Whose Side - Really?

I was surprized and a bit shocked last week, to realize that I was not aware of a Bob Dylan song.  Now, I am not a great fan of Bob Dylan but a fan of his music.  Indeed, one of my earliest ventures into solo performing in public was to sing Blowing in The Wind in a Kiwanis Festival when I was about 12 years old.  I am pleased to announce that I won first place in my class.  Impressive until you realize that I was the only entry in the class – but first place is still first place.

In any case, I grew up in the sixties when it was the golden age for folk singers and songs in the popular music scene.  I was a big fan of folk music and paid a lot of attention to all the popular folkies such as Peter, Paul and Mary; Leonard Cohen; Gordon Lightfoot; Cat Stevens; Joni Mitchell; Joan Baez.  Of course, Bob Dylan was right up there with the best of them.   So, it was truly a surprize when I discovered what was a popular Dylan song from that era that I didn’t know about.  That song is With God on Our Side.

After some extensive investigation – actually putting the song into Google - I found out that it was on Dylan’s ground breaking 1964 album, The Times They are A-Changin’, which included such folk classics the title song, North Country Blues, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, and Only a Pawn in Their Game, among others.  There was a definite theme of social justice and protest in the songs on the album which, of course, caught the essence of that era.

With God on Our Side certainly fit right in with that theme.  To quote that great all-knowing source, Wikipedia:  

The lyrics address the tendency of Americans to believe that God will invariably side with them and oppose those with whom they disagree, thus leaving unquestioned the morality of wars fought and atrocities committed by their country.

 The lyrics are quite extensive so I won’t quote them all here – here’s a link if you are interested and I would certainly recommend checking them out https://www.google.com/search?q=bob+dylan+song+with+god+on+our+side+lyric.  I will give you a taste of the essence of the song with a few verses:

The Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now, too
Have God on their side

I've learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

You can see from this that not a lot has changed since then as we are learning to hate the Russians again due to the war - sorry “special military operation” in the Ukraine.  I must admit it is hard not to slide into the belief that God is on the side of the Ukrainian people and those who support them.  But it is a slippery slope as Dylan points out in the song. 

I was particularly taken with the last two verses of the song which brought the dangers of this home to me and the hope that we is certainly cling to today:

Through many a dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ was
Betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
That if God's on our side
He'll stop the next war

 Perhaps, instead of thinking that God is on our side we should be trying our best to be on God’s side.  Thoughts for your journey – blessings.