Can’t Take God Away // ErichMusick.com

Music has always been a big part of our culture. People sing and listen to songs for entertainment and for encouragement. Explore folk songs or Negro spirituals for instance. Many slaves sang spirituals for encouragement and hope to carry them through the rough times they experienced. Even today, most people enjoy listening to music because they can relate to the things about which the artists sing. Often artists sing about things that either upset or please them. These days, much of American music exposes problems in our society. In a song entitled, Can’t Take God Away, the Christian rock group Audio Adrenaline sings about how God is being taken out of various aspects of the American culture more and more, but nothing can take Him out of the singer’s life. This song is an accurate assessment of the nation today.

The song deals first with education when it explains, “You can take God out of my school/You can make me listen to you/You can take God out of the pledge” in lines 1-3. It used to be that there was daily prayer in our nation’s schools. At one time, students learned about God there. In recent years, though, God has been taken out of school as much as possible. Some people have even gone as far as taking the “under God” clause out of the Pledge of Allegiance. I agree with this portion of the song. Every day, I attend a school where I’m taught that my beliefs are just as good as yours – if you think something’s right, you are justified in doing it, even if I believe it’s wrong. I am forced to listen to the concepts of evolution that say we came from essentially nothing. Rather than learning about God, we learn about how “nice” all Muslims are, that they believe in the same God we do, that the Muslim terrorists were “only extremists,” and that Islam is peaceful. Because the schools aren’t allowed to teach that God exists, (“That would be forcing religion on people; we have to have separation of church and state”) the government is implying that believing in God isn’t important. According to what we’re taught, “We are all that matters. We’re all good people but we’ll be failures if we don’t make more money than our parents did.”

The song deals next with freedom when it says, “You can take my life, my land my liberty/Lock me up, I’ll still be free” in lines 10 – 11. Every day in many parts of the world, governments imprison, beat, torture, and even kill Christians for their faith. To the songwriter, even if he experiences such atrocities, he is still free. Although these horrors are uncommon here in the United States, I believe this statement still applies to our country. Freedoms are still taken away from people because of their beliefs in God, only on a smaller scale. For example, despite the fact that it is illegal, many schools prohibit Christian clubs from using all the resources that are available to other clubs in the school…all in the name of the “separation of church and state” allegedly found in the Constitution.

The song deals lastly with laws when it says, “You can take God out of the law/You can make me listen to ya’ll” in lines 13-14. This statement shows the songwriter’s belief that God has been removed from laws of our country. As with the other excerpts from the song, I agree completely. When the country was first founded, the laws were based on God’s laws, as described in the Bible. Basic laws such as murder and theft were declared illegal not only because they hurt people, but because they were wrong by God’s standard. Sadly, in the past 226 years, the laws have strayed away from God’s standards. You can still be severely punished for murdering someone, given they’ve been born. If they haven’t been born, “it’s okay, because they’re not a human yet.” Furthermore, people are trying to pass laws legalizing same-sex marriages, an abomination and perversion according to the Bible. People excuse it by saying, “They can’t help it; they were born that way.” If God said it was so wrong to live that type of lifestyle, why would He create someone who had an attraction for the same sex? There are countless other examples of the removal of God’s principles in the laws of today.

Despite all the things out of which God can be detached, it is impossible to take God away from people, as the song strongly emphasizes. The song responds to each thing from which God is removed by contrasting it with the fact that He can’t be taken away from people. For example, education deals primarily with the human intellect, which is associated with the head and the brain. To counter the fact that God has been removed from the public school system and the schools imply He doesn’t exist, the song explains on line 4, “But you can’t take God out of my head.”

The main focus of this song is “You can’t take God away.” This statement couldn’t be more true. It means a lot not only to the singers and songwriters but also to me. God is more important than anything else – He’s all that matters. The only reason I have for living is living for Him. Without Him, I’d only live to please myself. What good is that when all your earthly treasures are no longer with you once you die? People can do what they want to me – they can harass me, take away my freedom, rob me of my abilities, but they can’t do anything to take God away from me.

“Can’t Take God Away”

(From Audio Adrenaline’s Don’t Censor Me album, 1993)

You can take God out of my school
You can make me listen to you
You can take God out of the pledge
But you can’t take God out of my head

Listen to me closely, lend me your ear
The substance of my statement lets you know I’m sincere
Government officials, shapers of the land
I’ve got to tell you something you need to understand

CHORUS
You can’t take God away from me
You can take my life, my land, my liberty
Lock me up, I’ll still be free
‘Cause you can’t take God from me

You can take God out of the law
You can make me listen to ya’ll
You can take God out of the start
But you can’t take God out of my heart

Listen to me closely, lend me your ear
The substance of my statement lets you know I’m sincere
Government officials, shapers of the land
I’ve got to tell you something you need to understand

REPEAT CHORUS

BRIDGE
You can’t take God, you can’t take God away
You can’t take God, you can’t take God away
You can’t take God, you can’t take God away
You can’t take God, you can’t take God away

REPEAT CHORUS