Interesting comments by BK—found on the Net. BK is examining the lyrical content from a religious standpoint.
Sacred Love continues with the title song, "Sacred Love" which seems to suggest that the person he was referencing at the end of "Book of My Life" was a woman. The song starts off talking about a woman who seems to be his sacred love.
But the song is not nearly so cut and dried, and the song almost seems to treat this woman not as a real flesh and blood woman, but as a personification of something else. He continues:
The spirit moves on the water
She takes the shape of this heavenly daughter
She's rising up like a river in flood
The word got made into flesh and blood
The sky grew dark, and the earth she shook
Just like a prophecy in the Holy Book
Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not doubt that this love is real
So I got down on my knees and I prayed to the skies
When I looked up could I trust my eyes?
All the saints and angels and the stars up above
They all bowed down to the flower of creation
Every man every woman
Every race every nation
It all comes down to this
Sacred love
So, is sacred love a woman or something more? The word got made into flesh and blood? The sky grew dark and the earth she shook like on the day Jesus was crucified? He got down on his knees and prayed, and when he looked up he saw this "flower of creation" whom the angels, saints and stars all worshipped? Hmmmm.
The final song is a remix of "Send Your Love" where he sings that there's no religion but sex and music, etc., etc.
What's the conclusion? I don't know. It seems to me that, at minimum, Sting has been considering the claims of Christianity. He seems to have dabbled enough with the ideas and the themes that he was ready to consider giving his heart to the one who can give grace, Jesus. But then, if the songs are in an order that is intended to communicate a message, in the struggle for his heart he has turned away from God to a woman who he has veiled with the deity rightfully deserved only to God. Thus, his idea of sacred love is the love that we, as humans, can give to each other. It is not the love of God who he seems to have concluded is not sufficiently real to warrant his love.
I have not seen many comments by Sting himself about this album, so everything that I have said here is based solely upon the reading of the lyrics. His sole comment that I found was in an interview where he noted that the Sacred Love album followed on the heels of the tragedy of 9-11, and he says "Even then, while I was working on the songs, there was uncertainty, but this time around, as you can see from the lyrics, it resulted in some confusion." Another interview says that Sting sees "sacred love" in the typical New-Agey way.
"There's something happening in the human spirit, and we're all connected to it, whether you're American or British or from the Islamic world. We're connected to some energy in the world, and we need to sort out what it is."
For Sting, the name of that energy is embodied in the title of his new album: Sacred Love. "Every man, every woman/Every race, every nation/It all comes down to this/Sacred love," he sings on the exuberant title track. Other songs on the album demonstrate how the failure to love can lead to self-deception and betrayal, to irrational fear and cataclysmic violence. But what finally comes through is the truth that all soul singers know: Love can save the day.
I don't know how much faith to put into this interview, however, since the interview seems to completely miss the Christian overtones of Dead Man's Rope.
Regardless, I think it fair to say that even if Sting is struggling with faith in Jesus, he did not come to the conclusion that Jesus is the one and only true Son of God. I pray that God will continue to work on his heart.
[I see songmeanings.net as a great venue to look at perspectives—probably why I imported this standpoint—and while I respect the rights of all people to express their beliefs, it is intriguing to see here a kind of dismay that Sting sidesteps the traditional belief in the “true Son of God” when history students can well appreciate this is not a simple answer. And it has never been easy for thinking people to merely trust organized religion given its political aspirations. I have no answers myself. I continue to suspend judgment and consider perspectives and probably always will. Amused, I’ll say it seems as though something has worked on Sting’s heart quite a bit. Perhaps having his heart reflect what BK would like it to is asking a bit too much of the deity and the musician but then what do I know …]
Interesting comments by BK—found on the Net. BK is examining the lyrical content from a religious standpoint.
Sacred Love continues with the title song, "Sacred Love" which seems to suggest that the person he was referencing at the end of "Book of My Life" was a woman. The song starts off talking about a woman who seems to be his sacred love. But the song is not nearly so cut and dried, and the song almost seems to treat this woman not as a real flesh and blood woman, but as a personification of something else. He continues:
The spirit moves on the water She takes the shape of this heavenly daughter She's rising up like a river in flood The word got made into flesh and blood The sky grew dark, and the earth she shook Just like a prophecy in the Holy Book Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not doubt that this love is real So I got down on my knees and I prayed to the skies When I looked up could I trust my eyes? All the saints and angels and the stars up above They all bowed down to the flower of creation Every man every woman Every race every nation It all comes down to this Sacred love
So, is sacred love a woman or something more? The word got made into flesh and blood? The sky grew dark and the earth she shook like on the day Jesus was crucified? He got down on his knees and prayed, and when he looked up he saw this "flower of creation" whom the angels, saints and stars all worshipped? Hmmmm. The final song is a remix of "Send Your Love" where he sings that there's no religion but sex and music, etc., etc.
What's the conclusion? I don't know. It seems to me that, at minimum, Sting has been considering the claims of Christianity. He seems to have dabbled enough with the ideas and the themes that he was ready to consider giving his heart to the one who can give grace, Jesus. But then, if the songs are in an order that is intended to communicate a message, in the struggle for his heart he has turned away from God to a woman who he has veiled with the deity rightfully deserved only to God. Thus, his idea of sacred love is the love that we, as humans, can give to each other. It is not the love of God who he seems to have concluded is not sufficiently real to warrant his love.
I have not seen many comments by Sting himself about this album, so everything that I have said here is based solely upon the reading of the lyrics. His sole comment that I found was in an interview where he noted that the Sacred Love album followed on the heels of the tragedy of 9-11, and he says "Even then, while I was working on the songs, there was uncertainty, but this time around, as you can see from the lyrics, it resulted in some confusion." Another interview says that Sting sees "sacred love" in the typical New-Agey way.
"There's something happening in the human spirit, and we're all connected to it, whether you're American or British or from the Islamic world. We're connected to some energy in the world, and we need to sort out what it is."
For Sting, the name of that energy is embodied in the title of his new album: Sacred Love. "Every man, every woman/Every race, every nation/It all comes down to this/Sacred love," he sings on the exuberant title track. Other songs on the album demonstrate how the failure to love can lead to self-deception and betrayal, to irrational fear and cataclysmic violence. But what finally comes through is the truth that all soul singers know: Love can save the day.
I don't know how much faith to put into this interview, however, since the interview seems to completely miss the Christian overtones of Dead Man's Rope.
Regardless, I think it fair to say that even if Sting is struggling with faith in Jesus, he did not come to the conclusion that Jesus is the one and only true Son of God. I pray that God will continue to work on his heart.
[I see songmeanings.net as a great venue to look at perspectives—probably why I imported this standpoint—and while I respect the rights of all people to express their beliefs, it is intriguing to see here a kind of dismay that Sting sidesteps the traditional belief in the “true Son of God” when history students can well appreciate this is not a simple answer. And it has never been easy for thinking people to merely trust organized religion given its political aspirations. I have no answers myself. I continue to suspend judgment and consider perspectives and probably always will. Amused, I’ll say it seems as though something has worked on Sting’s heart quite a bit. Perhaps having his heart reflect what BK would like it to is asking a bit too much of the deity and the musician but then what do I know …]