Gospel of Bondage
Gospel of Bondage: Unmasking Society's Fears in Bruce Cockburn's Anthem
Lyrics
Tabloids, bellowing raw delight
Tabloids sensationalizing with unrestrained joy.
Hail the return of the Teutonic knights
Celebrating the resurgence of the Teutonic knights, symbolizing militarism.
Inbred for purity and spoiling for a fight
Being born into a lineage that values purity and is eager for conflict.
Another little puppet of the New Right
Describing someone manipulated by conservative political ideologies.
See-through dollars and mystery plagues
Transparent money and mysterious diseases of the modern era.
Varied detritus of Aquarium Age
Various remnants of the digital age and its consequences.
Shutters on storefronts and shutters in the mind
Physical and mental barriers symbolized by closed storefronts and closed minds.
We kill ourselves to keep ourselves safe from crime
Society harming itself in attempts to protect from crime.
That's the gospel of bondage
Summarizing the theme as the "gospel of bondage."
We're so afraid of disorder we make it into a god
Fear of chaos leads to making disorder a deity.
We can only placate with state security laws
Only comfort sought is through laws ensuring state security.
Whose church consists of secret courts and wiretaps and shocks
Depiction of a controlling power with secret courts, wiretaps, and shocks.
Whose priests hold smoking guns and whose sign is the double cross
Leaders with authority wield destructive power symbolized by the double cross.
But God must be on the side of the side that's right
Claiming divine support for the side perceived as morally right.
And not the right that justifies itself in terms of might
Criticizing the justification of righteousness through might.
Least of all a bunch of neo-Nazis running hooded through the night
Rejecting neo-Nazis as a valid representation of the right.
Which may be why He's so conspicuously out of sight
Suggesting God's absence from supporting such extremes.
Of the gospel of bondage
Reiterating the theme of the "gospel of bondage."
You read the Bible in your special ways
Critiquing selective interpretation of the Bible.
You're fond of quoting certain things it says
Pointing out the emphasis on certain passages over others.
Mouth full of righteousness and wrath from above
Expressing a mouthful of self-righteousness and divine anger.
But, when do we hear about forgiveness and love?
Raising the question of the absence of messages about forgiveness and love.
Sometimes you can hear the spirit whispering to you
Sensing a spiritual presence, but questioning its communication.
But, if God stays silent, what else can you do
If God remains silent, there's little one can do except embrace the silence.
Except listen to the silence?
Encouraging a contemplative listening to the silence.
If you ever did, you'd surely see
If one pays attention, they would realize God can't be confined to an ideology.
That God won't be reduced to an ideology
Emphasizing that reducing God to an ideology is limiting and inadequate.
Such as the gospel of bondage
Summarizing the critique of the "gospel of bondage."
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