Eternally Yours
Good evening! It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve shared anything new here; not for lack of want or care, but because of life. You know what I’m talking about: long days, projects, occasional bouts of laziness or feeling burnt out–especially in this heat wave. But I’m back, and I wanted to share something that I’ve been thinking about a lot over the last couple of weeks: the consequences of our actions. (Heads up, this post is going to start a little slower than normal, so I hope you’ll be patient with me.)
Have you ever heard of the band Motionless in White? I was recently reminded of them by a podcast episode about them and another band called Fit For a King. I used to love them. They were one of my favorite bands in college. They have a fascinating sound; they started out being a pretty straightforward emo/metalcore band and have since gone very industrial (and progressively more cyber-goth) in their style.
They are also very anti-Christian in a lot of their music and artwork.
I know, I know: you’ve heard the satanic panic rhetoric before, and it’s tiring when the thinking behind it doesn’t come across as well structured. When someone says Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is actually a love song to Satan, you’re getting a bit fringe and unhinged, in my opinion. However, there’s an unfortunate tendency among Christians and Messianics today to rationalize our way out of decrying things that are obviously satanic. (I understand that the use of “obviously” here might seem rather subjective, but I’m talking about distinctly anti-Biblical artists, activities, and content.) Take the band I mentioned earlier, Motionless in White: they have a lot of legitimately well made, fun songs, full of charismatic vocals and instrumentation that effortlessly etches itself into your memory. They also have a number of songs that pull explicitly Christian terminology, pervert it, and then raise the shield of “fair criticism of religion as a whole.” Look at some of the lyrics to the song Thoughts and Prayers:
[Verse 1]
I don't want this, I don’t need this
I don't give a single f*ck about your thoughts and prayers
And I am the apostle of pain
[Chorus]
Don't pray for me when you're the one to blame
Don't think of me when you go up in flames
Don't pray for me when you're the one enslaved
No miracles, just fantasy
[Verse 2]
So spare me your pity symphony
Wake up and get up off your knees
Crucify the saint in your soul
[Pre-Chorus]
An addict for plaudit, you get your crucifix
[Bridge]
You know the dead can't hear you
The holy well is dry
So when you face the truth
Open your f*ckin’ eyes
[Breakdown]
Preying on the violence
You fabricate a script
Preaching to fill your pockets
But your god is counterfeit
You love to play the victim
Can I get an amen?
Yet you canonize yourself
While you wear this crown of sh*t
[Outro]
You get what you pray for, you don't get anything
Playing the part when it's insincere (It's insincere)
So give up the pain, give up the game, go
Just give up the holy ghost
You won't get what you pray for
Won't get what you pray for
Won't get what you pray for, yeah
F*ck
Motionless in White has a history of calling out/attacking what they perceive–sometimes correctly, unfortunately–as religious hypocrisy coming from Christians. I don’t automatically take issue with that; scripturally, believers are commanded to call these things out. Jesus Himself, in Revelation 2 and 3, calls out worldliness and hypocrisy across multiple congregations–one of them, Sardis is told plainly that they “...have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” (Revelation 3:1) Likewise, Paul, in Ephesians 5:1-11 gives a hearty admonition to members of the assembly in Ephesus to live as children of the Light, saying: “1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. 3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” It is undeniably Biblical to address wrongdoing in the church. (I talked at significantly more length about this in an older post, Wandering Stars, which is linked here if you’re interested in reading more about Biblical accountability.) My issue is not with hypocrisy being addressed, but rather with the pointed and, quite frankly, blasphemous description of my God and disrespectful handling of my faith that they have used to do it.
Does blasphemous sound like too strong of a word? I hope not, but if it does, let me analyze some of the lyrics that I shared earlier:
“So spare me your pity symphony
Wake up and get up off your knees
Crucify the saint in your soul”
Aside from the apparently pejorative use of the word pity–which, I’ll note, is ironic given the overall flavor of the song–we have the exhortation to “wake up and get off your knees,” which, given the surrounding context of Christian themes and terminology, implies that being in the traditional prayer position is to be asleep/unconscious/unaware. This is a direct mockery of prayer, which flies in the face of many passages in the Gospels which extol the importance of prayer.
Preying on the violence
You fabricate a script
Preaching to fill your pockets
But your god is counterfeit
You know the dead can't hear you
The holy well is dry
So when you face the truth
Open your f*ckin’ eyes
Here we have the declaration that God (and therefore faith in Him) is impotent in His ability to do anything at all, followed by another assertion that anyone who believes in Him has their eyes shut and can’t see the truth. Additionally, we have the attribution of greed as the primary–if not sole–motivator of religion.
You get what you pray for, you don't get anything
Playing the part when it's insincere (It's insincere)
So give up the pain, give up the game, go
Just give up the holy ghost
You won't get what you pray for
Lastly, we have our final declaration of the futility of prayer, also indiscriminately accusing Christians of hypocrisy and telling them to “give up the Holy Ghost;” this mockery and exhortation to reject the Holy Ghost (Spirit) is the sort of thing that is sternly warned against in the New Testament; behaving in such a way as to insult the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29). In the Gospels, knowingly mocking or misattributing the Holy Spirit is the only sin that Jesus describes as unforgivable. It is not something that can or should be taken casually. (Mark 3:28-30)
Would you be surprised to find out that this song is supposed to be about gun control?
Me, too. I’ve heard it probably hundreds of times over the years and would have never known or guessed if I hadn’t looked it up while writing this. In a Wall of Sound interview back in 2019, MIW’s lead singer Chris Motionless told the interviewer that
"When I started working on the lyrics to that song, that's where it was head primarily [Gun control/violence], but as I was working on it, I was like 'oh my' there's just so much more about what religion means in our country and how I feel that it's contributing to such a downfall progression of not just our country but the world globally"
And
"[Religion is] constantly in the way of all of these major, major decisions that are made globally that I think it doesn't have any f*cking place in... It's definitely something that I feel like [has] been polarising since the beginning of time and people either agree or disagree with it and it's just really upsetting that the people who agree with it seem to be the ones here that rise to power and get to dictate what everyone has to follow..."
It’s a fascinating take, honestly. Fascinating and hollow. To put it succinctly, they have presented the existence of darkness as though it proves the non-existence of light, and that is simply not how the world works. Biblical Christianity–as I said earlier–calls for mercy and justice, and teaches that nobody is exempt from judgment. (I listen to several podcasts that have taught extensively in recent months against hypocrisy and evil in the church, like The Minor Prophets, Remnant Radio, and Mike Winger’s exposure series on Bethel Church in Redding.)
But enough about all of that for now.
By now, you might be asking yourself: “What was this post actually all about? It started off being about ‘consequences’ and turned into a four page long criticism of some random metal band.” You’d be fair for asking that, and I’ll respond to it now. You see, Thoughts and Prayers wasn’t my favorite Motionless in White song; even when I was a rebellious, angry, angsty, and lost (or at the very least prodigal) 22 year old, it made me uncomfortable. (Not uncomfortable enough to stop listening to it, but uncomfortable.) No, my favorite song was Eternally Yours, and for years I called it the perfect love song; explosive, passionate, vulnerable, and intimate, all crescendoing with the line “I’m more than willing to rot in Hell with you.” Now that I’m slightly older and wiser, I appreciate better how horrendously stupid and wicked this sentiment actually was; taken literally, it declares that you are willing to accept damnation for someone because you love them so much. I loved it so much I got it tattooed across my chest, and now I have to look at it every time I take my shirt off; a lifelong reminder of my folly and my old way of living. A permanent reminder of the things I told myself were okay because “it’s just art.”
I didn’t write all of this just to say ‘Motionless in White is bad and makes evil music’–though I do believe that to be true–I wrote it to make a point; the things we expose ourselves to leave a mark on us. Sometimes that mark is figurative, sometimes it is literal, but it is there. I have noticed a trend in my life and the lives of other professing believers to make exceptions and excuses for people who trample our faith and make light of it, and I have to ask: why? Why do we regard our own opinions so highly–and God’s so lowly–that we are willing to justify things that we ought to realize are offensive to Him? To do so incidentally or in ignorance is one thing, but to do so ongoingly–as many of us do or have done–is a dangerous game to play; it hardens the heart and asserts “my will be done,” rather than “Thy will be done.”
Like I said before, I used to love this band. I’ve seen them in concert, nearly gone deaf listening to them after some hard breakups, lost my voice many times roaring out the lyrics to Another Life, Abigail, Undead Ahead, and Dead as F*ck (unfortunately), and even now, after not listening to them for over a year, I can still recall all of my favorite songs with pretty high clarity. I’m not criticising them for the sake of it, I’m critiquing them to make a point; the more of it that I consumed, the more I was okay with. The more I was okay with, the more I wanted; it’s a vicious positive feedback loop. Unfortunately, it’s a feedback loop that can cost you your soul–or at the very least, your peace with God–if you aren’t careful.
Fortunately, God is patient and gracious; 2 Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” That patience does, however, have an invisible expiration date known only to Him. None of us are immortal, after all, and it is a foolish thing to “...think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience…” because the kindness of God is meant to lead us to repentance. (Romans 2:4) He was patient with me while I romanced all the dark, edgy, sinful nonsense I used to hold dear, and is still patient with me today as I grow and as I stumble and as I still come to terms with the things that I need to learn to let go of. He may be exercising that same patience towards you right now; how long will you presume on His kindness? If I can say one encouraging thing to you today, let it be this: don’t keep putting it off. That song you feel convicted about? Take it out of your playlist. That show you know you shouldn’t be watching? Find something else or go on a little fast from TV for a while. Whatever your struggle or temptation, put it down now, while you can, because it’s leaving its mark on you, and the only mark we ought to bear is God’s seal on us. (Ephesians 4:30)
I hope that this hasn’t meandered too much or gone on too long; thanks for sticking with me to the end. God bless you, and I look forward to sharing with you again next time!
