Take me to church -Hozier (the meaning of the song)

For those of you who have read the lyrics of Hozier’s song “take me to church” you’d know it’s about bisexuality and how it is rejected by church and considered as a sin however the church has recently figured out that being bisexual is no longer is sin…

My lover's got humor.
She's the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody's disapproval
I should've worshipped her sooner

In the first half of the first paragraph Hozier’s talking about Aphrodite (the goddess of love) we can tell that she’s the one he’s worshipping because of calling her as “his lover” he loves her because she knows everybody’s disapproval but even though she still has humor. He regrets not believing in her sooner and he regrets the time he has been Christian ever before

If the Heavens ever did speak.
She is the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday's getting more bleak
a fresh poison each week

In the second half he is criticizing the Christians because they believe in what has been told to them by Heaven (heaven is God) and he’s considering that “if” it ever spoke what she’d say would be a lie.
Christian go to church on Sunday as known and during the ceremony they taste the Christ’s body and blood, in his point of view this is “fresh poison”

'We were born sick,' you heard them say it.
At church he heard people saying about him sick as if bisexuality is illness. Those words surely hurt him therefore he has offended the church this way

My church offers no absolutes.
She tells me 'worship in the bedroom'

In the Bible, there’s a sentence where Jesus says: “if you want to pray don’t pray and tell the world you’ve prayed but lock your bedroom’s door and pray right there because God is watching you and he’ll know whether you’ve prayed or not” sadly Hozier has understood those words differently and thought of another way of worshipping in the bedroom.

The only heaven I'll be sent to
is when I'm alone with you

Even though he might have been told that if he talks bullshit about church he won’t be sent to Heaven he still doesn’t mind because his only heaven is when he is with his boyfriend

I was born sick, but I love it
Command me to be well

Since when Church bans two men to love each other he’s asking her to command him to be well as if he was mocking her and telling her he has nothing to do about it by using the term “sick”. He’s saying it’s an illness with no cure

Amen. Amen. Amen

Christians use the word Amen while praying so here he is ending his words with Amen as if he wants his message to be heard by God. And by using it three times he means that he is certain of what he is saying and he’s not afraid to be heard by God even though that all along he was offending him

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies

Up there he is asking to be taken to church so that he could worship ‘like a dog’ so in his point of view, praying is worshipping like a dog who doesn’t dare to miss behave with his owner so that he gets food. The shrine is where the preacher man stands and talks about Christianity, however in Hozier’s point of view the shrine is where the preacher man ‘tells lies’

I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife

Christians go to the preacher man from time to time to tell him about their sins so that they’ll be forgiven though some preacher men don’t keep the secret. What Hozier mean is that preachers are disloyal and betraying their promises by telling other’s secrets… you’ll be able to understand more after watching the video (we see the preacher man dealing with others so that they could kill Hozier’s boyfriend)

Offer me that deathless death
Good God; let me give you my life

Hozier is mocking God again since when Christians think that there’s an afterlife which, right here is called ‘a deathless death’

If I'm a pagan of the good times
My lover's the sunlight
To keep the Goddess on my side
She demands a sacrifice
To drain the whole sea
Get something shiny
Something meaty for the main course
That's a fine looking high horse
What you got in the stable?
We've a lot of starving faithful
that looks tasty
that looks plenty
this is hungry work

Hozier didn’t only criticized the Christian’s religion but he also talked about the pagans which is an old religion where people believe in the god of sun and the goddess of war and what so over, pagans where used to offer sacrifices so that the goddess would be happy he’s mocking them by saying ‘drain the whole sea’ what he means is that the gods were asking people to accomplish impossible things and are always asking for more

No masters or kings when the ritual begins
there is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

Up here, he is talking about himself while loving his boyfriend, in his point of view this is his ritual (his prayer) and during that ritual he isn’t worshipping anybody but his boyfriend. Even though he knows that two men loving each other is a sin he has no problem with that and in his point of view that is an innocent sin

In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene
only then I am human
only then I am clean

By this, he means that producing sins is part of humanity and even though sins are qualified by dirt he still thinks he is clean

Amen. Amen. Amen

He repeated again the trilogy of amen but this time he has another meaning; he is using it for his own prayer to his own religion that he has made up. What he means is that those words he’s saying are prayers. We cannot forget that “amen” is used by the end of the prayer which means that this is the end and nobody will ever be able to speak to this

This is the meaning of the song with full logical answers I haven’t talked about my opinion in a single word however I’d like to clear up some things about that song.

Hozier is hurt because of not being able to share his love with the ones he loves. For those of you who have scientific knowledge you’d know that bisexuality is an illness and the gay guy has nothing to do about it. However, the church thinks it’s a sin because the church is against all sexual relations which have no benefits of new individuals. Eventually, nowadays, ‘normal married couples’ are having love too without a plan of having kids (by birth control). Hozier has the right to say whatever he wants about church because it is sometimes going beyond the limits by considering every little breath we are taking a sin however, he has not the right to talk that way about God. Sometimes church add a little bit more of rules to follow it doesn’t mean though that God is behind all of this. And for the ones who still are against bisexuality you should know that two people loving each other is no sin