Selling Jesus

this is a song about white people trying to evangelise black people in south africa during the apartheid, I think (not sure). She tells how angry she feels toward those white people who just wanted to impose things to the black without trying to understand them. This is taken from their first album which mostly deals with black&white people's relationships (paranoid and sunburnt)

I don't know if it is specifically about South Africa, but the song is more about how people use religion to control the masses, ie selling Jesus. They are using it to justify whatever they want, all the while they become richer. Basically about how people who sell Jesus are hypocrites who use there power to tell you what to do while they do something different.

i agree with Madkal. the song seems to be about someone using god as a way out of everything. "Your smelly fingers from the sex you had on Christmas Day...You go to church and light a candle And then you're blinded by the light from the golden pews". here they say that he/she had sex with someone but going to church and lighting a candle makes everything better and now "you're blinded"

"That kind of god is always man-made They made him up then wrote a book to keep you on your knees" speaks for itself i think. its man-made because where you want to find forgiveness, you get forgiveness. we interpret things the way we want. and well, "They made him up then wrote a book to keep you on your knees" is just how someone made up the bible and/or god himself to control u and "keep you on your knees".

Yes, the message that "they're selling Jesus again, they want your soul, and your money, your blood and your votes" mentions the outright greed that comes with preaching religion.

Having said that, the "love-love-lo-love" part at the end of the song is the catchiest I've heard in any song, since hearing it for the first time in the trailer for the movie 'Strange Days'.

Making profits out of Cultural and social dogmas. Manipulating with people and their lives for profits. Making people beliefs monetize. This song is warning on mass-media hypocrisy and lies.

I'm confused as to whether this song is critical of Christianity in general (concepts, beliefs, origins etc), or an attack on the colonial era/post-colonial imposition by a white male-dominated Christian elite upon African peoples and the cheap 'selling' of Jesus in modern Western societies.

Thoughts?

The main theme is hypocrisy.\nI think this release was followed by a pedophilia/sexual abuse/children taken from parents events done by religious clergy, such as Philomena, Pope apologizing, etc.\nI believe that in the music world, this song might have been influenced by the brave Sinéad O\'Connor\'s finger pointing in spirit, e.g. search on Google "Catholic Church sexual abuse cases".\n\nVerse 1\nYou kill me with your smelly fingers -> pedophilia with in church, priest\'s fingers smell\nYour smelly fingers from the sex you had on Christmas Day -> events that happened with a call on religious occasions and in the name of religious customs\nAnd now you say you\'re feeling guilty -> exposed/caught, not denying, and trying to present self as a reasonable human being\nYou\'re feeling guilty \'cos your god was shining on your face -> God here meaning the media and the public (as the consequences are faith loss in the religious institution in who\'s name the crime was committed - as long as church has a good rating in media its income will be good)\nYou go to church and light a candle -> playing the game of pretending to be reasonable\nAnd then you\'re blinded by the light from the golden pews -> playing the game so deeply that now the guilty hypocrite is trying to come out as enlightened and touched by God himself (he realized his sin)\nThe devil\'s snapping at your toes now -> the guilty hypocrite is scared that there will be some consequences (oh, imagine that) as someone from the church voiced their opinion and are not really happy with what has happened\nBecause the angels can\'t be bothered to live to you -> the guilty hypocrite might be realizing that the church might not stand behind him, at least publicly (here, the God is media and the show put in front of the public is the sales event)\n\nChorus\nThey\'re selling jesus again -> now, we\'re putting Jesus as the symbol of religion for media to judge him, the guilty hypocrite is hiding behind the religion as if he was the jesus, but now all lights are on him and he\'s on sales, who\'s gonna buy his story versus victim\'s that were torchured\nThey want your soul and your money your blood and your votes -> the situation is abused by political entities in order to gain votes and voter\'s money (a whole different level of hypocrisy) - about how each political party would deal with the issue, religious institution included as political entities also - the situation is for everyone to score some points, instead of doing anything about the problem\nSelling love to you - selling love -> the question of the media tribunal comes down to love of Jesus instead of justice for victims\n\nVerse 2\nYou\'re buying this you\'re buying that now -> different political voices in the media are managing to get people\'s support (with money in the first place: imagine people throwing money to of the political parties voicing their opinion in the media)\nYou\'re wishing all the money in the world belonged to you -> imagine what you could do to solve the root of the problem if that money was thrown to you (in other words, you\'re f--- responsible also and f--- take some responsibility and do something about this kind of hypocritical world)\nYou\'re crucified upon you\'re own cross now -> now, I\'ve made you feel guilty\nYou\'re givin\' money to the white men in the white limo -> pointed to your crime (i.e. stupidity)\nThat kind of god is always man-made -> by throwing money at them we\'re making other people Gods\nThey made him up then wrote a book to keep you on your kness -> focus on politicians, now the ones that got most of the media\'s attention are full of money, they became Gods, and people are writing a Bible about that person (e.g. autobiography)\nThey get their theories from the same place -> the politicians got their behavior and hypocritical representation of selfs from the same (religious) institutions\nThen build a church if there\'s some money left -> they pay their tax to the institutions which helped them become Gods (in media and by having money, influence)\nFrom lying on the beach -> adding to how much these kind of people care about \nanything in the world\n\nNow, you can read the full lyrics with this and from it interpret the rest by yourself in this manner if you\'d like :)\n\nbtw Connected to the theme of the song, it is interesting how "powerful" people via media in the world managed to shut up any sensible musicians, lyricists and artists that pointed the finger to real problems in societies.\nNow, for the last 2 decades we can only find and listen to corporate produced 2 note auto-tune junk.

The main theme is hypocrisy.\nI think this release was followed by a pedophilia/sexual abuse/children taken from parents events done by religious clergy, such as Philomena, Pope apologizing, etc.\nI believe that in the music world, this song might have been influenced by the brave Sinéad O\\'Connor\\'s finger pointing in spirit, e.g. search on Google "Catholic Church sexual abuse cases".\n\nVerse 1\n"You kill me with your smelly fingers"\n-> pedophilia with in church, priest\\'s fingers smell\n\n"Your smelly fingers from the sex you had on Christmas Day"\n-> events that happened with a call on religious occasions and in the name of religious customs\n\n"And now you say you\\'re feeling guilty"\n-> exposed/caught, not denying, and trying to present self as a reasonable human being\n\n"You\'re feeling guilty \'cos your god was shining on your face"\n-> God here meaning the media and the public (as the consequences are faith loss in the religious institution in who\'s name the crime was committed - as long as church has a good rating in media its income will be good)\n\n"You go to church and light a candle"\n-> playing the game of pretending to be reasonable\n\n"And then you\'re blinded by the light from the golden pews"\n-> playing the game so deeply that now the guilty hypocrite is trying to come out as enlightened and touched by God himself (he realized his sin)\n\n"The devil\'s snapping at your toes now"\n-> the guilty hypocrite is scared that there will be some consequences (oh, imagine that) as someone from the church voiced their opinion and are not really happy with what has happened\n\n"Because the angels can\'t be bothered to live to you"\n-> the guilty hypocrite might be realizing that the church might not stand behind him ("the angels"), at least publicly (here, the God is media and the show put in front of the public is the sales event)\n\nChorus\n"They\'re selling jesus again"\n-> now, we\'re putting Jesus as the symbol of religion for media to judge him, the guilty hypocrite is hiding behind the religion as if he was the jesus, but now all lights are on him and he\'s on sales, who\'s gonna buy his story versus victim\'s that were tortured\n\n"They want your soul and your money your blood and your votes"\n-> the situation is abused by political entities in order to gain votes and voter\'s money (a whole different level of hypocrisy) - about how each political party would deal with the issue, religious institution included as political entities also - the situation is for everyone to score some points, instead of doing anything about the problem\n\n"Selling love to you - selling love"\n-> the question of the media tribunal comes down to love of Jesus instead of justice for victims\n\nVerse 2\n"You\'re buying this you\'re buying that now"\n-> different political voices in the media are managing to get people\'s support (with money in the first place: imagine people throwing money to of the political parties voicing their opinion in the media)\n\n"You\'re wishing all the money in the world belonged to you" -> imagine what you could do to solve the root of the problem if that money was thrown to you (in other words, you\'re f--- responsible also and f--- take some responsibility and do something about this kind of hypocritical world - if you don\'t want a hypocritical world you have to be involved in it and not stand and watch the show all the time)\n\n"You\'re crucified upon you\'re own cross now"\n-> now, I\'ve made you feel guilty\n\n"You\'re givin\' money to the white men in the white limo"\n-> pointed to your crime (i.e. stupidity, supporting by not doing anything, or supporting directly the hypocrites that say that they\'ll take care of that for you, etc)\n\n"That kind of god is always man-made"\n-> by throwing money at them we\'re making other people Gods\n\n"They made him up then wrote a book to keep you on your knees"\n-> focus on politicians, now the ones that got most of the media\'s attention are full of money, they became Gods, and people are writing a Bible about that person (e.g. autobiography) for people to pray to them for help/mercy/money/support (instead of people keeping their money and representing themselves)\n\n"They get their theories from the same place"\n-> the politicians got their behavior and hypocritical representation of selfs from the same (religious) institutions\n\n"Then build a church if there\'s some money left"\n-> they pay their tax to the institutions which helped them become Gods (in media and by having money, influence)\n\n"From lying on the beach"\n-> adding to how much these kind of people care about anything in the world\n\nNow, you can read the full lyrics with this and from it interpret the rest by yourself in this manner if you\'d like :)\n\nbtw Connected to the theme of the song, it is interesting how "powerful" people via media in the world managed to shut up any sensible musicians, lyricists and artists that pointed the finger to real problems in societies.\nNow, for the last 2 decades we can only find and listen to corporate produced 2 note auto-tune junk.

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