Song Stories: Black And White

Over the last little while, I've been sharing some stories from different songs that I've written; and to start off with, specifically from my Life To The Full EP. I've covered the first three songs on the album over the last month or so, and now we're heading towards the latter half of things. This fourth song is called Black And White. As always, the lyrics are below as a reference.

I am going to heaven, and you are going to hell
Protestants are good but Catholics they fell
God made Adam and Eve, he didn't make Adam and Steve
And if you believe differently to us then you must leave

Black and white, it's not quite right
These lines we've drawn divide us all
Black and white, this is our plight
We say we care but we're not there
Outside the lines

If God is love and truth, then what has gone wrong
Trying to do their job, they've been doing it all along
We think we know God's ways, but we can only guess
Still we think we're right and have been more than blessed

We need to reach outside of these boxes and lines
Start caring about the people we've left on the outside
Isn't that what Jesus did when he was here with us
But crossing over lines still riles you up

From memory, this is another song that started being written on the train to work, though I don't think I finished it in the one train ride. This one took a bit longer. In case you can't tell, the first verse is very much built around these "black-and-white" statements; clear-cut, no middle-ground, no in-between, just this and that's it. And I played around with this idea for the music as well; in the chorus, it goes between two chords - one with all black notes (F# major) and one with all white notes (E minor) on the piano. The verse kinda muddies in-between, hanging on a B minor that is constantly going up to the fourth suspension or down to the second suspension. I had a bit of fun figuring all that sort of thing out.

What the song is about, though, is less fun. Historically, and still today, traditional Christianity (might be true for other religions too, but I'm speaking from my own experience) has been rather black-and-white in its thinking. Heaven, or hell. Saved, or not. Sinful, or not. Good, or evil. Now, the problem isn't so much in saying that these things exist - the problem arises when we try to draw the line between them. Because, inevitably, we get it wrong. We exclude people as "sinners" when they've done nothing wrong, and we tell them they must "repent", when there is nothing they need to repent from.

I could give you examples - but the problem is, the examples keep changing. The line keeps moving, and shifting. And it depends on who you ask, and what church they belong to, and....so, so many things. How do you decide which line is right? Well, some would say that this is where the Bible comes in. The problem is, all these people are already defining these lines by the Bible. And they're still all different, sometimes radically so.

So, what do we do then? Well.....we get rid of the lines. We don't worry about them. Might there be a line that exists? Sure. There could be. But neither of us is going to be able to figure it out. And even if we did, we'd have no way of knowing we're right while we're alive, barring God giving a handy shout to let us know. So, instead - we be kind. I speak to this at further length in this blog post earlier this year; but basically, much of what Jesus was calling us to was not about casting people out. It was not about exclusion. It was not about labelling people as sinful. It was about being caring, and loving, and kind; and particularly, especially, to those that society at large was not being very caring and loving and kind towards.

Now - many Christians will try and say that they are doing this. And they often are in some ways. But it's typically things like caring for the poor, or the sick. And do they need care? Fuck yes, of course they do, and I'm glad they're getting it (though the way that first-world countries provide support to people in third-world countries is perhaps not a barrel of worms to be diving into right now). But these are also people that are now seen as needing support by the wider community. There is a greater thrust behind it from a secular and societal level. But there are many other groups that are not so well-supported - and that the church has been doing a bang-up job of making sure things stay that way. Victims of child molestation or rape; those trying to access abortion; people that are trans, or gender-diverse, or intersex; people that are same-sex attracted, or have multi-gender attraction; people that are aromantic, asexual, or both; people of colour, or those that are black or indigenous; people that have a physical or mental disability; people that are neurodiverse; and I'm sure other folks could think of more examples. These are groups that the church has typically excluded, often by labelling them as sinful, or just not even acknowledging their existence. This is not true of all churches; but trying to find a traditional church that has not excluded any of these groups would be very difficult.

And so again, we need to get rid of our lines. Our ideas of what we think is sinful, or what isn't. That doesn't mean we just throw morality out the window; morality can still exist without those lines. Plenty of folks do so every day. But we stop letting our ideas about what is "sinful" change how we interact with people, and particularly stop us trying to change the behaviour of others. Especially when that behaviour isn't hurting people. As Christians, we seem to like trying to measure everyone up against our own yardstick, and saying that everyone needs to measure themselves by that yardstick too. It makes it very difficult when most Christians' yardsticks are not at all the same length. If you want to measure yourself, and judge your own actions in a particular way - go ahead. It's not particularly healthy and I don't encourage it, but you're free to do that. You're not, however, free to do that to others. The Bible itself even says, multiple times, that it is not our job to judge - it's God's. We seem to forget that rather quickly sometimes.

People are not black and white. This world we live in is not black and white. People are messy, and complex, and so is life. Trying to draw hard and clear lines will only guarantee that you get it wrong. Just love - be kind, and encourage others to do the same. Here, let me give you some examples to help. Using the right pronouns for someone? That's love. Recognising trans men as men, and trans women as women? That's love. Making things accessible for people with disabilities and access needs? That's love. Teaching people, and kids, about more than just heterosexuality, heteronormativity, cisgender, white society? That's love. Accepting that other people may have very different ideas about what a good life looks like to you, and loving them all the same? That's love. Intentionally listening to voices of women, people of colour, queer folks, disabled people - seeking out these voices and hearing their cries, and the hurts that you have caused; this is love.

Perhaps it is not the world that needs to repent; but the church.