This song baffled me for a long time as to what it meant. I know that Dave, while he is a spiritual person, is a skeptic of organized religion. I too am not a fan of organized religion, so for a long time this song drove me away, despite it beauty and simplicity. But I listened to it again recently and it has an entirely new meaning to me, and has become one of my favorite songs Dave has ever written.
Dave does get in a jab at religion when he says "instead of fear I've spilled the blood of my children all around" which makes me think of the Crusades and other Holy Wars that are fought in the name of some religion. But overall, this song has a very positive message. The Church equates sinning with with being bad, but Dave does not agree with that. He says that we may be gamblers and robbers, drinkers and jokers, or sinners in other words. But that does not mean we cannot look inside of ourselves and find love for one another. My favorite line of the whole song is "Father up above, why in all this hatred do you fill us up with love?" and I love it so much because hatred and love are complete opposites, and it would appear as though both can't exist at the same time.
I think that the whole message of this song is that nobody, not even Jesus who visited a prostitute, can be perfect in the eyes of the Lord, the way the Catholic church wants us to be. So instead, we just need to do the best we can and love each other amidst all of this hatred.
This song baffled me for a long time as to what it meant. I know that Dave, while he is a spiritual person, is a skeptic of organized religion. I too am not a fan of organized religion, so for a long time this song drove me away, despite it beauty and simplicity. But I listened to it again recently and it has an entirely new meaning to me, and has become one of my favorite songs Dave has ever written.
Dave does get in a jab at religion when he says "instead of fear I've spilled the blood of my children all around" which makes me think of the Crusades and other Holy Wars that are fought in the name of some religion. But overall, this song has a very positive message. The Church equates sinning with with being bad, but Dave does not agree with that. He says that we may be gamblers and robbers, drinkers and jokers, or sinners in other words. But that does not mean we cannot look inside of ourselves and find love for one another. My favorite line of the whole song is "Father up above, why in all this hatred do you fill us up with love?" and I love it so much because hatred and love are complete opposites, and it would appear as though both can't exist at the same time.
I think that the whole message of this song is that nobody, not even Jesus who visited a prostitute, can be perfect in the eyes of the Lord, the way the Catholic church wants us to be. So instead, we just need to do the best we can and love each other amidst all of this hatred.
Peace