Tuesday, October 05, 2004 AD
I have forgiven Morrissey
That old conversational standby, "What's the last CD you bought?", has (thanks to a certain political party's desperation to appear a bit more "human") become quite topical in the past day or two. Which is all the excuse I need to do a post on my own most recent acquisition: Morrissey's comeback album, You are the Quarry (I also bought Nick Cave's Murder Ballads at the same time: I would have loved to hear a member of the shadow cabinet name that as their latest purchase...).
Given that I have been a big fan of Morrissey and the Smiths since around 1991 (bit of a Johnny-come-lately, I know), it came as quite a jolt to realise this was the first new material I'd heard by him since Vauxhall and I way back in 1994 (I gave his dodgy mid-90s albums a miss). And I'm grateful to the friend who "recommended" the album to me (by the slightly indirect means of saying, upon discovering and reading through this blog, "I'm guessing/assuming you won't be wanting a copy of that Morrissey album then" - red rag to a bull, Dave), because it is completely brilliant, pretty much up to the standards of "Vauxhall" (his best solo album by a mile, IMO).
Of course, being an ex-Smith is a bit like being an ex-Beatle (only you have to live in a smaller house), and Morrissey will never be able to escape that particular shadow over his solo career. As one review put it:
But this is still a wonderful album, packed with the usual lyrics (that make you laugh out loud even as you're throwing things at the hi-fi and shouting "Oh, pull yourself together, for goodness' sake! You're forty, not fourteen!"), some great tunes and, on several tracks, even a shuffling dance beat (so much for "burn down the disco, hang the blessed DJ").
I even like the track whose title initially did more than anything else to put me off buying the album: "I have forgiven Jesus". After the gentle humour of the opening lines:
This isn't about saying the church should abandon biblical teachings on sex and marriage, indeed quite the opposite. A few years ago, when I was wobbling a bit on the issue of homosexuality (after a friend of mine, not a Christian, "came out"), my wife pointed out that for the church to abandon biblical teachings would not only be a betrayal of those Christians struggling to resist/overcome homosexual desires, but also of those heterosexual Christians (usually women, thanks to prevailing church demographics) who were also faced with lifelong celibacy against their will, being unable to find a suitable husband or wife within the church. As this included (and includes) a number of my wife's friends, she took this particularly personally.
But this song did remind me that there is, ultimately, no "issue of homosexuality": there are people who experience same-sex desires, for whom Christ died, and to whom the church should be able to minister the message of Law and Gospel faithfully and lovingly. Ditto people who wish to marry, but who are unable to find a husband or wife. Or, for that matter, couples who are not yet married but who struggle to wait till marriage before sleeping together or living together, particularly given the almost total lack of support within society for this course of action.
Part of this ministry has to include appreciating as fully as possible just how great a struggle people may face as they try to follow God's Word in this area of their lives. In Morrissey's case, taking his words at face value, it appears that the church may have failed to carry out this role as well as it might.
Given that I have been a big fan of Morrissey and the Smiths since around 1991 (bit of a Johnny-come-lately, I know), it came as quite a jolt to realise this was the first new material I'd heard by him since Vauxhall and I way back in 1994 (I gave his dodgy mid-90s albums a miss). And I'm grateful to the friend who "recommended" the album to me (by the slightly indirect means of saying, upon discovering and reading through this blog, "I'm guessing/assuming you won't be wanting a copy of that Morrissey album then" - red rag to a bull, Dave), because it is completely brilliant, pretty much up to the standards of "Vauxhall" (his best solo album by a mile, IMO).
Of course, being an ex-Smith is a bit like being an ex-Beatle (only you have to live in a smaller house), and Morrissey will never be able to escape that particular shadow over his solo career. As one review put it:
...as for the tired old complaints that it's "not as good as The Smiths", one can only reply as Joseph Heller did when told each new book wasn't as good as Catch 22. "No. But then, what is?"And even in his solo career, he'll probably never be able to surpass Everyday is Like Sunday (but then, as Joseph Heller might put it, who will?).
But this is still a wonderful album, packed with the usual lyrics (that make you laugh out loud even as you're throwing things at the hi-fi and shouting "Oh, pull yourself together, for goodness' sake! You're forty, not fourteen!"), some great tunes and, on several tracks, even a shuffling dance beat (so much for "burn down the disco, hang the blessed DJ").
I even like the track whose title initially did more than anything else to put me off buying the album: "I have forgiven Jesus". After the gentle humour of the opening lines:
I was a good kidMorrissey then gets down to business:
I wouldn’t do you no harm
I was a nice kid
with a nice paper-round...
...but Jesus hurt meI assume all this is referring to Morrissey's homosexuality (elsewhere on the album he sings, "The woman of my dreams,/She never came along,/The woman of my dreams/Well, there never really was one"). I'm not justifying or agreeing with what Morrissey is saying in this song, but it is a reminder to us of what the consequences are for many people when we (rightly) hold to biblical teachings on sexuality, of what it means to experience seemingly overwhelming desire which cannot be acted upon. As CS Lewis puts it, the Bible presents people with a stark choice:
When He deserted me
but
I have forgiven Jesus
for all the desire
He placed in me
when there’s nothing I can do with this desire...
Monday - humiliation
Tuesday - suffocation
Wednesday - condescension
Thursday - is pathetic
by Friday - Life has killed me
by Friday - Life has killed me
why did you give me
so much desire?
when there is nowhere I can go
to offload this desire?
and why did you give me so much love
in a loveless world?
when there is no one I can turn to
to unlock all this love...
There is no getting away from it: the Christian rule is, "Either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner or else total abstinence." Now this is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts, that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct, as it now is, has gone wrong. One or the other. Of course, being a Christian, I think it is the instinct which has gone wrong. (from Mere Christianity)I wonder sometimes whether we fully appreciate just how "difficult and ... contrary to our instincts" complete faithfulness and (especially) total abstinence are. This is especially the case for those of us who are married, who can easily take for granted the absence from their lives of long-term sexual frustration, and slip into a "let them eat cake!" attitude towards those not similarly blessed.
This isn't about saying the church should abandon biblical teachings on sex and marriage, indeed quite the opposite. A few years ago, when I was wobbling a bit on the issue of homosexuality (after a friend of mine, not a Christian, "came out"), my wife pointed out that for the church to abandon biblical teachings would not only be a betrayal of those Christians struggling to resist/overcome homosexual desires, but also of those heterosexual Christians (usually women, thanks to prevailing church demographics) who were also faced with lifelong celibacy against their will, being unable to find a suitable husband or wife within the church. As this included (and includes) a number of my wife's friends, she took this particularly personally.
But this song did remind me that there is, ultimately, no "issue of homosexuality": there are people who experience same-sex desires, for whom Christ died, and to whom the church should be able to minister the message of Law and Gospel faithfully and lovingly. Ditto people who wish to marry, but who are unable to find a husband or wife. Or, for that matter, couples who are not yet married but who struggle to wait till marriage before sleeping together or living together, particularly given the almost total lack of support within society for this course of action.
Part of this ministry has to include appreciating as fully as possible just how great a struggle people may face as they try to follow God's Word in this area of their lives. In Morrissey's case, taking his words at face value, it appears that the church may have failed to carry out this role as well as it might.
