Is it me or is 21st quite a religious album?

[Drink Drank Punk]

You're right, I think Billie is now a Westboro Baptist.

[Tiffx]

There is alot of religious references on the album.. I don't know what everyone was so quick to shoot down this topic.. The album is about the 21st Century and the problems we're currently facing. Religion has the capability of causing more problems than it's worth at the moment - of course it would be memtioned.

I think even the character Christian is, in some ways, a take on religion. He wants to burn down and destroy everything that he sees is wrong with the world. Like some religious people want to destroy anything or anyone that disagrees with them.

Yeah I completely agree.

[Bryn]

You're right, I think Billie is now a Westboro Baptist.

Can I get an Amen, and a beer!

[Green Day 13]

it kinda came across as one to me but i duno it also says fuck a lot in Horseshoes and Handgrenades so i duno...... i guess to some extent kinda it is.

[Guest Billy]

Billie Joe is preaching and saying that God is amazing. He's talking about how God game him all the gifts he had to use to make this album and he's thanking him. He's thanking God for his beautiful children and wife. Then he's thanking God for his good health and previous graces. Then, he delivers these powerful messages that say, "Jesus is alive and risen." It just really speaks to me. He's practically preaching to us to go to Church, to worship God, and to obey the 10 commandments. It's flowing with this stuff.

not.

[Pan.]

Billie grew up in a Christian household, so I'm guessing most of the songs were inspired from that. Remember American Idiot? There were also some religious references in some of the songs off that album, too.

But since Billie isn't preaching to us or anything, I wouldn't consider it to be a "religious" album.... if it were, it wouldn't have a parental advisory label on it, haha.

[Boston]

East Jesus nowhere is the only song that deals with religion, and that's about the hyporcisy of it

False. There are a subtle religious ideas throughout the album, which combine to form some overall theory on religion, though I've yet to determine what it is.

That's leading us to the promised land

1. Condemnation is what I understood

2. And I choked on my faith

3. Wasting my time, and waiting for judgement day

That's just the first two songs, and there are four blatant religious references. That's not to mention things like the concept of fire and light, the names Christian and Gloria, etc.

[Guest Hayley]

Not really...

[Aria]

An album of religious praise this is not. Religious criticism is a motif that is all over this album. I wouldn't say its about religion as much as it is social commentary. I understand the point being made, but I wouldn't call the album itself religious. But it does it address certain problems with it, yes everywhere.

[wwnflat_punk]

The characters have religious names. I think some of the songs like East Jesus Nowhere, are a protest against religious hypocrisy (don't follow a certain religion/religious idea if you don't believe it). Billie Joe also uses the term "faith fanatics",which relates to religious hypocrisy.

[Sharmellow]

Religion is only a small element in the album.

[toaster_poodle]

I think a lot of us are having conflicting views of what it would mean for an album to be "religious". When I saw the album is religious, I obviously don't mean it advocates God or religion or carries a Christian (or otherwise) message. However, it does definitely address issues regarding religion, albeit in a negative and skeptical way, and I guess in that sense you could call it a "religious" album if you really wanted to. Of course religion is just one of several sub contexts to the album...

The characters have religious names. I think some of the songs like East Jesus Nowhere, are a protest against religious hypocrisy (don't follow a certain religion/religious idea if you don't believe it). Billie Joe also uses the term "faith fanatics",which relates to religious hypocrisy.

Well it's definitely about questioning religion and stuff like that, but it goes deeper than that too... I think he's also taking shots at how mainstream religion has become corrupt and the way the Christian/Catholic church operates these days (in general) can hardly be described as "Christian"...

[Freeny]

I love the line "like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone" from 21 Guns.

To me, that's clearly about religion.

A lot of the album does have to do about religion, yes..

[EmmOuGR]

Billie Joe's answer:

Religion is a central theme of 21st Century Breakdown. Armstrong told The Sun April 24, 2009 that in particular, he was examining the hypocrisy of it and how organized religion is used to control poor people. He explained: "I like to consider myself a spiritual person, that there's some kind of higher power. But then there's culture and religious wars done in the name of their god. That's the manipulation. The hard part of it is when someone has blind faith. There's no arguing with them. You can't reason with them and they don't even respect your opinion. By the time you get to the final song (on the album), you're trying to find a deeper meaning in yourself, I guess."

[Bastard of 1967]

There are a subtle religious ideas throughout the album, which combine to form some overall theory on religion, though I've yet to determine what it is...That's not to mention things like the concept of fire and light, the names Christian and Gloria, etc.

I'll write more on this when I have more time later, but I wanted to jump in on this now while so many good ideas from everyone are percolating. There is a lot of religious commentary and criticism in the album. BJA was raised in a Catholic household and at some point came to view the church's teachings as bullshit, as steering us in the wrong direction rather than in the right one. You see that all over the place in the album, most particularly in EJN but other commentaries and criticisms are sprinkled throughout other songs. The thing that's so, so noteworthy (that I overlooked for *weeks* until my wife, of all people, listened to the album this past weekend and pointed it out to me) is how dominant the apocalyptic metaphors are throughout the whole album. The references to infernos, fire, traveling through fire to see the light, Gloria (the Christian [religion, not character] term for "glory"), judgment day, Gloria as a lost cause waiting for salvation (from Little Girl), and many others that I'll go digging for in detail later, are just all over the place in this record.

Now - layer on top of this the characters' names and what they represent: Christian as fire, revolution, and destruction; Gloria as light and freedom; toss in what we know from the interviews that the Christian and Gloria characters are intended to represent polar opposites of a single concept; and now take a look at these verses from Before The Lobotomy:

"Dying/Everyone's reminded/Hearts are washed in misery/Drenched in gasoline

Laughter/There is no more laughter/Songs of yesterday now live/In the underground"

What does gasoline have to do with this? Light a spark around it and KABOOM!!! Perhaps the spark of revolution that is driven home in Know Your Enemy?

So let's jump out to a "big picture" perspective and here's what we get: Christian dogma has so badly fucked up the world that all we have now is dead memories...dead, buried, underground...waiting for judgment day, waiting for salvation, waiting for not necessarily "the apocalypse" but more along the lines of some violent revolution with apocalyptic qualities -- perhaps a natural disaster -- to light up the life and dreams that used to be, to wipe the slate clean of all the heroes, cons, charlatans, and saints that have destroyed us, and giving us the freedom to start over again. And - anyone who listens to 21CB and thinks that Green Day has lost their punk roots is full of it.

Ok, it's up the flagpole now. I'll add more to this later as time allows. What do the rest of y'all think?

[nimrod-41]

It is a lot about religion.

With AI, When Billie sang "The Jesus of Subburabia is a lie" he was litteraly saying that Jesus is a lie.

The first time he listened to the album, that line used to bug a friend of mine because he thought it meant he'd just wasted over 9 minutes of his life on that song and it turned out to be a lie.

[Nova-Caine]

I'll write more on this when I have more time later, but I wanted to jump in on this now while so many good ideas from everyone are percolating. There is a lot of religious commentary and criticism in the album. BJA was raised in a Catholic household and at some point came to view the church's teachings as bullshit, as steering us in the wrong direction rather than in the right one. You see that all over the place in the album, most particularly in EJN but other commentaries and criticisms are sprinkled throughout other songs. The thing that's so, so noteworthy (that I overlooked for *weeks* until my wife, of all people, listened to the album this past weekend and pointed it out to me) is how dominant the apocalyptic metaphors are throughout the whole album. The references to infernos, fire, traveling through fire to see the light, Gloria (the Christian [religion, not character] term for "glory"), judgment day, Gloria as a lost cause waiting for salvation (from Little Girl), and many others that I'll go digging for in detail later, are just all over the place in this record.

Now - layer on top of this the characters' names and what they represent: Christian as fire, revolution, and destruction; Gloria as light and freedom; toss in what we know from the interviews that the Christian and Gloria characters are intended to represent polar opposites of a single concept; and now take a look at these verses from Before The Lobotomy:

"Dying/Everyone's reminded/Hearts are washed in misery/Drenched in gasoline

Laughter/There is no more laughter/Songs of yesterday now live/In the underground"

What does gasoline have to do with this? Light a spark around it and KABOOM!!! Perhaps the spark of revolution that is driven home in Know Your Enemy?

So let's jump out to a "big picture" perspective and here's what we get: Christian dogma has so badly fucked up the world that all we have now is dead memories...dead, buried, underground...waiting for judgment day, waiting for salvation, waiting for not necessarily "the apocalypse" but more along the lines of some violent revolution with apocalyptic qualities -- perhaps a natural disaster -- to light up the life and dreams that used to be, to wipe the slate clean of all the heroes, cons, charlatans, and saints that have destroyed us, and giving us the freedom to start over again. And - anyone who listens to 21CB and thinks that Green Day has lost their punk roots is full of it.

Ok, it's up the flagpole now. I'll add more to this later as time allows. What do the rest of y'all think?

You sir are a genius and yet again I have loved reading every word. Now why can't get it all out like that?

This album is just outstanding, it winds me up when I read people slagging it off on other message boards because in their opinion Green Day have been crap since Warning, they have no idea what this band has done, where they have travelled, how they have travelled so far so deep inside themselves to wrench out of their guts all the fire and brimstone they deliver to us.

I listen to the album over and over and notice something different every time.

I look forward to reading more from you later.

[Hermione]

I'll write more on this when I have more time later, but I wanted to jump in on this now while so many good ideas from everyone are percolating. There is a lot of religious commentary and criticism in the album. BJA was raised in a Catholic household and at some point came to view the church's teachings as bullshit, as steering us in the wrong direction rather than in the right one. You see that all over the place in the album, most particularly in EJN but other commentaries and criticisms are sprinkled throughout other songs. The thing that's so, so noteworthy (that I overlooked for *weeks* until my wife, of all people, listened to the album this past weekend and pointed it out to me) is how dominant the apocalyptic metaphors are throughout the whole album. The references to infernos, fire, traveling through fire to see the light, Gloria (the Christian [religion, not character] term for "glory"), judgment day, Gloria as a lost cause waiting for salvation (from Little Girl), and many others that I'll go digging for in detail later, are just all over the place in this record.

Now - layer on top of this the characters' names and what they represent: Christian as fire, revolution, and destruction; Gloria as light and freedom; toss in what we know from the interviews that the Christian and Gloria characters are intended to represent polar opposites of a single concept; and now take a look at these verses from Before The Lobotomy:

"Dying/Everyone's reminded/Hearts are washed in misery/Drenched in gasoline

Laughter/There is no more laughter/Songs of yesterday now live/In the underground"

What does gasoline have to do with this? Light a spark around it and KABOOM!!! Perhaps the spark of revolution that is driven home in Know Your Enemy?

So let's jump out to a "big picture" perspective and here's what we get: Christian dogma has so badly fucked up the world that all we have now is dead memories...dead, buried, underground...waiting for judgment day, waiting for salvation, waiting for not necessarily "the apocalypse" but more along the lines of some violent revolution with apocalyptic qualities -- perhaps a natural disaster -- to light up the life and dreams that used to be, to wipe the slate clean of all the heroes, cons, charlatans, and saints that have destroyed us, and giving us the freedom to start over again. And - anyone who listens to 21CB and thinks that Green Day has lost their punk roots is full of it.

Ok, it's up the flagpole now. I'll add more to this later as time allows. What do the rest of y'all think?

I have to agree with Jax, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this. There just seems to be layer after layer of meaning in this album, and when someone can really dig into that meaning and express it so well like this it makes it even more capitvating and enjoyable to listen to (if that was possible). I agree religion is a core part of the album, and you've summed it up perfectly.

[kokonut_soda]

Nicely said, mjfisher209.

[jesus the rage guy]

this album is religious as me xd