If Jesus had a Gun . . .

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Image result for motel 6

Hiss Golden Messenger is the musical moniker for singer/songwriter MC Taylor. In 2010, he released a stark, acoustic based album entitled Bad Debt. The album is full of late night brooding. . . a kitchen table lit by candles and a baby sleeping in the other room. The kinda dark hours where you're soul bursts, explores some dark territory, and scans all corners of the mind, trying to map meaning.

The best of the batch of songs featured on Bad Debt is represented by "Jesus Shot me in the Head". A provocative title, for sure, meant to convey the radical act and nature of an instantaneous religious conversion experience. Here, the metaphor of salvation- or dying to your old self- comes in the form of Jesus' killing off one's old self, in order to be "born again". Often, born again conversion experiences are preceded by a life lived on the low, which is accurately described here- the rough friends, the Motel 6, the drugs, the drinking. . .it's all packaged up in order for us to see the light.

Despite the conversion experience the narrator undoubtedly undergoes, as the verses travel on, we do hear some lingering doubts. "Come on, let me in" becomes an end of life plea, as the singer indicates acknowledgement that God "loves us all/ but the ones who fall/ hold a special place in his ranks. . at least that is how I hope it goes". Here, the weaving of eternal destination anxiety & Christian theology come to a point: namely, the idea the the "last shall be first", or as author Flannery O'Conner put it, the "lame shall enter first" (click here and go to page 450) comes to the forefront. Certainly, despite his conversion, the narrator is hoping, but not sure of, this sense of long term cosmic justice. The weak shall be first. The last shall be first. The order of hierarchy will be radically flipped.

Listen below to this haunting, thought provoking song from a modern day troubadour.


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