Bad Religion -- "Skyscraper"

"Skyscraper" comes from Bad Religion's album, Recipe for Hate Come let us make bricks and burn them hard,
We'll build a city with a tower for the world
And climb so we can reach anything we may propose...
Anything at all

(Chorus)
Build me up, tear me down
like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down
these joining walls
So they can't climb at all

I know why You tore it down that day
You thought that, if You got caught, we'd all go away,
Like a spoiled little baby who can't come out to play,
You had your revenge

(Chorus)
***

God is childish? How much more childish is it to try and build a silly tower up to heaven... If anything, God did those people a favor by stopping them before they wasted any more time and energy on this vain pursuit.

Attempting to bring God down to our level, or trying to lift ourselves up to His level... now that is childish. The fact that God interacted with the citizens of Babel to correct their silliness was, in itself, an act of mercy. In a similar way parents correct their little children with the goal of helping them to grow up.

The fact that God interacts with us at all demonstrates His divine patience.

He takes action to correct our childishness and, like little children, we complain. He leaves us to our own devices and, like little children, we complain. He communicates with us in whatever way we will understand, which, much of the time, is as a parent adult dealing with a spoiled, whiny baby.

I should mention that most of my posts about Bad Religion are positive. Their insightfulness almost always impresses me... except in a few cases such as this song. Also, "Skyscraper" reminded me of a memorable rendition of the Tower of Babel story written and narrated by Jonathan Goldstein of NPR.


2 comments:

Kevin Lyons said...

You know, this is kind of funny to me, that you consider it childish to try and build a tower to heaven. According to the story of Babel, God directly influenced the destruction the tower in order to KEEP the men from making their way into Heaven. I'd say God took their building as a serious threat, rather than laughing it off as a childish attempt.

Anonymous said...


"6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
Argue about the consequences of their accomplishments all you want, but it is obvious from this verse that their efforts would not have been in vain.