A.Joseph
Puritan Board Senior
I think this is unfortunately a common critical (albeit immensely oversimplified) view of God & Christianity .....
americansongwriter.com
What do you think your most rewarding moment has been so far as a songwriter?
There’s a couple things that I’ve written about that are things I think about. One of them is on my last solo record. It’s called “The God You Serve.” I feel like I said what I was trying to say, and I feel good about that. The song basically is dealing with the paradox between people’s view of God as this loving father who’s like Santa Claus and then also the idea of eternal damnation in hell, and how people are able to live with those two parallel ideas and be happy with that version of God in their head. I’ve seen a lot it, and it frustrates me because people build their lives based around this version of a deity. If you write down all the characteristics of certain people’s version of God on a piece of paper, like you would in a movie – this person’s strong points are this, this person loves doing this, his weaknesses are this – there’s sort of a thing that goes along with a character board for all characters in movies. If you took those characteristics that a lot of people have of God, it’s like somebody I woudln’t even want my sister to date. It just like a petty, vengeful, kind of two-sided person who is untrustworthy. That’s something that a lot of people are just afraid to look at, because they’re just afraid. And anyways, this is a long story. Basically, in thinking about that over the years, I wrote this song, “The God You Serve,” and it’s on my last record, and I had a lot of people come up to me after shows and say that they really got something out of that song and it said something they were thinking themselves. And I had a Muslim girl come up to me and say that she knew it was written from the point of view of looking at a traditional Christian-American God, but that she totally got something out of it too. So that’s one instance where it felt good. It felt like I was communicating what I wanted to communicate, and people were getting it. That’s another reason why I’m prone to being more and more clear and less cryptic with my songs, because I really like when people know what I’m talking about. It’s all about connection. That’s one instance where I feel good about it.
Lyrics:
Some of us die before we're born
And some will live too long.
Some of us are given a life of chances
And some not even one.
Some go in the blink of an eye
And never feel an ounce of pain,
But some of us are pulled slow and steady
Through a lifetime of rain.
And you say he's fair
And wants everybody there
But Heaven won't be home for us all.
If you say that there
Are souls he won't prepare,
The god you serve dropped the ball.
And now you're telling everybody about the only one
Who will never leave your side,
About unconditional love and eternal life.
You say, "Come as you are down to the altar.
His arms are open wide.
But the time is now, because the deal is off
If you don't before you die."
And you say he's fair
And wants everybody there
But Heaven won't be home for us all.
If you say that there
Are souls he won't prepare,
The god you serve dropped the ball.
No one chooses a lake of fire
Over streets of gold.
They just choose to not believe
You who told them so.
Now, there's a man upstairs who will forgive you.
In hopes that you might learn
Forgiveness of your enemies who he'll
Forever burn.
And you say he's fair
And wants everybody there
But Heaven won't be home for us all.
If you say that there
Are souls he won't prepare,
The god you serve dropped the ball.
Sean Watkins
We chat with the multi-instrumentalist about Gillian Welch, learning to write and how to find inspiration. More
americansongwriter.com
There’s a couple things that I’ve written about that are things I think about. One of them is on my last solo record. It’s called “The God You Serve.” I feel like I said what I was trying to say, and I feel good about that. The song basically is dealing with the paradox between people’s view of God as this loving father who’s like Santa Claus and then also the idea of eternal damnation in hell, and how people are able to live with those two parallel ideas and be happy with that version of God in their head. I’ve seen a lot it, and it frustrates me because people build their lives based around this version of a deity. If you write down all the characteristics of certain people’s version of God on a piece of paper, like you would in a movie – this person’s strong points are this, this person loves doing this, his weaknesses are this – there’s sort of a thing that goes along with a character board for all characters in movies. If you took those characteristics that a lot of people have of God, it’s like somebody I woudln’t even want my sister to date. It just like a petty, vengeful, kind of two-sided person who is untrustworthy. That’s something that a lot of people are just afraid to look at, because they’re just afraid. And anyways, this is a long story. Basically, in thinking about that over the years, I wrote this song, “The God You Serve,” and it’s on my last record, and I had a lot of people come up to me after shows and say that they really got something out of that song and it said something they were thinking themselves. And I had a Muslim girl come up to me and say that she knew it was written from the point of view of looking at a traditional Christian-American God, but that she totally got something out of it too. So that’s one instance where it felt good. It felt like I was communicating what I wanted to communicate, and people were getting it. That’s another reason why I’m prone to being more and more clear and less cryptic with my songs, because I really like when people know what I’m talking about. It’s all about connection. That’s one instance where I feel good about it.
Lyrics:
Some of us die before we're born
And some will live too long.
Some of us are given a life of chances
And some not even one.
Some go in the blink of an eye
And never feel an ounce of pain,
But some of us are pulled slow and steady
Through a lifetime of rain.
And you say he's fair
And wants everybody there
But Heaven won't be home for us all.
If you say that there
Are souls he won't prepare,
The god you serve dropped the ball.
And now you're telling everybody about the only one
Who will never leave your side,
About unconditional love and eternal life.
You say, "Come as you are down to the altar.
His arms are open wide.
But the time is now, because the deal is off
If you don't before you die."
And you say he's fair
And wants everybody there
But Heaven won't be home for us all.
If you say that there
Are souls he won't prepare,
The god you serve dropped the ball.
No one chooses a lake of fire
Over streets of gold.
They just choose to not believe
You who told them so.
Now, there's a man upstairs who will forgive you.
In hopes that you might learn
Forgiveness of your enemies who he'll
Forever burn.
And you say he's fair
And wants everybody there
But Heaven won't be home for us all.
If you say that there
Are souls he won't prepare,
The god you serve dropped the ball.
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