Hozier: Take Me To Church Meaning

Song Released: 2014

Covered By: Matt McAndrew (2014)

Take Me To Church Lyrics

My lover's got humour
She's the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody's disapproval
I should've worshiped her sooner

If the Heavens ever did speak
She is the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday's getting more bleak
A fresh poison each...

1. janellerey2

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   Jan 11th 2015 !⃝

   I believe this song talks about 2 different "Gods" if you will. Let me explain.
   
   "My lover's got humor, She's the giggle at a funeral, Knows everybody's disapproval, Should've worshiped her sooner."
   
   He begins by stating that if others knew his "lover." This would be God #1. I'll call her the Goddess of love. No body approves of the Goddess since it is only natural for her to go against the normal way or the correct way. He also wishes to have worshiped her sooner, allowing the listener to imply that he had worshiped someone else before her.
   
   "If the heavens ever did speak, She's the last true mouthpiece, Every Sunday's getting more bleak, Fresh poison each week."
   
   Sunday, is a day when many people go to church to listen to a priest give the word of God. The singer compares listening to this as poison, or people just being fed poison, but listening to his "lover" is so much more like listening to a true God.
   
   "We were born sick, You heard them say it."
   
   Sin is what he is talking about here. There are many different types of sin and I won't mention them all. But it is known that sin is a bad thing. Therefore we are all just bad to begin with.
   
   "My church offers no absolutes, She tells me worship in the bedroom.
   
   This means that the Goddess of love has no expectations, limitations, or restrictions. The church welcomes anybody and everybody with any type of sin you were born with. The Goddess is also okay with the natural desire to be sexual. In fact, not only is the Goddess okay with it but she encourages it.
   
   "The only heaven I'll be sent to is when I'm alone with you."
   
   This could be the singer talking to a human lover, or the singer talking to his Goddess that he has been talking about throughout most of the song.
   
   "I was born sick, but I love it."
   
   The signer is okay with being human, he loves it.
   
   "Command me to be well."
   
   The singer is sort of saying: shame one anyone who tells me to hate myself for my sins and who I was born to be. Shame on you for telling me being human is wrong, or being homosexual is wrong or being whatever it is that I am is wrong.
   
   "Amen"
   
   It means that you agree, or allow it to be so.
   
   "Take me to church, I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of you lies. I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife, offer me that deathless death, Good God let me give you my life."
   
   Here is where the second God comes into play. This would be the common God, such as the God that many people are used to worshipping. Here the singer is saying he does not agree with the way the church is made out to be, or the rules that must be followed in order to get to heaven but he will worship anyway.
   
   I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife: Telling your sins to someone is common at confession, or a time where you would say all the bad things you have done to a priest. This is supposed to lead to forgiveness but the singer doesn't feel this way. Instead he feels betrayed by this but he will still ask for forgiveness anyway.
   
   Offer me that deathless death, Good God let me give you my life: Deathless death also meaning eternal life is something well known to some religions. If you behave here on earth you just might get to live an eternal life. The singer wants that eternal life and the acceptance from the common God into heaven, which would be why he would still ask the common God for forgiveness and why he will still attend church on Sunday, and why he will still worship this God even though he really approves of the Goddess because she accepts him as he is.
   
   The whole second part of the song is him discussing love. The Goddess is okay with love but she demands a sacrifice. Love demands sacrifice, anyone who has ever loved anyone could understand that. The singer mentions that he will even drain the seas if he has to but he knows he will be rewarded "Get something shiny." And many people want to find love or be loved as they starve for it.
   
   "No masters or Kings when the ritual begins."
   No one is in command when someone is being tortured for being themselves.
   
   "There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sins"
   The sin that the singer has was never hurting anyone, yet he still gets shamed for being a sinner by others. Religion has caused him to feel guilty for his sins when he has been innocent the entire time because he is only human.
   
   "In the madness and soil of that sad earthy scene, Only then I am human, only then I am clean."
   
   In all the hurt that the world has to offer those the sin is when the singer feels human. He is clean because he is reminded of his innocence as the world torments him to feel guilty.
   
   On a side note, the singer may be referring to his lover as a female because that would be the exact opposite of the common God. No body knows the gender of God but many refer to him as a male and a father. The singers God would be a Goddess because she is nothing like the common God.
2. anonymous

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   Dec 21st 2014 !⃝

   This is a beautiful song. It is saying, as you can see in the music video, the two men who are gay have a "secret", the box with the chain. Someone discovers this secret and many people in this world they think anyone who is different is weird, so this person gets his group and they kill the homosexual man. (Kinda like KKK with racism). It's okay to be different, society tells us to embrace our flaws then makes fun of them. I believe love is love, if you feel a certain way you should embrace that not keep it from everyone for fear of being judged.
3. anonymous

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   Dec 5th 2014 !⃝

   Not all christians condemn gays. Perhaps the reason why majority of the christians tell that being gay is a sin. People who uses the HOLY BIBLE knows that God made both man and female.
4. anonymous

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   Dec 4th 2014 !⃝

   I feel like everything about this song is about how religion tears people away from the beauty in things. Religion makes everyone believe that nothing good can come from being gay. So he's saying
   ¨I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife.¨
   because being gay is a sin in the eyes of Christians.
   With me being an atheist I like this song very much because of the story it tells in the lyrics.
5. anonymous

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   Nov 6th 2014 !⃝

   I think this is about 2 men who are gay with each other in another country besides the U.S.A. See, in other countries, religions such as Christians and Catholics don't approve of being gay, or in their eyes "different". They think it is "against what God told us and so and so". So, they do what they only know how to do. They kill the "different" people, and burn their house and all their possessions. In the music video, you can see the 2 men kissing. A very religious man sees them kissing. He calls his religious buddies, breaks into the men's home, and kills one of the men. See, just them kissing would've been OK, but somehow they found out about what they did in bed (hot dirty sex).
   "Take me to church, I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies, I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife"
   In the 2nd verse, he's talking about "making a sacrifice to feed the starving faithful people", which probably means that he thinks religion turns people into a undead army, and they will do anything to see what they want.
   I see this song as a plea to accept all people, no matter what sexuality/religion/race they are.
6. anonymous

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   Oct 18th 2014 !⃝

   He feels like religion judges and he's had enough and telling them to sharpen there knifes and kill him already emotionally

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