With God on Our Side

Joan Baez and I are about the same age and she was singing (along with Dylan and others) in the heyday of my youth. So there's a lot of nostalgia for me when I hear her. In style and pitch she resembles a non-Christian Roxylee.

Listening to this song is not only nostalgic, but also fills me with pathos for its artist. It's such a blend of naivete, nihilism and arrogance jingoistically disguised as compassionate humility that one simply aches for her.

This is how humanism handles theodicy. It ignores the fall and its consequences and simply stamps its feet wanting things to be different. "If only everybody was as enlightened as I am then we would all get along!"

I wonder if she really, really thought about whether God was on Judas' side?? (John 17:11-12)




Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.