they'll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they'll know us by the way we point and stare
at anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bare
they’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
they’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
they’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
like anyone on earth is living right
and isn’t that why Jesus died
not to make us think we’re right
chorus
chorus
when love, love, love
is what we should be known forlove, love, love
it’s the how and it’s the why we live and breathe and we die
they’ll know us by reasons we divide
they’ll know us by reasons we divide
and how we can’t seem to unify
because we’ve gotta sing songs a certain style
or we’ll walk right down that aisle
and just leave ‘em all behind
they’ll know us by the billboards that we make
they’ll know us by the billboards that we make
just turning God’s words to cheap clichés
says “what part of murder don’t you understand?”
but we hate our fellow man
and point a finger at his grave
chorus
chorus
they'll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they'll know us by the way we point and stare
telling ‘em their sins are worse than ours
thinking we can hide our scars
beneath these t-shirts that we wear
2 comments:
LOL...well about your last part...
I think he taps into that in the song, but he also speaks to it in other songs on the album. look it up, you would like it. :) its "I See Thing Upside Down".
on the first part, that is exactly how I meant it. I see us every day trying to be God, being his voice, his judgement, everything when we have no authority or business being there.
Jewels -- the clarification helps, since, although I really didn't think you meant it the way, say, Shirley Maclaine would [I became god], the context didn't immediately make that clear, so I thought "typo" or something like that.
In the sense you explain, of course, I understand your metaphor.
I remember a church which, on the whole, was a pretty good one, I think. I did notice that a lot of the people I really thought a lot of were, well, rather on the QUIET side. I mean, i wondered why they were less vocal with their gifts than they might otherwise have been, eh?
I realized that there had been one or two people around who WOULD have talked irresponsibly and who would have held stereotypes of what might be right or wrong, rather than well-developed concepts. I didn't view those people as having much depth in their Christian thinking, but they had a bit of clout -- not a lot, but enough to be vocal with, and they would have labelled whatever they didn't immediately comprehend.
So, YES, there IS that business of not being able to express weakness before others that gets stifled. There's also the matter that people stop expressing even, well, STRENGTHS. I saw that there.
Some people whose participation would have been helpful were kind of, like, silent-ish.
It kind of hits in any and all directions, the attitude: you can't do or be anything right! To take off on one of the statements you made --
Am I not a Christian because I'm poor -- therefore not blessed?
Am I not a Christian because I'm rich -- therefore full of filthy lucre, and who knows? hoarding it.
Am I not a Christian because I'm uneducated?
Am I not a Christian because I'm educated?
Or, conversely:
He'd make such a nice Christian [translation: he's already middle-class, like us, and has the right ideas {!!!}].
Now, WE, of course, are also making judgments. However, I don't think that making a judgment is precisely altogether taking the place of God. I think that taking one's own customs as NORMATIVE for Christians may be harmful.
I think you're against people not thinking before making a judgment. I think you'd like them to be tentative, and to realize that some of their customs are just preferences and are not, in fact, NORMATIVE, eh?
E.g., it's not a problem if someone wants to dress 40s or 50s --that may be merely their preference. It's when they confuse their preference with being somehow more 'spiritual' or whatever. Why? Because, maybe, that's what their particular Christian friends wear, and they've never thought about it.
Funny, though. I remember a gal who'd just become a Christian the year before saying to me: "At first, I used to copy the hairdo's and everything the Christians did, thinking that was part of being a Christian." Later, though, she realized it had nothing in particular to do with it, and wore things she thought would be her choice.
It just took one year for her to realize that and separate the two. But she was Bible-oriented, and you don't read something like that in the Word, so pretty soon you see what's important and what's irrelevant, maybe, there.
After all, there was nothing special about old fashions. They were just as much 'the rage' or the 'latest thing' in their day as the latest thing now would be. Probably, some people thought those fashions were 'unspiritual' when THEY first came out, no?
So, there's a problem with people kind of thinking they've got it all wrapped up if they know the buzzwords and slogans and whatnot. That's not the sign of a deep Christian, really, though, is it?
The preachers used to tell us that we were to grow in the Lord, and then add that you'd find a lot of folks who maybe never had -- people who would be chronologically 'twenty' years old in the Lord, but who were still kind of in kindergarten in their thinking, eh?
So, maybe not to take people like that too seriously, in one sense. Still, their thoughts can hurt, especially when expressed out loud!
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