When I came of age in the 1990s, Nirvana served as my entry point into music. I gravitated towards the Seattle sound, and when Rancid and Green Day broke through in 1994, I added the punk scene to my rotation. One band I always steered clear of , though, was Bad Religion. Seeing their logo of a cross with a line struck through it, like a no-smoking sign, turned me off because, as an evangelical, the logo felt sacrilegious. However, off of the success of their song “21st Century (Digital Boy)”, I picked up their 1994 album Stranger Than Fiction, but that was as far as I would go. If I had, at that time, scrounged around in their discography, I would have come away, at a much earlier stage of my life, seeing the rise of Christian fascism within American society.

One year before Stranger Than Fiction debuted, Bad Religion released Recipe for Hate, an album with numerous songs addressing Christian fascism. Two of those songs, “American Jesus” and “Don’t Pray on Me,” have become part of my regular rotation, each highlighting the ways that, as James Luther Adams noted, fascists “found a mask for fascism in patriotism and the pages of the bible.” The Moral Majority and those of its ilk crafted themselves as patriotic and concerned with religious and personal freedom, all of which served as a veneer to lure people in and to usher in Christian fascism.

“American Jesus” encapsulates the ways that Christian facsism wraps itself in the flag and carries a Bible. Greg Graffin pointed out that “American Jesus” arose as a protest to President George Bush’s assertion that the United States would win the Gulf War because God was on the nation’s side. Bush said, “We’ll in, because God is on our side.” Bush’s comments and assertion are a far cry from what Abraham Lincoln puportedly said during the Civil War: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” Bush’s comment reeks of xenophobia and fear, asserting God supporting the United States above all others. It reeks of the rhetoric that Gerald L. K. Smith, the Moral Majority and others espoused claiming the United States as a divine experiment.

Throughout the song, Graffin takes on the voice of Christian fascists, laying out the various positions that they take from beginning for calls against globalism and God’s blessing on the nation to anti-immigration positions and the idea that President of the United Sates has a divine mandate from above. Along with all of this, Graffin also points out that a divine mandate served as “the fuel that drive the Klan” and embodies “the preacher on T.V.” “American Jesus” points out the blatant hypocrisy of Christian fascism and the ways that it works to stoke fears and inflate egos all while suppressing the lives of others. It’s a haughty and false position that proclaims a morality that “foreigners can copy” in order to become “better” people all while harming those it claims to care about.

We see the American Jesus plastered all over our landscape, and the American Jesus, Graffin sings in the chorus, is always “exercising his authority” and “bolstering our national faith.” The American Jesus has become interwoven with the flag, using an “American” Jesus to justify our actions. In this manner, we become nothing more than those who Jesus warned about in his preaching, specifically those in Luke 6 who say they do things in Jesus name but in reality they do it for their own gain. After telling his listeners to love their enemies as themsleves, Jesus tells them, in Luke 6: 32–34:

32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

While “American Jesus” points out the ways that Christian fascism coopts Jesus for its own means, “Don’t Pray on Me” points out, much like A Perfect Circle’s “TalkTalk” does, the shallowness of the idiom “thoughts and prayers” or the assertion that something happened because it was “God’s will.” Unlike “American Jesus” with its verse chorus verse structure, “Don’t Pray on Me” has four verses, each one detailing individual or systemic issues. The first verse focuses on the Los Angeles uprising and the fact that even though Chief Daryl Gates resigned the system that allowed for the beating of Rodney King, the acquittal of the officers, and other systemic issues, remains. The second verse focuses on individuals and their actions against others, including the fictional Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. Graffin sings, “For beauty and glory, for money, love, and country.”

The third verse deals with women’s rights, specifically reproductive rights and the ability of women to have control over their own bodies. The abortion debate plays heavily here, with Graffin opening the verse by singing, “A bitter debate and a feminine fate” before moving into the ways that men serve as “custodians of public opinion” on the airwaves, seeking to control women. We know that the overturing of Roe v. Wade was always a goal of the Moral Majority and Christian fascism, and we know that they also sought to stop the Equal Rights Amendment from becoming part of the Constitution, thus working to maintain patriarchal control. Graffin ends the verse by lambasting these positions, telling the Christian fascists, “Lay hands off her body, it’s not your fucking life.”

“Don’t Pray on Me” ends with a verse where Graffin ponders why Jesus didn’t turn stone into bread when Satan tempted him in the desert or how Moses reacted when he heard about the first born of the Egyptains being murdered. Perhaps, Graffin sings, “God was a lot more demonstrative back when he flamboyantly parted the sea” and we don’t see it anymore. He concludes by singing that he sees everyone praying, but he doesn’t want anyone to pray on him. This command has, of course, a double meaning, playing off of the words “pray” and “prey.” We can read it two ways: that Graffin doesn’t want individuals praying over him and that he refuses to let Christian fascists prey on him and others.

When I hear these songs, I cannot help but think, as mentioned earlier, about the argument of “God’s will,” the argument that God allows bad things to happen to bad people or that he stands on one side of a war in direct opposition to the other side. When I think of this, I always go back to the first part of Luke 13 when some people come up to Jesus and, perhaps trying to trap him, ask him about a group Galileans whom Pilate killed when they came to the Temple to sacrifice offerings to God. Jesus responds, in Luke 13: 2–5:

2 . . . “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? 3 I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo′am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

Within these verses, Jesus asks us to think about the tragic events and whether or not those who perished did so because they were “extraordinarily ” sinful or because of an accident. The call for repentance is part of Jesus’ comments here, but when he asks if those who died “were worse sinners” or if they “were worse offenders,” he highlights that accidents occur and we cannot predict them. Many look to these as “God’s will,” as Pat Robertson claimed following Hurricane Katrina when he claimed it was God’s will to destroy New Orleans because the “sin” of homosexuality or that Haitians who suffered and died in the 2010 earthquake did so because Haiti had made a “pact to the devil” and were paying for it. These are some of the things “Don’t Pray on Me” addresses, pointing out that for all of the bluster and grandstanding, Christian fascism serves no other purpose but to acquire and maintain power and control.

I could discuss countless other songs from bands like the Dead Kennedys, FEAR, and more, but I will leave it here for right now. What are your thoughts? As usual, let me know in the comments below. Make sure to follow me on Twitter @silaslapham.