So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
You come in, check my time
You've got fornication crimes
I've seen your hope on television
Where you've been, you were not were
They've got tricycles in skirts
This is a mouth that needs religion
And they all want to love the cause
Because they all need to be the cause
They all want to fuck the cause
So take me down, down through this
Kill the common law that missed
This is the blood I love to share
Little pistols and companion halls
Desperation tentacles
I've been alone since '89
We've got a menstruating disguise
They know the three completes the five
This is a church that should believe
And they all want to free the cause
Because they all need to dream a cause
They all need to be a cause
You've got all and it's
Pretty good, but I
Seem to be in disbelief
You come in, check my time
You've got fornication crimes
I've seen your death on television
Cue immortal childlike times
Separation is divine
Here is a strike beneath your knees
And they all want to love the cause
Because they all need to be the cause
They all want to fuck the cause
Take me down, down through this
Kill the white within the bliss
Here is a waiting room that wants to save your life
And they all want to love the cause
They all need to be the cause
They all want to dream a cause
They all need to fuck the cause
You've got fornication crimes
I've seen your hope on television
Where you've been, you were not were
They've got tricycles in skirts
This is a mouth that needs religion
And they all want to love the cause
Because they all need to be the cause
They all want to fuck the cause
So take me down, down through this
Kill the common law that missed
This is the blood I love to share
Little pistols and companion halls
Desperation tentacles
I've been alone since '89
We've got a menstruating disguise
They know the three completes the five
This is a church that should believe
And they all want to free the cause
Because they all need to dream a cause
They all need to be a cause
You've got all and it's
Pretty good, but I
Seem to be in disbelief
You come in, check my time
You've got fornication crimes
I've seen your death on television
Cue immortal childlike times
Separation is divine
Here is a strike beneath your knees
And they all want to love the cause
Because they all need to be the cause
They all want to fuck the cause
Take me down, down through this
Kill the white within the bliss
Here is a waiting room that wants to save your life
And they all want to love the cause
They all need to be the cause
They all want to dream a cause
They all need to fuck the cause
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The references to religion can't be taken at face value. It would be incredibly pedestrian to skewer religion with analogies about ... religion. Kevin Drew mentions traits about religion to mock something else entirely. So yes, he is talking about religion, but also about something else.
Based on the chorus, I had initially thought they were mocking the sudden ubiquity of "hipster" culture by likening it to blind religious faith.
Now I see the song's theme as using religious fervor as an analogy for right-wing politicians and media outlets selling political fervor.
Notice that it's never mentioned that people need the cause ITSELF -- just that they need to be it, feel it, dream it, fuck it. The cause itself isn't doing them any good, it's just their own determination to be obsessed with it that drives them on.
The "they" here are mid- or low-income Republicans who have been sold on ideas that will actually financially harm them -- such as measures that support the deregulation of big business -- by making it appear to be an issue of morality.