Take Me To Church

We live in a world where things like murder and crime are, for a lack of better words, are
glorified on the nightly news. There are many things nowadays that used be seen as taboo or
off topic to speak about but now come up in everyday conversation. One thing that is still felt
too taboo to speak about is the controversy surrounding the church and homosexuality. Hozier’s
Take Me to Church is addressing his unhappiness with the church; through the lens of Queer
theory there are examples of homophobia, heterosexism, and heterocentrism throughout the
song. Thus, Take Me to Church is a great example of someone stepping up and finally
addressing publicly the issues surrounding the church and homosexuals.

Hozier’s Take Me to Church is a song that hits hard and cuts deep right from the beginning. At
first listen, the song seemingly could be about a lot of different things but then the lyrics really
sink in. The song is about Hozier and his partner and how the church is not approving of them.
Hozier takes the listener on a journey through his emotions. He seems to know the disapproval
of the church and the world around him but he clearly doesn't care.

From the first couple of seconds of “Take Me to Church”, Hozier makes his intentions clear.
“Every Sunday's getting more bleak, A fresh poison each week "We were born sick", you heard
them say it” (0:17-0:28). Tyson teaches us that minoritizing and universalizing has long been
used to attack LGBTQ people (Tyson 306). The exactly an example that Tyson uses; “LGBTQ
people are born sick (or evil).” (Tyson 306), which is exactly what Hozier addresses in his song.
From 0:38-0:49 Hozier sings “I was born sick, but I love it”. He knows what he does in the eyes
of the church is wrong but is taking a stance for what he believes is right. Throughout his song
he infers that the church is Homophobic . Homophobia being “informed by the fear and loathing
of homosexuality”. Hozier seems to be suggesting that the church is pushing a heteropatriarchy,
which is a sometimes unconscious homophobia that is promoted by the patriarchy. The
patriarchy in this case being the church. Our society, though on the right track, is mostly
heterosexist and based off of heterosexism. A heterosexist culture is when enormous pressure
to be heterosexual is placed on young people by their families, schools, the church, the medical
professionals, and all forms of the media. Hoosier seems to be stonewalling the church in Take
Me to Church. Stonewalling is when a LGBTQ individual renounced their victim status and stood
up collectively for their rights as American citizens (Tyson, 304). Hozier sings the lyric, “I’ll tell
you my sins so you can sharpen your knife” and “Take me to church”, multiple times throughout
the songs. My interpretation of this is that he is finally taking a stand with his partner against
those who sought to bring them down.

Our society is one that focuses on a heteronormative and Heterocentrist attitude. Although,
LGBTQ individuals are bringing more widely accepted in todays society, there is still an
overwhelming pressure to be heterosexual in todays America. This is especially present in the
churches. Church can be a very unwelcoming place for someone in the LGBTQ community as
marriage is still defined as a union between a man and a women through the eyes of most
churches. Hozier has done a great job in shining a light on this issue through Take Me to
Church. He stands as a leader and through his song teaches individuals that even though the
church may not be accepting of them, someone will be.