“American Jesus” is a song created by the band Bad Religion and was first published in their 1993 album Recipe for Hate. It also made an appearance in their 2013 album entitled Bad Religion Christmas Songs. The track protests against the ways Christianity has blended with American nationalism, a trend which has only become more prominent since it was released.
“Their lyrics…were almost prophetic,” said George Kneller, an English teacher at Champaign Central High School. “It’s talking about Christian nationalism, [and] today we’re seeing the worst attitudes about immigration.”
Not only does “American Jesus” speak to political issues, it also covers cultural and social ones. Traditions surrounding holy days like Christmas have become more about buying and exchanging gifts than celebrating a holy birth or even just spending time with family.
Kneller described recent changes in Christianity as “all about selling the experience as entertainment rather than honoring it as devotion.”
Capitalism, which focuses only on personal or immediate familial interests, has been affecting both Christmas and American Christianity at large. This idea is exemplified in both “American Jesus” and the take of a Central High School student.
Ace Hopkins, a junior at Central, asserted it goes without saying that Christmas is a capitalistic holiday, saying, “that’s kinda what Christmas is. You buy stuff for people.”
From changes in Christmas tradition to the adverse treatment of those seen as “other,” Bad Religion’s “American Jesus” is a great song for reflection this holiday season.
I don’t need to be a global citizen,
‘Cuz I have the states’ morality.
Just look over to our Eastern allies
They’re impressed by our brutality
There are things that seem to pull us under and,
It’s blamed on those who are brown
But the broken orders and the systems
We’re ready to burn down
We’ve got the American Jesus,
Decked out in white and red
We’ve got the American Jesus,
Painted orange and selling dread
I feel sorry for the Earth’s population,
They don’t get this Christmas day.
Guns are perfect gifts for lethality
Millions die as their foreplay.
Only precious few can garner our prosperity,
Not even the priests can deny.
Wealth works to erase godlessness
And bury the outcry
We’ve got the American Jesus,
For just 9.99 today
We’ve got the American Jesus,
You don’t even have to pray
One nation, to defraud.
We’ve got the American Jesus
The cheapest ever seen
We’ve got the American Jesus
Running this well-oiled machine
We’ve got the American Jesus
Made across the seas
We’ve got the American Jesus
Born to wipe out this disease
