I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance. That is my religion, and every day I am sorely, grossly, heinously and deeply offended, wounded, mortified and injured by a thousand different blasphemies against it. When the fundamental canons of truth, honesty, compassion and decency are hourly assaulted by fatuous bishops, pompous, illiberal and ignorant priests, politicians and prelates, sanctimonious censors, self-appointed moralists and busy-bodies, what recourse of ancient laws have I? None whatever. Nor would I ask for any. For unlike these blistering imbeciles my belief in my religion is strong and I know that lies will always fail and indecency and intolerance will always perish.

-Stephen Fry

The Song: “Heresy” by Nine Inch Nails

The Event: Christian Youth Gathering in Colorado/I part ways with the church

I was brought up in the church and there was a custom that teens (aged 15-17) in my particular congregation would go out to Colorado during the summer for a weeklong gathering of teens from Congregational churches across the nation.  While I was a fairly religious person, I was by no means completely devout.  I had questions, and swore, and did all other manner of sinful things that proved I wasn’t living “right by the lord” – but at the age of 15, I felt like as long as I wasn’t harming anybody, I was doing OK.  One night, in our little group, a youth minister wanted to talk about how God is represented in music.  He did this by first playing some bland Christian rock song.  I’m sure there are some great Christian rock songs, but this one just hit all of the clichés – lyrics using the words “praise,” “light” and “raise up” a lot.  Not to mention just musically it was incredibly boring.  But people in my group were rocking out to it, clearly familiar with the song and loving it. 

Then, with a smile (and I’ll never forget this moment), he segued into the next song:

“Ok.  So there’s that version of how people talk about God in music.  Then there’s this slightly different version.”

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“Salvation is for the feeble, that’s what I think. I don’t want salvation, I want life, all of life, the miserable as well as the superb. If the gods would tax ecstasy, then I shall pay; however, I shall protest their taxes at each opportunity, and if Woden or Shiva or Buddha or that Christian fellow--what’s his name?--cannot respect that, then I’ll accept their wrath. At least I will have tasted the banquet that they have spread before me on this rich, round planet, rather than recoiling from it like a toothless bunny. I cannot believe that the most delicious things were placed here merely to test us, to tempt us, to make it the more difficult for us to capture the grand prize: the safety of the void. To fashion of life such a petty game is unworthy of both men and gods."

-- Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins