This is the latest installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Song of Sacrilege is Jesus Was a Wino by Lydia Loveless.
Lyrics
Well, some days you wake up,
Life feels meaningless.
You don’t even have
the strength to get up and get dressed.
Then when you do,
you see your clothes are all torn to shreds.
And you can’t even afford to buy a needle and thread.
So you might go to church
to bow your head and pray
But that ain’t always enough to get it through the day
Sometimes you’ll feel bitter
You figure this priest is a mooch
And you might just take all of your tithes
to a bottle of hooch.
And if people knew, they would look down on you
Don’t they know that it’s true:
Jesus was a wino, too.
Plus, people may ask, “Why have your lips turned black?”
“Hey, what the hell is so funny, man?
Why have your eyes gone slack?”
They’re gonna feel high and mightier to you
And I can barely stand
I’ll just tell them I couldn’t turn down one more glass of the blood of the lamb
Because if people knew, they would call me a fool
I wish they knew it was true
Jesus was a wino, too
And this here six-dollar bottle is just about all that I can afford
And if I can’t find a corkscrew
I’ll just smash it open right here on the floor
And you might call me crazy
For lapping this off the ground
But a few years ago I would be drinkin’ with Jesus right now
‘Cause they may not have had Carlo Rossi way back in His day
Jesus had only water but he turned it to wine anyway
And nobody asked, “What would Jesus do?”
‘Cause everybody knew
Jesus was a wino too
No, nobody asked, “What would Jesus do?”
‘Cause everybody knew
Jesus was a wino too
Oooh, uh huh
Uh huh.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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You’re familiar with the play/movie ” ‘night, Mother”? Jesse’s character at one point says “Jesus was a suicide, if you ask me!” which of course horrifies her mother.
Since being introduced to the play in high school (maybe college, not sure) I’ve pondered that statement, and I’ve yet to find a flaw in the logic. Even by Biblical accounts, Jesus made a deliberate choice to bring his life to an end and made a deliberate choice to not exercise any of multiple opportunities to bring about a different outcome. So how was his crucifixion not the first-century equivalent of “suicide by cop’?
Lydia has a song called “Heaven”: here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4CZh7Ev7mU
Heaven
Song by Lydia Loveless
Overview
Lyrics
Listen
Lyrics
Well, here comes the beer on a cloud
Something to say to the crowd
Well, we built a wall in between us
Lock it up
Cause here comes a guy wearing no shoes
God, you can’t even die with nothing to lose
Well, now he’s mad about a fit I threw
When I met you, honey, I thought I had found release relief
And we could stay together
But paradise is only for the weakling
No one goes to heaven
No one goes to heaven
Oh, we’re at the mercy of men’s fevered dreams
Every night He doesn’t visit me
Cause God doesn’t ever
Ever really speak to she’s
And I’m coming down now
I thought I would be okay
But everything just happens
Everything is an accident, man
No one goes to heaven
No one goes to heaven
We built a wall in between us
Keep it down
When I see you at the gate
And God it’s been forever
But like a stranger, you just turn away
Cause no one goes to heaven
I thought I had found release relief
And we could be together
But paradise is only for the weak, man
No one goes to heaven, no!
No one goes to heaven, no!