Lyric discussion by TJsmarts 

A SONG ABOUT MANIPULATION This song is clearly NOT religious; Jesus is the symbol exploited by OTHERS, not Chris Cornell. I agree with the ideas expressed in previous posts that this is about those who claim to be martyrs to be superior, a kind of manipulation. Sure, the song could have been written about advertising models, but I think it has a more general interpretation, one that could be clarified with an example.

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION Let me give hypothetical situation. This song could represent a woman who claims to be suffering, who claims to need you, but at the same time seems to be superior to you. She holds our her arms compassionately, but really, she has intentions of control, telling you what to do, what feel. We feel sympathy for her, and we give in to her demands, but she really has other goals. She uses her seemingly vulnerable situation to get us to do things we might not otherwise do.

I suspect there are others out there who've experienced this kind of manipulation...

Religion is a nice conduit for pathological liars. Your hypothetical situation was my life 5 years ago..

@TJsmarts dude this sounds pretty right on. honestly, I never really thought of it like that before...or picked this up from the lyrics...but that makes a ton of fucking sense dude.

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