Tuesday, February 24, 2015

A Moral Analysis of "Take Me to Church" by Hozier

We're back with another set of moral insights on today's chart-toppers... and this week we're taking on a real whopper -- "Take Me to Church" By Hozier. Once again I'll repeat that our intentions here are not to simply slam popular songs, but instead to look through them like windows into today's culture, for better or for worse. We'll inventory the victories and downfalls, treasures and trash. I must admit that I'm surprised at this song's success considering it's subject matter and anti-religious angle, but maybe that's because most people haven't really listened to it at all. Let's investigate further.


My lover's got humor

She's the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody's disapproval
I should've worshiped her sooner


Right from the onset, Hozier establishes the tone of this song by describing his irreverent lover and her attitude towards the faithful masses. He also mentions worshiping his lover, which will become a key component in the song's overall theme as we continue. Worship is a curious word to choose considering its religious connotations. Let's proceed.


If the heavens ever did speak

She's the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday's getting more bleak
A fresh poison each week
"We were born sick," you heard them say it


In this stanza, Hozier describes the teaching of the church as poison, and addresses the fact that the Christian worldview presumes that people are born as sinners. In other words, we are facing a clash of perspectives. Are people essentially bad, with the hope of becoming better? Or, are people essentially good, and evil is the exception? Hozier seems to embrace the latter.


My Church offers no absolutes

She tells me, 'Worship in the bedroom.'
The only heaven I'll be sent to
Is when I'm alone with you—

I was born sick,
But I love it
Command me to be well
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.


Now we are beginning to close in on the true meaning of the song. His lover tells him, point blank, that worship is sex. Sex is worship. Heaven is discovered in the arms of another person, and nowhere else. This is a message most pop music has been promoting, albeit covertly. Hozier instead chooses to say it loud and clear.   It's also worth noting that Hozier embraces his own "sick" nature.


Take me to church

I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life


Once again, Hozier dresses his relationship and sexual experiences in religious garments, with all of the ceremonial trimmings.  He compares sex to worship and offers himself as a sacrifice. He is essentially turning his lover into an idol, a newly emerging god that solely serves him. Hozier even ties a Christ reference into this, referring to sex as a "deathless death". I'm not here to tell you whether or not to avoid the song, but if blatant sacrilege is not your thing.... beware.


If I'm a pagan of the good times

My lover's the sunlight
To keep the Goddess on my side
She demands a sacrifice

Drain the whole sea
Get something shiny
Something meaty for the main course
That's a fine looking high horse
What you got in the stable?
We've a lot of starving faithful

That looks tasty
That looks plenty
This is hungry work


This verse becomes admittedly unclear, although the listener can at least discern that Hozier is continuing to combine the carnal and the divine.  He admits that he is a pagan, in the traditional sense, serving his own desires. In doing so, he's turned a lover into a goddess. Now that's insight! The same thing could be said about so many people, living their lives for selfish satisfaction and indulgence.  He demands that this new goddess needs a sacrifice, both monetary (something shiny) and physical (something meaty).

Hozier also suggests that the religious and uptight masses are acceptable offerings to the appetite of this new deity. The faithful and the high-and-mighty are starving, and Hozier suggests that sexual gratification is the answer. In other words, he believes that he's discovered the true remedy for that which makes the masses sick.


No Masters or Kings
When the Ritual begins
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene
Only then I am Human
Only then I am Clean
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.


Here, Hozier ends the song by describing "the ritual" which is undeniably referring to sex. He claims that their sin is instead an act of innocence, and that it both humanizes him and cleanses him. For the person who claims a Christian worldview, this bridge is an absolute minefield of theological errors. Sin doesn't cleanse you, Jesus does. Lust doesn't grant you innocence. Humanity is not something granted by desire. Truth has been totally turned on it's head.

For all of its theological missteps, I can say one thing about Hozier -- I respect him, and here's why. He has the guts to admit his deification of sex, whereas others only act like it. Hozier has one song where he admits that sex is his religion, but how many other artists say the same thing implicitly through their whole discography? Heck, many Christians even live such a life, claiming Jesus as their savior but bowing to the altar of Aphrodite instead. We live in a culture that views sex as a divine power, an emerging religion of its own. Hozier just wrote the anthem for it.


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