Kefirah or Kosher

Here are the lyrics to a song that have been troubling me for sometime. Is this song kefirah or it is kosher? Heresy or Holy? The lyrics are in bold- the rest are my rambling thoughts.

One of Us – Joan Osborne

If God had a name, what would it be
and would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him in all his Glory,
what would you ask if you had just one question?

This is interesting, since the Bible itself refers to God by many names, as do the many nations of the world. Is Ms. Osborne oblivious of this? Perhaps she means a first name like Fred, or Jamie, you know, something his friends call him when they hang out…
Would you call it to his face? Well it’s a sin to take the Lord’s name in vain so maybe not, however if you were talking to God perhaps using his name would be OK…
It’s a good question.

And speaking of questions: What WOULD I ask if I had just one question?
Where are my car keys?
What’s the meaning of life the universe and everything? (Sorry GH, I stole your bit, not that you own HHGTHG)
What do YOU want from me?

Something to think about…. Sounds alright so far, but wait here comes the lame-o chorus:

Yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

A few interpretations:

1) Irony: This meant to make fun of people who praise God. Like my father-in-law says (jokingly) before he eats “Rub-a-dub-dub thanks for the Grub, Yay God, Yay God!”
If this is her intention, then that’s heresy, because are we not supposed to praise God?

2) Seriousness: Joan Osborn really thinks God is great, yeah, yeah, yeah.

3) Joan Osborn writes sucky lyrics and needed to fill in the chorus with something…
(View from Joan’s brain) Ok I need a chorus…something about God.. now what can I say about God, he’s cool, he’s powerful, he created the world….OH, I KNOW! He’s good and great, I’ll just fill in the rest with yeah yeahs! Brilliant!
Moving right along:

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin to make His way home

Ok this is a little stupid too. At first I thought this was heresy for SURE. God as a SLOB on the BUS? I should think not!
But she does say “what if?”
Well Joanie, if God was a slob on the bus like one of us he wouldn’t be God now would he.
This paragraph cancels itself out. Not heretical, not even possible.

Lookout here’s an interesting bit:

If God had a face, what would it look like
and would you wanna see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
in things like Heaven and Jesus and the Saints
and all the Prophets and...

Well that is the question isn’t it? Do people really want God to prove himself?
Once he does we lose our free will. We HAVE to believe, and if we believe then there is no rational way to defy His authority.
On the flip side it could turn out like the scenario in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions” an excellent book in which somewhere in the middle the author makes himself known to one of the characters who proceeds to deny his very existence despite the fact that he is a creation of the author.
It’s interesting to note that she mentions all the other things she thinks you’d have to believe in if God presented himself, but I guess that would only be true if the God who presented Himself to you was the Christian God. In which case I’d be in big trouble. No matter how you believe it’s an interesting question.

Then she returns to the lame refrain… Do with it as you will….

Yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah

Ok so to sum up, the woman has some good points. It’s a simple but somewhat thought provoking song. If it makes you think about your relationship with God then maybe it’s a good thing. If it feels like it’s mocking God to you then maybe it isn’t, but it doesn’t feel like heresy to me.