Are you effected by BJ religious song content ?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Jon says he was raised as a Catholic, but he has never said whether he still is or not...

As for this, Western culture has roots in Christianity so it tends to crop up in most cultural references and manifestations but that doesn't imply the artist in question is a Christian. Everyone knows that!

Dawn - now you bring up this topic I do wonder how come you don't feel offended by songs like Hey God or Something To Believe In, which, to my mind, may mention God, Jesus and all the angels of Heaven, but not in a positive way, I think. So you should have born in mind whether the references were positive or negative.

A joke off topic:
What is the biggest problem for an atheist?

No one to talk to during sex

Back on topic:
There is something here that I think some people are missing. Jon and Richie (who do most of the lyric writing) are from a specific place and time. There are a lot of Catholics here in New Jersey both Irish and Italian. Most of us grew up having that faith preached at us in some form or other. People use references to God around here as if they know him (or her) personally because we all grew up talking to God. We were told to talk to God by the nuns and the priests of the catholic church (ie I Talk to Jesus). When we were teenagers and started kissing on long bus trips from school we were told "to remember to keep room for the Holy Ghost between us". "I want to be just as close as, the Holy Ghost is" is a line right out of my childhood and I'm sure Jon's childhood too. To me, who grew up here, this music speaks to me because it is familiar - not because it is religious. I certainly didn't grow up to be a religious adult and I don't think Jon or Richie has either in the accepted use of that term. I think in the end, most people write about what they know, and these two guys know these religious phrases because they were part of the fabric of their lives.

Kathleen

How interesting!!

Again..you hit the nail regarding my own personal experience and view of this whole topic. I don't believe Jon or Richie are practicing Catholics anymore than you or I are as adults and it shows in their lyrics just as you cite. The effect of growing up Catholic and the backlash resulting from adulthood and increased awareness of the world about us.

I can say with certainty that looking for Christian brotherhood within the band or their music is a stretch...most of their music dealing with theology tends to question it. The gamut of the references really have nothing to do with religion..just that ingrained sense that never leaves us no matter what road we take. I find brotherhood in that the two lead songer writers in the band grew up in the same environment that I did and have pretty much freed ourselves of the shackles...but the scars will always remain.

If you get that Jon is singing the praises of Jesus in Something To Believe In...that's all fine, but you are missing the point. I'm pretty sure the song is about believing in yourself when all else fails.....I'd say it sums up what those of us growing up as Jon and Richie did have come to realize as adults and best captures our feelings towards religion in adulthood. Seeing the hypocrisy and emptiness then redirecting our faith in something more concrete and reliable.

YEs, they have the word God in a lot of their songs but this doesn't mean that it is necessarly the Christian God. They use the word God in a content where the Islam for example use God also (Allah, who is the same God as the Christian's, just a different name). And even non-believers name God in some contents as BJ does (Hey God). And Keep the faith for me doesn't mean keep the faith in God but more a "everything will turn okay, you'll see". A song that gives hope and has nothing to do with the believe in God in the meaning of the word faith.

And if you ask me the song something to believe in is even more an anti-religous song than a religous song.

I agree with Keeper, Kathleen and Purist on this topic.
From a very personal point of view, it is just another rather sad sign of how much our today's pretty much enlightened world is still infiltrated by outdated religious perceptions.

you all have dirty minds - I tell ya...........


LOVE that joke Kathleen!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's not the way I see Something to Believe In. Remember at the time Jon kept saying it was positive and I thought, "What is he smoking?" because, on the surface, it's one of the most negative songs in their catalogue. But then I heard it differently... same words.... TOTALLY different meaning. It doesn't say "I don't believe in Jesus, how can I believe the pope." It says IF I don't believe in Jesus...

To me it says, you have to know what Jesus says before you can listen to what a "holy" man says. You have to know it for yourself. It says that you can't take a man's word for it. I think "If I don't believe in heroin, how can I believe in dope" is about desensitization in general. If dope is okay, then heroin is next to be considered okay. It says that you have to believe there is sin in order to believe that there's more to life than just survival. Otherwise humans are just animals in the game of survival of the fittest. It's human compassion and the ability to know good and evil (or sin) that separates us from animals. So, if you do believe in sin, you have to have a moral base, and for some people that goes back to Jesus.

Looking at it that way, then the song does become positive because it doesn't leave the character with the longing for something, but the realization that he needs those things and even those questions about faith to solidify faith. It's not of song of a single instance in time. It's a journey through questions and realizations.

The way the song was recorded makes it two very different songs in one.

Becky