When God Made Me

NOTE UP FRONT: From a Christian perspective:

When he sings it, you can see and hear his inner torment. A lot of folks say that he is bashing religion, and that this an anti-Christian song – but I think he really is asking questions, and trying to make sense of what goes on in the world from a man-in-the-world perspective. A man who is deeply spiritual, with no answers, just questions.

Although Neil is not a Christian (to my knowledge) I don’t take it as bashing. It is only right to have questions. God wants us to worship Him out of our own free will, not just follow others blindly to church with no thought given to what it is we do. That’s not worship at all. Using our minds and hearts to ask these questions, and still, knowing that although we don’t have the answers, trust in Him to know that He has plans that are simply beyond our understanding – that’s worship.

The questions he asks are valid ones, and the reason many doubt or don't believe at all. These very types of questions are what makes evangilism tough, and the reason that the great majority of the evangalising I do is by example, not by shootin off at the mouth.

A great, powerful, song.

Neil did not have a very religious upbringing. His parents were worldly liberal humanists, but he was eventually confronted with religion, as the Journey Through the Past film shows, where he exchanges with 70s Jesus Movement types. As in songs like The Bridge or Soldier, where religion is mentioned, he always sees the incoherence in religious discourse, and his songs ask questions that point out the parts of religious teachings that just don't add up to him. NY has said that the redwood forests are his cathedral (and probably Nature his faith).

Later in life, after coming face to face with the Grim Reaper (during his aneurysm scare, for example), he's willing to adopt the use of the word "God" and take for granted the existence of an overarching spirit and higher power in "When God Made Me". That doesn't mean his church has changed at all though. "God" has an infinite number of definitions, depending on who you talk to, and it's just the closest word in our vocabulary to express what NY has always reflected upon under the redwoods.

He's still asking pointed questions in WGMM, still exposing the hypocrisy of those on right right wing who call themselves Christians but take positions that are at total polar opposites of what Christ taught in the Bible.