Failure to Excommunicate

Relient K was my all-time, hands down favorite band in middle school. I first saw them on a WOW DVD that was played at a week of camp and after I heard their song "Chapstick, Chapped Lips and Things Like..." I had to find out more about this band. Today, while wasting time at work, I decided to revisit some of their old songs and stumbled upon one of my most loved songs by them. After listening to it again and again, I decided that it would be the focus of my entry today so if you enjoy lyric analysis then keep reading. You can listen to the song HERE

It's the principle it's the issue 

that your principal would dismiss you.

 Because you don't fit into that all-American Box.

That coffin created for creative thought.

It's disgusting his priorities

And how we're entrusting him with authority.

His gavel's gone down before he looked in your heart. 

He finished this race(ism) before he reached the start.

Jesus loved the outcasts.

He loves the ones the world just loves to hate.

And as long as there's a heaven, there'll be a failure to excommunicate.

The world just keeps you at an arm's length.

Every week you work up the strength to fight the flames that are hurled.

Let your faith shine right through.

You know it's the world versus Jesus and you.

 It's disgusting, their priorities.

And how we're entrusting them with authority.

Their gavel's gone down before they looked in your heart.

They finished this race(ism).

Let's think about what the word "excommunicate" means. The Free Dictionary defines it as
1. To deprive of the right of church membership by ecclesiastical authority.
2. To exclude by or as if by decree from membership or participation in a group.

Now, most of us will say "Glad we don't do that in our church" or "that's so wrong and un-Christian" and while most of us attend church where anyone is supposedly welcome, how many times do we mentally judge or dismiss a newcomer to our congregation? Or how many times do we purposefully not invite someone to an event simply because we don't like them or don't feel like dealing with them? We may not be forbidding someone to have communion but we're certainly excluding them from what could be the fellowship that they need to get them through the next month, week or even day. As Christians, it is our duty to stand up, stand together, and spread the word about Jesus Christ. How can we do that if we dismiss people so easily just by their clothes, opinions, etc?

Another way to think about these lyrics are to apply them to today's government. Because of the current state of America, I feel like this song could have been some crazy, coincidental foreshadowing about what our country would be like in a few years. Political scandals rock the internet almost daily and it seems as if Christians are slowly becoming the minority, but how amazing is it that as long as we have faith in Jesus and we don't give in to this world, he's always by our side no matter what? Idk...

Let me know what you think about this. Did I completely miss the point of the song or do you agree?

Album - The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek