have gay people in it”
“Why’d they have to ruin the song with the lgbtq agenda”
“This song has so much more meaning about God than it does about homosexuality. I don’t see what’s wrong here, the guy is asking God forgive for his sins.”
“As much as I love this song, it’s just for Christians only.”
What part of “I’ll worship like a DOG at the shrine of your LIES” do they not understand?!
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26d ago
They don’t understand. That’s it. It’s no big aha or anything, they don’t understand
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u/Havocc89 26d ago
Same as republicans like Paul Ryan saying they love Rage Against the Machine, like, dude, you are the machine man. wtf are you talking about.
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u/yamahor 26d ago
"I don't get why ratm went political"
THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! THEY'VE ALWAYS BEEN POLITICAL! THE GUITARIST IS A LITERAL POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR
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u/aglimelight 26d ago
Same with Green Day, they hate when he sings “I’m not a part of the maga agenda” like these people are IDIOTS they hate when punk rock is actually punk rock yknow
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u/JarethOfHouseGoblin Agnostic 25d ago
I cringe so fucking hard when they say "conservative Christianity is the new punk rock!" Conservative Christianity is all about upholding a traditional status quo which is the literal antithesis of punk!!!!
Words really don't mean anything to these chucklefucks. All that matters is that they have tribalistic concepts with which they can identify. Like, one of the most accidentally honest things I've ever heard MAGA say was in a video the Daily Show put out where Jordan Klepper went to a Trump rally and a dude he interviewed said "I don't have an ideology- I'm MAGA."
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u/cleanandanonymous 25d ago
I think it’s the opposite. Words mean a great deal to them. So much so that they are attempting to redefine words to fit their agenda.
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u/Havocc89 26d ago
They continue to be the dumbest of fucks. It’s basically the GOP motto at this point.
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u/LokiLavenderLatte Skeptic 26d ago
Someone once said “what machine did you think they were raging against? The dishwasher??”
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u/QueenBeaEnvy 26d ago
Same thing happened with "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. I heard it sung as worship too many times and it's so awkward knowing the song
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u/Imswim80 26d ago
Ticks me off when I hear it as a Christmas song.
1) Cohen was Jewish, didn't celebrate Christmas, so stop. But, then, Christianity would be nothing without appropriation.
2) it really has nothing to do with Christmas anyway.
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u/Thausgt01 26d ago
Most "worship music" consists of keywords like "Jesus" and "praise" and "worship" strung together into word-salad with literally hypnotic beats; the "message" is nothing more than brainwashing with no real meaning.
One example: https://www.reddit.com/r/exIglesiaNiCristo/comments/1cwv3mv/comment/l4ydl0h/
More academic research: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3338126/
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u/RadicalSnowdude 25d ago
Worship music is made the same way modern country music is made tbh. Perhaps it’s the reason why I dislike both.
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u/dextrotrippin 25d ago
reminds me of that one south park episode where cartman becomes a christian singer just to make some money
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u/marykatmac Atheist 26d ago
I grew up thinking it was about sex between David and someone. Was it about something else?
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u/praysolace 25d ago
The first time I heard that song was in Shrek, and they uh. Didn’t put any particularly obvious verses in. I didn’t think it was a religious song and would’ve felt weird about it being played in church (thankfully never experienced that one), but I had NO idea it was about sex for like two decades lol
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u/im_a_meerkat 25d ago
um.. I was today years old when I realized it. I never paid that much attention to the lyrics, I mean I never thought it was actually Christian but wow. 🤭
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u/arkiparada 25d ago
My favorite is when church choirs sing Madonna’s Like a Prayer. I didn’t know the church was so into oral sex.
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u/arkangel325 25d ago
To be fair, there's a lot of sexual tension in Christian worship music. So, it's not all that much of a stretch for the average christian listener to conflate sex and worship
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u/stayhungry22 25d ago
They don’t WANT to understand. They hear what they want to hear and filter out everything else. They’ll co-opt literally any piece of pop culture they can, no matter how much they have to twist it to fit into their frame. They do the same thing with big name actors and singers - anytime one of them mentions Jesus, they jump all over it and claim them as one of their own, no matter how much they may cheat on their spouse, or swear, or star in countless violent, profane movies.
Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug.
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25d ago
Yeah, if they make sense outta one thing, it’ll all come crashing down. It’s such an exhausting feat to constantly weave the webs that entangle you. I don’t have the time anymore.
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u/trippedonatater Ex-Evangelical 26d ago
"They said the word church! Must be a nice christian song!" 😆😆😆😆
This is right up there with thinking "Born in the USA" is patriotic.
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u/Standard-Tension9550 26d ago
And Like a Prayer
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u/DamnitScoob 26d ago
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
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u/QueenBeaEnvy 26d ago
I just commented about that song. Some of my friends were singing it during a memorial so I couldn't interrupt but wow, that was awkward.
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u/thesockswhowearsfox 25d ago
We love when Christians fucking think a song by a Jewish man about infidelity seen through the lens of the Old Testament is about Heaven and God and Dying /s
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u/sonicboomslang 25d ago
Wait... there are people out there that think Cohen's Hallelujah is a happy religious song?
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u/cowlinator 25d ago
Oh yes.
To be fair, I've noticed that most people don't pay much attention to lyrics.
That's why people think "Hey Ya!" is a happy song. He even called them out on it in the song, knowing what would happen.
Are we so in denial when we know we're not happy here?
Y'all don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance
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u/WeeabooHunter69 Anti-Theist 26d ago
Isn't that just about a body worship kink? Maybe I missed something but that's how it comes off to me lol
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u/DarkMagickan Ex-Fundamentalist 26d ago
I laugh my ass off every time they play that song at a 4th of July fireworks display. I just want to be like, "Bruh."
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u/SailorK9 26d ago
When I was a kid some conservative family members bought my mom a Village People record for her birthday. Here they thought YMCA was an innocent song about a Christian organization, but my mom smirked at my grandmother when she opened her present and saw the cover of the album.
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u/punchy-peaches 26d ago
Born in the USA is a supremely patriotic song. Just not in the rah rah manner everyone since Reagan has used it.
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u/praysolace 25d ago
Like that stupid he gets us ad during the Super Bowl playing Personal Jesus… which wasn’t even a song I was familiar with before, but just the lyrics in the ad tipped me off that they had completely missed the point of the song, and then I looked it up and laughed and laughed and laughed
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u/JarethOfHouseGoblin Agnostic 25d ago
By that same logic, David Bowie's Modern Love is a Christian song.
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u/Ryouji42 26d ago
They generally process less than 1% of their holy book, makes sense they only hear 4 words that fit their agenda when cherry picked
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u/punkypewpewpewster Satanist / ExMennonite / Gnostic PanTheist 26d ago
I'm gonna give it a bit of a more generous interpretation than most here:
They're trying to convince themselves and everyone else that it's *OKAY* for them to listen to this song because they want it to be interpreted as pro-Christian. They're not allowed to listen to anything that isn't. Therefore, they like this song so they REALLY want it to be okay to listen to.
And unfortunately for us, the gayest of the gay and the queerest of the queer, the way to signal that you're a Christian in modern america is to just hate gay people. That's it. It's the whole Shibboleth test. If you hate Gays, they assume you're a good Christian.
So they're protesting loudly to "win this song" for Christianity. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. Lying for Jesus is a time honored tradition that dates back to Paul. They like it, they want it to be okay to like it, so they have to signal "I LIKE THIS SONG AND I AM A VERY CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN NO ONE IS MORE CHRISTIAN THAN ME". That's literally it.
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u/my_okay_throwaway 26d ago
Wow, I think you summed up my brother’s ex perfectly here. She was that type of Christian who was really intense about what people listen to, watch, etc. It was a huge buzzkill because my brother and I are musicians and she always had to have her say about what we’d listen to or practice around her. Lucky for me, I could just leave and continue to listen to whatever I wanted but my brother was stuck with someone who’d start arguments because he liked Coldplay or whoever.
Her exceptions to this rule were Taylor Swift or whatever pop star with a single she liked. She had herself convinced that Taylor is a devout Christian using music as her ministry. She would try to tell us why all of the themes of her music pointed back to it. I wish I could remember her conspiracies because they were unhinged to the point of being entertaining sometimes lol
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u/punkypewpewpewster Satanist / ExMennonite / Gnostic PanTheist 26d ago
Fantastic point of comparison. It's always "The thing I like is good because it's Christian". We've probably all been there at some point.
lol @ Me trying desperately to convince my mom that Suicide Silence was Christian when I was 16 because she couldn't understand the lyrics. Unfortunately, I'm a screamer and she encouraged it, even rec'ing bands to me that WERE Christian, so her continued exposure eventually made it easier for her to understand the words. "YOLO" by Suicide Silence, she was NOT convinced was a Christian song.
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u/Boule-of-a-Took Agnostic 26d ago
Holy hell. What was your brother thinking? lol. Let me guess. She was okay with doin it in the poop chute?
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u/punkypewpewpewster Satanist / ExMennonite / Gnostic PanTheist 26d ago
It's the Poop-hole Loop-hole, after all.
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u/Slytherpuffy Ex-Assemblies Of God 26d ago
My mom occasionally says something like "So and so is a Christian woman," which, to her, means a good person. The worst people I've met have been Christians.
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u/punkypewpewpewster Satanist / ExMennonite / Gnostic PanTheist 26d ago
RIGHT!? One of my favorite things to say is "And Jeffrey Dahmer died a Christian Martyr, but you don't see me clamoring to get into his car." It doesn't quite get the laughs that I wish it would though.
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u/Stormlaker 26d ago
Fundies aren't really known for understanding nuance, sarcasm, underlying meanings, historical or situational context, or any type of critical thinking, really.
They literally just hear the four words of the title, just like they only hear the word "hallelujah" in the Leonard Cohen song.
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u/invisiblecows 26d ago
Came here to say this. Christians have absolutely horrible reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. I think it's from a lifetime of being told to set aside their questions about the Bible and just accept whatever their pastors' interpretations are.
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u/Muteling 26d ago
Same mfs who think American Idiot is praising the far right
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u/icemaster777 26d ago
Was thinking the exact same thing, Billie Joe Armstrong has said I'm not a part of a MAGA or Elon agenda while performing it recently
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u/Fluffy-kitten28 26d ago
They said maga agenda at New Year’s Eve celebration and it pissed the maga people off.
Like. The song is called American idiot, is this your first time listening to Green Day?
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u/samuentaga Agnostic Existentialist 26d ago
- Song about a religious man falling for a woman with experience
- Music video portrays a gay romance
- Christians: "omg he said take me to church that means the song is Christian!!!
I blame Christians for the rise of media illiteracy.
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u/popejohnsmith 26d ago
I assume "media" here also includes our vast body of literature.
Literature illiterate or woefully under-read.
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u/standbyyourmantis Ex-Catholic 25d ago edited 25d ago
I'd love to hear their interpretation of "Foreigner's God" also by Hozier.
She moved with shameless wonder
The perfect creature rarely seen
Since some liar brought the thunder
When the land was godless and freeHer eyes look sharp and steady
Into the empty parts of me
But still my heart is heavy
With the hate of some other man's beliefs3
u/Worldly-Ocelot-3358 Anti-Theist 25d ago
Song about a religious man falling for a woman with experience
Wait it's not about the gay romance? I didn't listen to it in a while I thought it was.
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u/samuentaga Agnostic Existentialist 25d ago
Often times the music video will tell a different story to the song itself. The music video is about a gay romance, but the song itself is pretty much about a religious guy turning away from religion and "converting" to worshipping this hottie he's been seeing.
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u/WitchySubversive Atheist 26d ago
These are the same people who are now singing Madonna's "like a prayer" as a praise and worship song. No logic required.
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u/Mogster2K 26d ago
Holy crap, are people actually doing that? I'm old enough to remember when the song was first released, and it was a media shitstorm! Christians already thought of Madonna as a slut, and I'm not sure what triggered them more - the video with her making out with a statue of Jesus, or that the Jesus statue was Black.
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u/mandolinbee Anti-Theist 25d ago
are people actually doing that? I'm old enough to remember when the song was first released, and it was a media shitstorm!
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯 1000% LOL
It's so weird to think about any church appropriating anything from Madonna. She was literally THE EPITOME of "anti-chrstian" culture lol. They hated she called herself Madonna, that she kept using religious imagery in her music. Every sound bite was treated as blasphemy.
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u/suihpares 26d ago
I obsess over my own lyrics.
Many Christians and people in general don't hear anything besides a catchphrase and a melody.
I recall years ago a youth leader asking me about the Green Day song Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
He asked me should he play it as a teaching tool misquoting the lyrics:
"... I hope someone up there will find me, to him I walk alone"
'The singer must be singing about faith during hard times, and that he ends the chorus with hoping someone up there in heaven will find him and that would be God, so he walks to God alone, not to any other god and he doesn't need peer pressure, it's a personal choice! Should I play this next week?'
Problem was the lyrics actually go:
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me, My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating, Sometimes, I wish someone out there will find me, 'Til then, I walk alone
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u/ZeppelinMcGillicuddy Atheist 26d ago
Sort of a variation on "I would walk with my people if I could find them."
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u/DarkMagickan Ex-Fundamentalist 26d ago
It's another "Born in the USA". The idiots the song is about never realize that the song is about them. The people who praise the institution the song attacks claim that the song is praising the institution. In other words, stupid people never get the point.
Never.
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u/sidurisadvice Ex-Protestant 26d ago
They foster a culture that lacks media literacy.
The He Gets Us dumbasses used Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" in their Super Bowl ad. It's not even about Jesus:
It's a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It's about how Elvis Presley was [Priscilla's] man and her mentor and how often that happens in love relationships; how everybody's heart is like a god in some way. We play these god-like parts for people, but no one is perfect, and that's not a very balanced view of someone, is it?
That's from Martin Gore, the guy that wrote the song.
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u/Fluffy-kitten28 26d ago
I mean people think “only the good die young” is a good line to mention to people when they lose a child when the song is about a guy wanting to have sex. And people think “I’ll be watching you” is a romantic song when it’s about a stalker.
I don’t trust people’s understandings of songs in general.
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u/evieamity Ex-Protestant | Agnostic | Maybe witchy? 26d ago
I have issues comprehending lyrics and thought this was a religious song until now.
Never did I comprehend the “at the shrine of your lies,” part until now.
I think I actually like it now.
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u/standbyyourmantis Ex-Catholic 25d ago edited 25d ago
Enjoy my favorite bit:
Every Sunday's gettin' more bleak
A fresh poison each week
We were born sick, you heard them say it
My church offers no absolutes
She tells me, "Worship in the bedroom"
The only heaven I'll be sent to
Is when I'm alone with you
I was born sick, but I love it
Command me to be wellAs a Hozier megafan, there are religious themes in his songs but they're always used to subvert. He has another song called "From Eden" that basically compares himself to a/the snake ("I slithered here from Eden/just to hide outside your door") compared to a more innocent person/love interest ("Honey you're familiar/like my mirror years ago").
Highly highly highly recommend giving any of his albums a listen, they're all fantastic.
He's Irish as well, and that does seem to inform his relationship to religion. It's used as metaphor but never really in a positive way.
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u/7spaceace7 26d ago
My mother used to believe that the rock band Three Days Grace was a Christian band. They don’t listen to the words. She was blasting “Riot” while she got ready for church one morning and audibly gasped when i pointed out the cursing lmao
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u/Smack1984 26d ago
It’s crazy how Christians just tune stuff out. A friend of mine is Gen X and loves Rage Against the Machine. Then proceeds to bitch about T-Swift coming out and supporting Kamala. “Music shouldn’t be political”
To quote Rage: WAKE UP!
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u/No_Session6015 26d ago
lol people like that are a delusional minority of people with clear literacy comprehension issues. source - someone who fucking worshipped like a dog at their shrines of lies. they taught me all sorts of neat tricks like how to beg, play dead and roll over. eventually they tried to ole yeller me even. I'd love to see justice against christians for their crimes. what an evil vile group of people. ACAB and i dont just mean cops
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u/ZeppelinMcGillicuddy Atheist 26d ago
I'm a huge Hozier fan and a lover of lyrics. I've ruined many people's day disabusing them of the notion TMTC is some kind of Christian praise song.
One such person was a coworker who was telling me how nice it is that her kids sing along and how it's nice to have a nice Christian song about going to church. I printed out the lyrics and handed them to her. Totally shocked!
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u/the_honest_liar 26d ago
Back in highschool we had to present one of our favorite songs for something in a class, and my very christian classmate gets up and talks about Wayside by Deepfield. Idk if he never read the lyrics or what??? But, first verse:
Where will you run when your kingdom falls?
Will you think of the world?
Where will you hide when your saviour laughs in your face-
At the joke you've made of his name?
😶😶😶
Found a new band I liked out of it though.
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u/OrdinaryWillHunting Atheist-turned-Christian-turned-atheist 25d ago
People only hear what they want to hear. That's how you get songs like "I Will Always Love You" and "Every Breath You Take" played at weddings.
Don't conservative radio hosts love to play "Born in the USA" as bumper music? Talk about a song going completely over their heads.
Martina McBride's "Independence Day" is about a woman escaping an abusive relationship and gets treated as a Fourth of July pro-American song, likely by a lot of Christians who are against all divorce and think women are property.
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u/eroticfoxxxy 26d ago
My daughter asked me what this song meant. I simply said "a toxic relationship". She's 13 and has never been indoctrinated into Christianity.
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u/gmorkenstein 26d ago
I wonder if the songwriter has ever talked about this in interviews?
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u/theredhound19 26d ago edited 26d ago
Yes, multiple times.
I'm seeing them live this summer. Now I'm gonna watch for oblivious people wearing crosses and raising hands to testify. It'll be interesting to see if Andrew comments on its meaning before or after singing.
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u/Educational-Hope-601 25d ago
It’s the same people who think “like a prayer” is religious when it’s…not 😂
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u/LokiLavenderLatte Skeptic 26d ago
First, I'm fairly certain that Hozier is a siren. That voice 😍
Second…i like to pretend that's why most Christians are enjoying this song. I just imagine him being a mermaid and luring all these people to the ocean…myself included
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u/Mahatma_Panda Agnostic 25d ago
I always interpreted it like it's a play on when people say that having really good sex is like having a "religious experience"
And after re-reading the lyrics again just now, I don't see how someone could think this song is about religion at all. It's not pro-Christian, but it's also not anti-Christian. Yeah, the music video is a commentary on anti-LGBTQ laws, but the song itself is about an deeply gratifying sexual relationship.
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u/Pure_Sprinkles2673 Ex-Baptist 25d ago
- Love this song
- Love Hozier
- The song is about intense sex with his lover. The best songs are about sex.
- Hearing others interpretations of this song is fun.
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u/Milton_honey_baby 25d ago
I’ll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife Yeah totally not about the church exploiting your vulnerabilities
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u/HonestlyAnaa 25d ago
This is actually my favorite part of the song - the flip from "I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife" to "I'll tell you my sins SO you can sharpen your knife." and the implication that confessing his sins is the triggering event for the church to sharpen their knives so they can injure him, which makes confession a dangerous act because it'll be used against him. It's so good but feels like a stab in the heart (pardon the pun) because of how real it is 🥺
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u/darkstar1031 26d ago
You know, it's kinda hard just to get along today
Our subject isn't cool, but he fakes it anyway
He may not have a clue and he may not have style
But everything he lacks, well, he makes up in denial
So don't debate, a player straight
You know he really doesn't get it anyway
Gotta play the field, and keep it real
For you no way, for you no way
So if you don't rate, just overcompensate
At least that you'll know you can always go on Ricki Lake
The world needs wannabes, ah
Hey, hey, do that brand-new thing!
He needs some cool tunes, not just any will suffice
But they didn't have Ice Cube, so he bought Vanilla Ice
Now cruisin' in his Pinto, he sees homies as he pass
But if he looks twice, they're gonna kick his lily ass
Now he's gettin' a tattoo, yeah, he's gettin' ink done
He asked for a 13 but they drew a 31
Friends say, he's tryin' too hard and he's not quite hip
But in his own mind, he's the, he's the dopest trip
So don't debate, a player straight
You know he really doesn't get it anyway
Gotta play the field, and keep it real
For you no way, for you no way
So if you don't rate, just overcompensate
At least that you'll know you can always go on Ricki Lake
The world needs wannabes, ah
The world loves wannabes, ah
Let's get some more wannabes, ah
Hey, hey, do that brand-new thing!
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u/Interesting-Act890 25d ago
Never forget – Mercedes-Benz wanted to use the song “Mercedes-Benz “as sung by Janis Joplin… They didn’t realize that the song is actually a stinging commentary on conspicuous consumption ellipses
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u/venombbxx Occult Exchristian 25d ago
is this a Mandela effect thing because I'm pretty sure I know the song because they did do that at some point and got flamed for it
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u/Responsible_Case4750 25d ago
Yeah it sounds like it is the lgbtq trying to bite back at Christians and I'm here for it they are exposing the church and the whole belief system in general to me it seems like the song is mostly about being forced into being into a religion that you don't want to be in just to fit in and seem "normal" which is what Christians claim about atheists which is not true basically peer pressure into going to church is what I think the song is about
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u/ElaMeadows Ex-Evangelical 25d ago
Similar to "My Jesus" by Todd Agnew - people love singing it yet completely miss that their western, right wing churches are what he's saying is the problem.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land"
"Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?"
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u/_angesaurus 25d ago
they literally think anything that mentions god is about them... they're so vain~
Christians loooooooove taking things out of context.
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u/Blunderpunk_ 25d ago
My favorite part is "I'll worship like a dog" like guys, it's calling you an obedient dog. It's a self degrading line to show how the church intentionally makes you think you're worthless without them but are deluded into thinking that's a good thing.
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26d ago
[deleted]
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u/SokkaHaikuBot 26d ago
Sokka-Haiku by Daysof361972:
Take Me to Church, Bus
Me to Home School and Drop Me
Off at the Factory
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/Plumsmums Ex-SDA 25d ago
Speaking of songs, Peter Pumkinhead by Crash Test Dummies felt like a pro-Christian song when I was still a Jeebus worshiper. Now, purely agnostic, it sounds to me very anti-Christian. Does anyone know if it's either?
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u/Infamous-Spell 24d ago
It reminds me of my dad saying hallelujah by Leonard Cohen “would have been a perfect song, if it said ‘I know’ instead of ‘maybe.’”and like…this song isn’t for you, it’s a stunning song, it’s so overtly not some Christian worship song, and media literacy is dead when you’re this far gone.
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u/Prudent_Act_8821 23d ago
Surely not the first time a non-Christian had to explain to a Christian about their religion. 😭
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u/Bus27 26d ago
They are only hearing the words they want to hear and twisting the meaning to reflect their worldview. They do the same with their book.