With God On Our Side
Written by a 22 year-old Bob Dylan in 1963 (45 years ago!) and still relevant.
Heard it today and it struck me hard.
Had to share.
Take the time to read it.
With God On Our Side
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.
Heard it today and it struck me hard.
Had to share.
Take the time to read it.
With God On Our Side
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.
posted by Mojo at 2:07 PM
2 Comments:
Back growin' up in Oakland, right alongside the Ramapo Mountains, I was way too cool for stupid music like Dylan ... then I really grew up and today his first three albums are just pure gold.
But this song, while an amazing composition, it can be confusing, like Bob states himself. War is bad. He wants God to stop the next one ... but God is on the side of war when it's a just war, when the intended outcome is to rid the Earth of evil... sometimes that thought gets really lost amongst bombs and death.
If the calendar read 1943, would Bob really have wished that God would have stopped the war against Hitler and the Japanese?
Of course we need to question war, of course nations including our own have waged wars that have been senseless ... but should war really truly be stopped if it looks like evil will prevail?
Good points zooma.
You might find interesting reading at the link at the end of this post.
The writer is a pretty sharp guy who points out that the second-to-last verse suggests that we really don't know what God is up to.
And in the last verse, Dylan says that it's futile to be anti-war.
"My words fall to the floor", he says.
I've never taken Bob Dylan to be the pacifist the extreme left wishes he were. I've heard Bob talk about how he spent days poring over Civil War era newspapers and I also remember a quote where he says, "I could always kinda see myself dying in some heroic battle."
To my mind anyway, pacifism is morally bankrupt. If you are going to claim to be anti-war across the board, you may as well say you are pro-slavery, pro-Nazi and pro-genocide.
Your point about 1943 is a good one.
http://www.rightwingbob.com/godonour.htm
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