Dear God

I enjoy music with a passion. As a child, I wanted nothing more than to be Paul Stanley of KISS. And after watching a few episodes of “Gene Simmons: Family Jewels” I now am glad that I picked the Starchild over the God of Thunder. As a child, the importance of music was a very simple equation. Was it loud? Did it look cool? Does it drive my parents crazy?!? YEESSSS!!! After all, isn’t that the point of rock-n-roll? Rebellion! Down with authority!

As I continued to add on years to my never-ending childhood, I came to appreciate intelligently written lyrics of a well-crafted song. Anyone that could convey big meaning with few words was (and still is) a hero to me. It’s always a treat when any artist, be it music, fiction or non-fiction stories, poetry, or theatre can speak a universal truth and make it sound new and exciting. After all, look at the endless attempts to speak of love throughout the centuries from such greats as Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Justin Bieber!

And anytime a song’s lyrics can still quicken the pulse and create a universal fist pump with primordial rage, then I say “Rebel Yell! MORE, MORE, MORE!!” A great specimen of angst is when John Mellencamp croons: “I fight authority, authority always wins.” It’s kind of a mantra for me. I’ve been told to never question authority yet many a time I have found authority highly questionable. How ironic! How expected. After all, we have doubts for Area 51, the Kennedy assassination, and the accuracy of Miss Cleo’s psychic hotline.

But what about when you question the Authority of authorities? What about questioning God Himself? Certain facets of the Christian faith have made it clear that this is a no-no! “I’m sorry. You have crossed the distinguished boundaries set forth by the wise and esteemed whom have been spoken to by God Himself. You are now to suffer repeated lashings by the Penguin from the Blues Brothers.”

In my day to day living, I am walking a constant line of dichotomy between seeing all the beauty God has created and all the insanity people inflict on it.  Ya gotta love multi-media for constant bombardment of “If it bleeds, it leads.” So you start asking God things like “Hey! Where the hell are you at?” I have no doubt that you can recall an exact moment when you asked the very same question yourself.

In music, it is a reoccurring theme. One of my favorite examples of spiritual anguish is in a song by the group XTC, titled simply “Dear God.” Now I do want to point out that my interpretations of this song are strictly that. MY interpretation. I do not express nor claim to know what, Andy Partridge’s (the writer) spiritual beliefs are. But I am grateful for the beauty I find in the music, regardless. Hey! There’s an idea! Appreciating an individual for themselves and not judging them for having a dissimilar point of view! You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….

In the song, the star is having a conversation with the Deity. Andy’s lyrics start out like many of us may do in prayer. We do a sort of bartering process. “I have these things I have asked for but I’ll gladly ignore those for something else.” Sound familiar? Not quite the same promises you make if you have been hugging a toilet after a partying binge but close! Time wears on and your prayers have no apparent resolution. Our belief, our trust begins to fade. Hope withers like a dying flower. And usually this kind of prayer is similar to asking your parents for an advance on your allowance. You’re just not quite sure if the bad stuff in your past will be thrown back in your face. “No money for you! You didn’t clean your room!” Shame on you! Performance by guilt! Gotta love it!

Then after what feels like an eternity of silence, we start to step up our requests. We create a better argument for why our prayer should be answered. Something along the line of “Hey! You’re God! I believe in you. I know you can make this all better. This is not like You. Why are You being so unfair?” The deterioration of belief continues.

What the song covers next is something akin to that same child being denied an allowance. In short, a temper tantrum. Depending the situation, some even walk away from God, doubting that He ever existed at all. At this point, we begin to feel the rage, the anger, and the betrayal of being denied what we asked for so sincerely.  We ask if this religious crap is just that. A bunch of lies told to us by would-be authority figures as a way to keep us in control. I’ll let the lyrics tell the story for a bit:

I won't believe in Heaven and Hell,

No saints, no sinners, no devil as well,

No pearly gates, no thorny crown.

You're always lettin' us humans down.

The wars you bring, the babes you drown,

Those lost at sea and never found.

And it's the same the whole world 'round,

The hurt I see helps to compound

The Father, Son and Holy Ghost

Is just somebody's unholy hoax.

And if you're up there, you perceive

That my heart's here upon my sleeve.

If there's one thing I don't believe in...It's you, Dear God.

         One could say that the victim of the song is utterly fed up and completely walking away forever. But I would also like to think that maybe another point of view is that of a jaded lover, jilted by the disappointment. Imagine if you will, an argument with your significant other. Has your every argument always had words uttered in haste, firmly anchored in truth? Maybe it’s all a matter of furious yelling in order to get the anger out. Primal scream therapy. Incidentally, this song was banned by the BBC at the time of it’s release. Andy Partridge (who is a English citizen) received a vast amount of hate mail from the US regarding the song, which questions who does not like questioning authority.

         For myself, I do question authority. I do so on a daily basis. I believe in God with all my heart, but I sure don’t understand the Man’s plan all the time. And a simple walk through Psalms will show the same outcries for help and demands for justice as well. So I see that I am not alone in my questioning. I am following a long line of many who ask why. But what worries me the most are those that don’t ask the questions. Either they have a lot of answers they are not sharing or a lot of questions and are too afraid to ask. Because someone let them believe you don’t question Authority.

Oh, and that whole “O’clock” thang…this is what I found: “O' Clock comes from "of the clock", or "of the hour". So chill, til the next episode.

God:  The most popular scapegoat for our sins.  ~Mark Twain

People see God every day, they just don't recognize him.  ~Pearl Bailey