For those suggesting that this song only has religious "undertones," that's incorrect. Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, the two primary members of Low, are married and practicing Mormons. The song doesn't relate specifically to Mormon/LDS theology, however, but more a general Judeo-Christian one. If you watch the documentary that's titled after this song about Low, they both are asked about this song and give some thoughts. Alan Sparhawk basically said that the song is a meditation on a sort of Abarhamic (or, if you're Catholic, you might argue Marian, as well) submission to God's will, but from the perspective of more deeply flawed individual than Abraham. In other words, Abraham submitted totally to the will of God when asked to kill his son - the narrator of this song is expressing a similar desire to do God's "dirty work," if only God asks him to. I suppose it's more of an Old Testament way of viewing God, one might say - the vengeful, wrathful image that tends to lie more in that half of the Christian Bible than the New Testament, and a recognition that part of God's infinite/perfect plan may be to kill. The narrator doesn't question why this would be so, he just entertains the idea that God may desire as such, and bends to God's will, not his own.
For those suggesting that this song only has religious "undertones," that's incorrect. Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, the two primary members of Low, are married and practicing Mormons. The song doesn't relate specifically to Mormon/LDS theology, however, but more a general Judeo-Christian one. If you watch the documentary that's titled after this song about Low, they both are asked about this song and give some thoughts. Alan Sparhawk basically said that the song is a meditation on a sort of Abarhamic (or, if you're Catholic, you might argue Marian, as well) submission to God's will, but from the perspective of more deeply flawed individual than Abraham. In other words, Abraham submitted totally to the will of God when asked to kill his son - the narrator of this song is expressing a similar desire to do God's "dirty work," if only God asks him to. I suppose it's more of an Old Testament way of viewing God, one might say - the vengeful, wrathful image that tends to lie more in that half of the Christian Bible than the New Testament, and a recognition that part of God's infinite/perfect plan may be to kill. The narrator doesn't question why this would be so, he just entertains the idea that God may desire as such, and bends to God's will, not his own.