its supposed to be a stab at George bush's dad for saying they had Jesus on their side during the gulf war.

Some of you have an overabundance of retardation. Saying "all Americans are arrogant" just shows it. Can you guys think of better way to show your own arrogance and ignorance? Making statements that involve "all" and a nation is inherently idiotic.

As a person who is not an American, i don't see what the big deal is. American's cheer for their country, big whoop. Who the hell do you guys think they should be supporting... Canada? Maybe American's should run around with Zambian flags?

News flash, EVERYONE cheers for their country. Everyone also shits on their own country. Go watch the world cup, Brazilians cheer for Brazil, Italians cheer for Italy, French cheer for no one cause they suck... I JEST. It's one thing to joke about a country, it's another thing entirely different to paint everyone in it with broad strokes. Some of you seem to actually believe your bigoted bullshit.

The song deals with people using Jesus to push their agendas, not with Americans loving America. How you guys can't see the difference is beyond me. I guess it's your enlightened thought process where someone's geographical location of birth makes them less than you. Irony.

As a person who has lived in 4 countries and currently lives outside his home country, i feel the most fondness towards my home. BIG SURPRISE?

I don't think some of you are retarded because of where you're from, i think you're retarded because of what you say. Learn to take people on their merits, not on what a country does.

I think that this song uses Jesus not so much as a direct reference to the religious figure, but as a metaphor for elitist, pompous Americans. They are suggesting that America has immortalized itself and now people see themselves as God above the rest of the world. They are ignorant of other nations' viewpoints and assume that everyone sees them as they see themselves. The video depicts everyday civilians, carrying crosses, suggesting that they see themselves as an "American Jesus."


For a band having such a provocative name, Bad Religion hardly has any songs that deal strictly with religion. I feel weird saying this, but though I love Bad Religion's use of metaphor and imagery in their songs, I had never paid any attention to the lyrics before reading them today. I assumed it was criticizing Jesus which is why I was surprised. I may have missed or misinterpreted some parts of the song when quickly skimming over, but that's my opinion

This song is about Republicans and how they use religion to control the nation and the world.

I don't need to be a global citizen,
'Cuz I'm blessed by nationality.
I'm member of a growing populace,
We enforce our popularity.
There are things that seem to pull us under and,
There are things that drag us down.
But there's a power and a vital presence,
It's lurking all around."

This is the republicans pushing nationalism and opposing globalism. "We enforce popularity" They use conformity to establish their ends.

"We've got the American Jesus,
See him on the interstate.
We've got the American Jesus,
He helped build the President's estate."

They use an Americanized version of Christianity to promote their goals. Even though Jesus was a liberal. This "American Jesus" got Bush elected.

"I feel sorry for the Earth's population,
'Cuz so few live in the U.S.A.
At least the foreigners can copy our morality,
They can visit but they cannot stay.
Only precious few can garner our prosperity,
It makes us walk with renewed confidence.
We got a place to go when we die,
And the architect resides right here."

We're a bunch of hypocrites. We feel sorry for people in third world countries but our politics make slaves of them. "At least the foreigners can copy our morality" This is when stuck-up self-rightous Republicans say that third world countries would be prosperous if they were "moral". Or that there lack of prosperity is judgement from God because they don't have out "morals".

We've got the American Jesus,
Bolstering national faith.
We've got the American Jesus,
Overwhelming millions every day.

He's the farmer's barren fields, (In God)
The force the army wields, (We trust)
Expressions on the faces of the starving millions, (Because He's one of us)
The power of the man, (Break down)
He's the fuel that drives the Klan, (Cave in)
He's the motive and the conscience of the murderer, (We can redeem your sins)
He's the preacher on T.V., (Strong heart)
The false sincerity, (Clear mind)
The form letter that's written by the big computers, (And infinitely kind)
The nuclear bombs, (You lose)
The kids with no moms, (We win)
And I'm fearful that he's inside me... (He is our champion)

"American Jesus" The Americans version of Christianity is used for all of these purposes and people think it's "righteous".


"We've got the American Jesus
See him on the interstate
We've got the American Jesus
Exercising his authority
We've got the American Jesus
Bolstering national faith
We've got the American Jesus
Overwhelming millions every day

One nation, under God...

Ratt - Greg/Brett knows what thier talking about. College Grad should have more intelligence


you need to know the history of the U.S. interstate system
and what its reputed. Ratt - Greg/Brett knows what thier talking about

Interstate highways were "government funded" monumental government projects in the mid 20th century to make it easier to travel across the land. Basicaly the only way to do that (think of the massive concrete looping ramps and highways) is to plow down colossal land/vegetation/and wilderness straight across the land; mandates giving authority to assert intrenchments straight through towns and cities
strictly because it was essential to extend the roads.

resemble something? figure it out.

Its reputation is that of when traveling through a region via interstate you really get know real experience or sight of what the area is actually like in reality.. the energy and experiences of
traveling but the old roads that used to be the only ones; is pretty much missed by everyone. the old motels and town centers and courthouses that give you the real background is completely omitted.

hmm resemblance? easy to understand.

sincerity is straight forwardness and honesty. and I hate to say it. or actually I love to say it because
I hate christians; but their basically masking thier selfishness/ignorance/and priorities with sincerity and honesty which makes all christians bigots. it is the truth.

basically the first part is conveying the thought process of a typical american christian exercising pharisaism. basically their ignorant

The song is about conservative america and many americans in general. How most conservatives are overly religious and think they are blessed by god and everybody else is not. They have their own version of jesus, the american jesus. Which is a jesus that only loves americans and americans way of life and thinking.Thats really what the whole song is about, he just says it in different ways throughout the song, different examples of this. If you've traveled then you know what I mean.

"I don't need to be a global citizen,
'Cuz I'm blessed by nationality."=
(How conservative americans believe that they are the
only ones blessed on earth because they have the privilige of living in "the land of the free" and they assume everybody else outside of America dont have freedoms and morals. We as americans think we are the only democracy in the world and everybody else is communist)

I"'m member of a growing populace,
We enforce our popularity."=
(How we try to make other countries believe like we do, and we believe we are the most popular country in the world because we see all the foreigners coming in, but we dont see how many foreigners are visiting Thailand or Italy or France every year because we dont live there, so we assume everybody wants to be like us. Since we believe we are the most popular in the world, this makes us believe that everything we believe in and do is the right way and everybody elses way is the wrong way)

"see him on the interstate" =
referring to the famous big jesus that is situated along the interstate just outside cincinatti ohio, and all the billboards and bumper stickers that say jesus loves you along the way, and the irony of it being on the interstate instead of a jungle,village or somewhere more holy/less developed)

"I feel sorry for the Earth's population,
Cuz so few live in the U.S.A.
At least the foreigners can copy our morality,
They can visit but they cannot stay.
Only precious few can garner our prosperity,
It makes us walk with renewed confidence."=
(Same as the first few lines, we think we are the only ones blessed, and we think that we are the ones who created morals, even though our country is only a couple hundred years old, we are the only good ones in the world and if somebody is doing good or living free, than they must be copying us, copying our way of life. We are hypocrites because we have our own version of jesus and jesus lived on the hospitality of others but we are so xenophobic and dont want foreigners living next door to us)

"We got a place to go when we die,
And the architect resides right here."
(same thing as the first few lines, we have our own version of jesus, which was created right here in America so the heaven we are supposedly going to was invented by us, we created it, we are the architects)

"He's the farmer's barren fields, (In God)=
(How people, such as farmers for example, pray to god when things arent going our way and if the fields start doing good, we give jesus credit for it and think that it happened to us because jesus loves us but we are ignorant to all the true suffering in the world and assume that they are suffering because jesus only loves us.)

The force the army wields, (We trust)=
(We trust in god because we trust he will protect us...even though we are up against other human beings in war, for some reason we trust in god that he will favor us over them and let us win the war because we are right and our enemies are always wrong in the eyes of god)

Expressions on the faces of the starving millions, (Because He's one of us)"=
(Same thing as the farmer thing, we assume that they are suffering in other countries because jesus is only on our side, hes one of us, everybody else is bad in jesus's eyes, we have more prosperity than any other country because jesus only cares for us)

"Bolstering national faith" =
(The more we believe that our way is the way jesus wants and foreigners ways are the ways of the devil, the more we are proud to be american. the more it bolsters our faith in what we are doing)

Ok...I'm American, and I'm glad I am....I love bad religion, I love debates about the songs meanings. That said, most the things in this song are absolutely true and certainly need to change. "We enforce our popularity" is the most urgent, i hate to sound like an isolationist, but honestly i don't see how a country not having a democracy is any of our business. We defiantly do not need to stay in any country to help them achieve what our ancestors fought one of the leading countries in the world at the time for. We need to sort our own shit out first....

wow black flag, I'm impressed, having lived in NC myself it defiantly takes an out of the state thinker to realize that it might not be a blasphemous meaning (that state has more churches than it has bathrooms) and i must say, i agree with you're comment.

(btw, its always refreshing to find out that there are some intelligent people left in the world, 2 rare to find them in real life.)

"he's the farmers barren fields
the force the army wields
the expession in the faces
of the starving children
the power of the man
he's the fuel that drives the clan
he's the motive and conscience
of the murderer
he's the preacher on t.v.
the false sincerity
the form letter that's written
by the big computers
he's the nuclear bombs
and the kids with no moms
and i'm fearful that
he's inside me "

My favorite part, pretty much sums it up for me right there.

Hmmm after listening to this song over and over for like a month, I’ve come to an understanding I think this song is about how everyone goes around saying we have the best country ever and it’s so anti-religious( well, in the government sense) but we really have a religious state, and there are many flaws. But we are still trying to have everyone be just like us. The first verse , brings me to this, because, we Americans believe we are the best in the world (or it appears that is how we think) and we don’t need to be part of the world as a whole. But we have the ‘American Jesus’ who will help us though it. Who the American Jesus is, I’m thinking is the people in general or the President. Second verse is how, we think we are so amazing, and we can have people visit our country, and we want them to. But once they want to live here, it’s nearly impossible, or hard. Third Verse: This is our ‘American citizens’ and our country, and how the American Jesus, probably isn’t the best for us. That would be the end. It may not be right, but It’s my interpretation on it and what I’m going to stick to =)

the first part is actually claiming the songwriter is proud of america (probably sarcastically?) and the whole "American Jesus" thing as the country itself. "overwhelming millions everyday" possibly means the other countries. later, it also means the struggles of american citizens themselves and the "darker" part of the u.s.a.

o and adding another thing that swany's comment made me think of (I am afraid that he is inside me) koresh was also a convicted pedaphile...(give the preists a break they were just copying "jesus'" example)

k im kind of combining two ideas in one here but
this song was madee in 1993 same year david koresh (cult leader who claimed to be jesus) was killed in mount carmel because of a raid by BATF
so my thought is they were responding to the whole george bush sr comment (jesus on americas side) by saying hey jesus is on your side.... this crazy mofo is and hes jesus right

Personally, I think this song is very personal introspective into Graffin's mind. The line which makes me feel this is when he says "and I am afraid that he is inside me." Graffin, despite what many people think of his personal religious ideology and what the band's moniker has the listener believe, is I believe a somewhat religious man. They named their band Bad Religion based on the Catholic Church being one of the most corrupt organizations in the world. However, Graffin's PhD dissertation, "Evolution, Monism, Atheism and the Naturalist World-View" contends that when asked, even some of the staunchest evolutionary biologists can't explain sometimes what religion can. I am aware that he does not identify with a specific religious affiliation, but his argument is that religion is so large and powerful that it does in fact have a role in both his life and the majority of peoples, despite what they claim.

That being said, I think Graffin is arguing that he is abhorrent of the "Jesus" culture of the United States and fears the relative backlash of that community's wrath on both domestic and foreign landscapes. With this fear, he is afraid that if God is as vengeful as this community has identified him/her as, then he fears to what extent that religion/God is a part of him.

Let me know what you think. Sorry for the rant.
If you have a chance, read his dissertation. It's available through Cornell University.

According to Jay the song was prompted by something George Bush said about how the USA could not do wrong in the gulf war because Jesus is on the Americans' side. But then Greg said that it was interestign for Jay to say that when he didn't write the song.

Yeah.........
Most ppl R fuked in the head........
(incoherent mumbling)

It's criticizing religion and over-the-top nationalism. Does anyone know what the backup singers are saying on the part after the second chorus. That's my favorite part of the song.

day after the bigoted jerry falwell has died. kinda feel obligated to post now, seeing as he once said Jesus "was the first American."

high comedy.

If Jesus guides our president, I don´t want this Jesus to guide me. True lyrics.

It seems to me that it's a combination of what bogun is saying and a depiction of religion (in this case Christianity) as a destructive force in general. Just look at the last half of the song - depicting Jesus as "the motive and the conscience of the murderer, the starving millions, the nuclear bomb." If that isn't an obvious display of the destruction religion causes, what is?

I don't think this song actually has much at all to do with Christianity. Instead it's about American arrogance and our self image of our country. He's saying that to Americans, our country and our national image has become like a religion. We've started to worship our image - we've started to worship our country as an American Jesus. Christ is just used as a representative for religion and worship in the song, it is about American nationalism and self-worship and really isn't about Christianity.

The whole song is full of lines about American arrogance. For example, "I don't need to be a global citizen because i'm blessed by nationality" - we don't care about being citizens of the world, we care about being Americans.

Or "I feel sorry for the earth's population 'cuz so few live in the U.S.A. At least the foreigners can copy our morality. They can visit but they cannot stay. Only precious few can garner the prosperity." That whole verse is about Americans having an inflated self-image about our country, of feeling better than everyone else, and of being concerned only with our own nation and not with our world. Of looking down on foreigners because they don't have our wealth and our morals. None of that has anything to do with Christianity, but instead it is about American nationalism.

This song is about a comment George H.W. Bush (AKA Bush senior) made about the Gulf war. I belive he said something about how America would win any conflict in the middle east because "we have Jesus on our side." Basically, its about how arrogant Americans are and how arrogant Christians are. He killed two birds with one stone: Bash our fucked up society and Organized Religion at the same time. And THAT is y this is one of the all-time greatest songs.

Whew...a lot of comments on this one. I don't have time to read it all, but if there's anyone here who still thinks that this song is an insult to Christ, I recall reading an interview a while ago with Bad Religion, where either Greg or Brett (can't remember which) was asked about their Anti-Cross logo, and said that it's definately not Anti-Jesus, that Jesus was one of the coolest dudes who ever lived, and that they like to think that if he were alive today that He'd be a BR fan.

Sorry if I inturrupted anything. Comment might've been useless, but w/e. I needed something to do anyway.

hahah Phili eagles. "its sad to see what fairy tales like the bible can do teh world" haha that was great. I'm an athiest all the way and this is a great fucking song.

Another thing, why is it that a lot of people who really are christians do just do all these evil things because god told them to, since there are christians that compliment them on being 'good' people and good christians. Isn't the doctrine of Christianity and even a universal doctrine for brotherly love, because I don't see that even in the a lot of people who really are religious. A lot of them just seem to be selfish and walking in the ways of what they want even though god supposedly tells them. It's not just atheists that do that.