A lot of folks ask me, “Ragnar, what’s your beef with God?” Truth is, I ain’t got no beef if I’m right about Him not existing. But if he does, to be clear, he fucking started it. Here’s the thing, I will put up with a lot of shit done to me, said to me, even said about me, but when it comes to the people I care about, well buddy, if you wanna’ fight, you better come with friends.
My songs If Heaven Has a Door , Born Guilty, and Don’t Need God’s Forgiveness (He needs mine) will give you a pretty good sense of my issues with God and his so called “people.”
I come by my issues honestly. I’m no novice with God. My Daddy was a Southern Baptist preacher. Good enough man and all that, but by five I already heard I was naughty enough that a man had to die just so I could talk to God. Otherwise, the old bastard wouldn’t even hear me out. So I did what I was told I should — gave my heart to the so-called Lord. Made him the king of my life. It didn’t stick.
As a young man, I got a pretty good sense that this God fella hated pretty much all the same people the church seemed to hate. I didn’t see no value in hating no one — ‘cept for maybe the people that Jesus hated. He was a pretty cool cat. Held all his judgement for the very most religious people of his day. Kicked the shit out of some folks at the temple. I liked that story. I liked that he hung out with all the folks the religious folks despised — harlots and blue collar people. Regular folks. I suspect if he came back today, you’d find him holding court in an LGBTQIA bar on the wrong side of town. I wrote a song about it called Carpenter. You should give it a listen. He was a regular dude who hung out with regular folks. All grace — ‘cept when it came to those who shoulda known better.
That’s something I never did understand about religious folks. Supposedly they was only wretches when they sang Amazing Grace, but how many of ‘em you ever seen that extended that same supposed grace to others? I said before I am the sort of man who fights for his friends. It just so happens some of the folks I love most are the same people the church folks call “persona non grata.” Instead of presenting a path to God, they spend their time getting in the way of regular folks just living their regular lives. As if God can’t handle behavioral issues on His own. Apparently God can’t clean His own house. Why the hell would I want Him in mine?
Gay folks. Trans folks. Foreigners. Poor people. Prostitutes (and other sex workers). Rock Stars. The Church people spend so much time hating everyone that it’s no wonder they got no time to love anyone but themselves.
And then there’s God. Could have created a world without suffering. Didn’t. What goddamn value does a mosquito bring to the planet that couldn’t have been solved by creating some bug that don’t kill millions from disease? And don’t even get me started on disease itself. I mean, what the actual fuck? So anyhow, like I said: If he exists, which I don’t think he does, then fuck him. He started it. And if he doesn’t, then it’s like I’ve thought all along: Religion is just another way to divide folks. And I ain’t at all interested in that. Except for those MAGA folks. They can all go fuck themselves. Every last one — Fuckin’ Pharisees!
Ragnar