Sinead O’connor’s “take Me to Church”

By Gene Veith
Blog of Veith
August 12, 2014

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2014/08/sinead-oconnors-take-me-to-church/

[with video]

Sinead O’Connor is a singer perhaps best known for ripping up the pope’s picture on Saturday Night Live, but her latest song shows a realization of what church is for. It’s called “Take Me to Church.” Here is the refrain:

Oh, take me to church

I’ve done so many bad things it hurts

Yeah, take me to church

But not the ones that hurt

‘Cause that ain’t the truth

And that’s not what it’s for

Yeah, take me to church

Oh, take me to church

I’ve done so many bad things it hurts

Yeah, get me to church

But not the ones that hurt

‘Cause that ain’t the truth

And that’s not what it’s for

Hear the song–which is quite good–and see the video after the jump.

Go here for the rest of the lyrics. Note the self-repudiation of the first stanza. I’m not saying she has her theology all together, but her distinction between churches that “hurt” and churches that offer forgiveness is surely a good one.

HT: Mockingbird, which sees the song as an antidote to the “spiritual but not religious” mindset, showing that what people wracked by sin need is a community of faith, an actual church.