9 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Religion Lyrics
Stained glass windows keep the cold outside
While the hypocrites hide inside
With the lies of statues in their minds
Where the Christian religion made them blind
Where they hide
And prey to the God of a bitch spelled backwards is dog
Not for one race, one creed, one world
But for money
Effective
Absurd
Do you pray to the Holy Ghost when you suck your host
Do you read who’s dead in the Irish Post
Do you give away the cash you can’t afford
On bended knees and pray to lord
Fat pig priest
Sanctimonious smiles
He takes the money
You take the lies
This is religion and Jesus Christ
This is religion cheaply priced
This is bibles full of libel
This is sin in eternal hymn
This is what they’ve done
This is your religion
The apostles were eleven
Now there’s a sod in Heaven
This is religion
There’s a liar on the altar
The sermon never falter
This is religion
Your religion
While the hypocrites hide inside
With the lies of statues in their minds
Where the Christian religion made them blind
Where they hide
And prey to the God of a bitch spelled backwards is dog
Not for one race, one creed, one world
But for money
Effective
Absurd
Do you read who’s dead in the Irish Post
Do you give away the cash you can’t afford
On bended knees and pray to lord
Sanctimonious smiles
He takes the money
You take the lies
This is religion and Jesus Christ
This is religion cheaply priced
This is bibles full of libel
This is sin in eternal hymn
This is what they’ve done
This is your religion
The apostles were eleven
Now there’s a sod in Heaven
There’s a liar on the altar
The sermon never falter
This is religion
Your religion
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
It's easy to dismiss art from 30+ years ago as being cliche or boring but such generalizations are grounded in ignorance. At that time, it WAS VERY shocking. We have the benefit of living in a time when such things are now much more acceptable to express.
Many people need to indulge in a bit of art appreciation to understand these things.
Well put gregorybrian. Yes for the year 1978 this song was ahead of its time and was considered shocking. I was only 14 at the time when I bought the album..parents banned me from playing this song..my old man actually broke TWO of my Pil albums. lol
Well put gregorybrian. Yes for the year 1978 this song was ahead of its time and was considered shocking. I was only 14 at the time when I bought the album..parents banned me from playing this song..my old man actually broke TWO of my Pil albums. lol
I don't think Johnny's talking about a church with 12 people, he's more talking about the "hypocrites who hide inside" - church administration and so on. Brilliant song.
Yeah but get above the clichedness I am a practicing Catholic but I think Johny has a point the church does seem a bit iffy what with its crazy rules and laws. Great bass line in this song to.
The music in the song is lovely.
Whether or not you think its just another antireligion song, to me it sounds like Mr Lydon is earnestly trying to express himself... This was record before tool's countless antireligion songs and up to this point it wasnt that common.
I think every subject matter has been covered in songs but its about how you express your view. Lydon does it quite well.
I am not antireligion but i think he makes some good points.
"Do you read who’s dead in the Irish Post"
And how common was anti religion songs at the time too Static? Whatever, its a message that can't be expressed enough, especially these days, even if Christianity gets the brunt of it
The lyrics are a bit obvious sure, but the pulverizing round & round beat, the same chord sequence for 5 minutes straight & Rotten's priceless, jagged delivery- Its like he's conducting a sermon of his own,using repetition & sonic overkill to beat it into our thick, thick skulls. This coulda been a bitchin Pistols track
@Hungryforalynchin Lydon recently told an interviewer he wrote this one while he was in the Pistols but the rest of the band didn't go for it
@Hungryforalynchin Lydon recently told an interviewer he wrote this one while he was in the Pistols but the rest of the band didn't go for it
Yawn, another anti-relion song. These got old after Bad Religons first album. Not to mention Religon isnt really "after your money" when they donate it off to poor organizations and they are hardly getting by. call them pigs and shit, why dont you go out to the counrtyside to a church with 12 people and see how "they are after your money".
You have a severe misunderstanding of the history of the world. If you believe churches actually donate their money to worthy causes, I feel sorry for you. Worthy causes are things like: safe sex education programs and civil rights, not abstinence courses and charity that merely keeps the weak weaker and dependent upon outmoded social institutions like ... the church.
You have a severe misunderstanding of the history of the world. If you believe churches actually donate their money to worthy causes, I feel sorry for you. Worthy causes are things like: safe sex education programs and civil rights, not abstinence courses and charity that merely keeps the weak weaker and dependent upon outmoded social institutions like ... the church.
@robwyattfan Your message is from 2010, so if your views have changed on this then please ignore my following message.
@robwyattfan Your message is from 2010, so if your views have changed on this then please ignore my following message.
How can you blatantly lie like that? Churches are constantly donating to good charities. Sure, some charities could be shady, and there's that thing churches do when they are supposed to go to poor countries and help people, but instead just preach to them. But you are conveniently only mentioning one side and pretending their donations to charities never happened or are bad.
How can you blatantly lie like that? Churches are constantly donating to good charities. Sure, some charities could be shady, and there's that thing churches do when they are supposed to go to poor countries and help people, but instead just preach to them. But you are conveniently only mentioning one side and pretending their donations to charities never happened or are bad.
"charity that keeps the weak weaker". So I guess all the celebrities and atheist groups that also donate...
"charity that keeps the weak weaker". So I guess all the celebrities and atheist groups that also donate to charities are also keeping them weaker? Where is your disdain for them?
While we are at it, the churches even got involved with setting up vaccine sites during the COVID pandemic.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/24/covid-vaccine-sites-churches-offer-vaccinations-help-us-rollout/4550240001/
Now, if your views have changed on this but you still read my entire message, then my apologies. Your message from 2010 was at a time at the height of New Atheism. I could care less what people believe or don't believe, but this was at a time when atheists were trying to force their unbeliefs down everyone's throats, acting no different than their religious counterparts. And the atheists were definitely not nice about it. They would spread lies and even believe blatant lies about religion, just because it made religion look bad, despite their talk of reason and rationality. Like the lies they believed about Hypatia, Galilieo, Cyril and the burning of the library of Alexandria.
Yawn, another stupid child. How could songs like these get old if it came out like four or five years before Bad Religion released their first album?
well, it was actually 2 years before bad religions first album. "PUBLIC IMAGE" came out in 78.
However my main point is anti-religion songs are cliche and just get old. its not much of a topic to sing about, even in 78.
i would like to retract my praise for the music. turns out that was a remix by kid loco.