I was surprised to hear a powerful song on mainstream radio about LGBT rights for one thing. But then the song is also openly anti-religious too. When I thought about it how can a song about how harsh the world is to LGBT people be anything but anti-religious in order to speak the truth?
The steady stream of hate coming from the pulpits turns more people away from the church than any advocate of atheism ever could.
Same Love Lyrics
by Macklemore (bold emphasis mine)
[Verse 1: Macklemore] When I was in the 3rd grade
I thought that I was gay
Cause I could draw, my uncle was
And I kept my room straight
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She’s like, “Ben you’ve loved girls since
before pre-K”
Trippin’, yeah, I guess she had a point,
didn’t she
A bunch of stereotypes all in my head
I remember doing the math like
“Yeah, I’m good a little league”
A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant
For those who like the same sex had the
characteristics
The right-wing conservatives think it’s a
decision
And you can be cured with some
treatment and religion Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition
Playing God
Ahh nah, here we go
America the brave
Still fears, what, we don’t know
And God loves all His children
Is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written
35 hundred years ago
I don’t know
[Hook: Mary Lambert]
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm [x4]
[Verse 2: Macklemore]
If I was gay
I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments
lately
“Man that’s gay”
Gets dropped on the daily We’ve become so numb to what we’re
sayin’
Our culture founded from oppression
Yeah, we don’t have acceptance for ’em
Call each other faggots
Behind the keys of a message board
A word routed in hate
Yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from
religion
Gender and skin color
Complexion of your pigment
The same fight that lead people to walkouts and sit-ins
t’s human rights for everybody
There is no difference
Live on! And be yourself! When I was in church
They taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service
Those words aren’t anointed
And that Holy Water
That you soak in
Is then poisoned When everyone else
Is more comfortable
Remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans
That have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same
But that’s not important
No freedom ’til we’re equal
Damn right I support it
I don’t know
[Hook: Mary Lambert]
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm [x4]
[Verse 3: Macklemore] We press play
Don’t press pause
Progress, march on! With a veil over our eyes We turn our back on the cause
‘Till the day
That my uncles can be united by law
Kids are walkin’ around the hallway
Plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful
Someone would rather die
Than be who they are
And a certificate on paper
Isn’t gonna solve it all
But it’s a damn good place to start
No law’s gonna change us We have to change us Whatever god you believe in We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it’s all the same love
About time that we raised up
[Hook: Mary Lambert]
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm [x4]
[Outro: Mary Lambert]
Love is patient, love is kind
Love is patient (not cryin’ on Sundays)
Love is kind (not crying on Sundays) [x5]
Holy crap, I am in tears over here. Thanks for posting.
Loved it the first time I heard it here (we got an amazing alternative station here in Kansas City). Thanks for reminding me!
I heard this song twice today on local radio, and thought. Holy shit, that’s powerful, and it hits all the right notes?
“Same Love” is a very powerful song, and it’s been good hear it get so much airtime (although I wonder if I’ve been hearing it more here in California than you’ve heard it in Texas).
_
But I’m not sure it can be said to be anti-religion – it’s more specifically anti-religiously-motivated hate. And Google itself informs me that Macklemore himself has described himself as “spiritual, but not religious” and said “Music is how I connect to God”. Perhaps he could be called anti-organized-religion.
Lilandra:
I first heard this song earlier in the summer. I usually have the radio on in my car, but it is often background noise. I didnt start to pick up on the lyrics until the tail end, but like you, I was floored. As a gay man, hearing an artist sing about gay rights was amazing. I scrambled once I got home to figure out who the artist was, but the radio station didnt pick up. Then came the DUH moment. After a few minutes of searching online, I found the artist and lyrics. The song is moving. And it is mainstream. The message it delivers is reaching a LOT of people via a popular medium.
I do not listen to hip hop/rap, as much of what I have heard does not appeal to me.
Macklemore does. It is all the more powerful given his in-song criticism of hip hops treatment of gays.
@4:
The song gets a lot of airtime where I live (NW FL).
powerful video great massage… as a straight male i’m appauled at what we do to eachother, and often in the name of some “all loving god(s)”…. make it a point to combat the ignorance most display daily, do not just brush it off, confront it, doing anything less is the same as condoning it.
Thank you, Lilandra. One of my children is gay and trans, and watching what she is forced to go through just hurts. I’m sending her this video with all my love attached to it.
As a mother of a junior in high school who happens to be a lesbian, I burst into tears while driving when I first heard this playing. I have seen so much hate in my 50 years and none so poignant as what I have seen as my daughter has come of age. Can you imagine this playing on the radio even 3 years ago?? Damn, something’s in my eye again.