The Lord Is Not On Your Side
2007 - Branden Mann

If the Lord is your protection, you're gonna be surprised to find the Lord is not on your side.
You've got it right, don't get me wrong, but you're just as right as I've been and I'm just as right as you've been all along.  What to bless? Hallelujiah! What to curse?  Oh God, Damn! What is wrong and what is right?  What is black and what is white?  Oh my God!
If the Lord is your protection, you're gonna be surprised to find the Lord is not on your side.
With the Lord as your protection, don't be surprised, Lord, he's gonna let you down.  But you'll say "oh no, He's got a promise".  Oh, but admit it you're harboring some deep, deep doubts.
If the Lord is your protection, you're gonna be surprised to find the Lord is not on your side.
He's gonna choose who he answers, and he's gonna choose who he saves.  He's gonna choose who starves and who's around to live another day.  But everybody's got a different Lord, everybody's got their own way.  But everybody thinks that they know just what ol' Lord, he got to say.
If the Lord is your protection, you're gonna be surprised to find the Lord is not on your side.
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This one pisses a lot of people right off.  How dare I assert that God might be against them...

I wrote this song after a specific incident.  I admit I was in the wrong by letting my anger dictate my actions, but my anger stemmed from a sense of protecting my family.  To make a long story short, an elderly man was driving his giant, looming truck in a way that made me feel very unsafe, and upon learning that the destination for his aggressive driving was a discount tarp store, I let my anger get the best of me.  I followed him into the parking lot, and walked over to his truck.  He rolled down his window and I proceeded to shout at him about how he could have easily caused an accident.  He responded with an air of superiority that for lack of a better term, made him come across to me as a rich, unsympathetic, bitter old man who saw those who are younger or in a lower social standing as idiots.  He asked me how long I had been driving and I shouted "It doesn't matter how long I've been driving, I would NEVER endanger the lives of other drivers by driving so aggressively and dangerously".  This devolved into an argument about whose side the police would be on, had they been there, and I accused him of speeding, tailgating, and reckless, aggressive driving and told him that he could have himself been killed if I had to make any sudden maneuvers.  At this point, his wife, who had since been silent, piped up and said "Well, the Lord is our protection!"  This set me off on another rant, about the selectivity of God's protection, and on concepts that probably weren't very well accepted considering my tone...

That one phrase got me thinking, though.  If the Lord is their protection, what if they got into an accident with other Christians and someone died.  What determines who God protects and who he doesn't?  Does a faith in God's protection excuse risky behavior?  Wars have been started where both sides proclaim that God has explicitly endorsed their particular views, and not the views of the other side who believes just as faithfully in God's endorsement of their opposing view.

If you believe in God, you presumably want to join his team.  But whose team is God on?  No matter what you choose to believe, someone will have equally as firm convictions that you are wrong on at least one account.  Christianity and Islam both claim the other is wrong, but both religions require faith, and an acceptance of unprovable concepts that support their particular flavor of belief or "disprove" other beliefs.

Again, language, context, and definition are important to understand.  Using the term "Lord" as a pronoun for a deity is common, Lord Jesus, Lord God, Lord Krishna, Lord Mohammed, pick your religion, you've got a Lord.   Hence the line "everybody's got a different Lord, everybody's got their own way" - the problem arises when "everybody thinks that they know just what ol' Lord, he's got to say".  Even within Christianity, because of the deeply personal nature of faith and belief, everyone's concept of God is directly related to their experiences, interests, and shortcomings, and therefore creates contradictory definitions of God from person to person.

The line "If the Lord is your protection, you're gonna be surprised to find the Lord is not on your side" is kind of a language joke based on religious diversity.  If you specify a "Lord" that is your protection, chances are there's a "Lord" from an opposing religion who pledges protection to your enemies.  Proving who is right is impossible because of the faith involved in the very foundation of any religion that assumes a supernatural deity with un-understandable methods (i.e. mysterious ways).

Again, any questions about any specific lines or concepts in the song are welcome.  We should all understand and be understood.