From: ecater36@ursa.calvin.edu (Evan Cater)
Subject: Re: What has Depeche Mode got to say?
Organization: Calvin College
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 19:17:41 GMT

sdt8s@curry.edschool.Virginia.EDU (Steve Tilson) writes:

>You leave out the one DM song that, more than Blasphemous
>Rumours, causes me to question their "harmlessness" and Martin
>Gore's supposed Christianity: "Personal Jesus."

>On one level, this song could be interpreted as an attack on
>the commercialization of Christ: an assault on the Robert
>Tiltons (the proximity of his name to my own makes me shudder)
>of the world, who promise a pipeline to God through them and
>such devices as "prayer cloths" and "love offerings" to the
>"ministry."

>But the song is never specific enough on this level. And the
>other interpretation of the song I've come up with -- an attack
>on the very idea that one can have a personal relationship with
>a Christ Who will answer prayers and take care of people who
>believe in Him -- is anti-Christian in the extreme, IMHO.

>Comments?

Those are both reasonable interpretations; either one *could* be what
the writer intended... but I don't think it is.  

Here's what can objectively be discerned from the song: the speaker
(not necessarily Gore) is encouraging somebody else to consider him 
his or her "own personal Jesus."  That's about all we get.  What it means
to be a "personal Jesus" is not clear, nor are the speaker's reasons for
suggesting this kind of relationship.  The song is left very much open to
interpretation.  So we really don't know what the author intends.  

The song doesn't seem to me to be particularly seem to me to be partic-
ularly satiric... I don't think he's ridiculing anything, including 
personal relationships with Jesus.  I agree that the song doesn't say
enough specifically to make a strong case for the Robert Tilton interp.
It fits okay, but I doubt if that was his intention.  So what do I think
he's trying to say?  I can offer a couple of possibilities I've thought
of:

There is a way to interpret the song which can be valuable to a Christian:
there's a sense in which we are all called to be a "personal Jesus" for 
other people; in our lives and in our relationships we can be a testimony
by being like him and perhaps by being an agent of his by praying with and
for supporting them. "Pick up the receiver, I'll make you a believer" can
be seen as an offer to be there for somebody else, particularly someone who
is not as strong in his or her faith.  "Someone to be in your prayers, someone
who cares" also fits well in this interp.  It's interesting to note that I can
remember a song being played on Christian radio (Steven Curtis Chapman, I
think) saying something along the lines of "we must be Jesus for them" or
"who will be Jesus for me" or something along those lines.  That could also
be said exactly as DM says it "[I'll be] your own personal Jesus."  

Do I think that's what Gore had in mind?  I definately tend to doubt it. 
Especially considering a lot of Depeche's other lyrics, which tend to deal
with dark topics... even if Gore is a Christian, he doesn't write like Steven
Curtis Chapman, so it may be foolish to read the song as if Chapman wrote it.
At least if you're looking for his original intent.  Personally, I don't 
think it's saying anything about Christ, Christianity, or religion in any way.
In fact, I think it was *intended* to be one of their lighter works.  One
reason I think so is that I've heard that the phrase comes from a quote from
Priscilla Presley.  Supposedly, she once referred to Elvis as her "own pers-
onal Jesus."  So if Depeche got the phrase from that context, it's of some 
relevance to figure out what Priscilla meant.  Did she mean that Elvis was a
Christlike testimony to God?  Probably not.  She probably meant that he was
the most important thing in her life, the way Jesus is to a Christian.  In
other words, the religious references are intended as metaphor.  I take it as  
a sort of sexual offer, actually... there's something taunting about "pick up  the receiver and I'll make you a believer" and "reach out touch faith."  Also 
note the description of the other person all alone in his/her room, "flesh
and blood by the telephone."  This is the impression I get, especially when you
put the lyrics to their dark synthesizer music.  

That's the way I think it was probably intended... not entirely wholesome 
stuff, and possibly somewhat offensive.  But I wonder, in a song this vague
and open-to-interpretation whether the author's intention is really that
important.  As Paul Simon once said, the listner's meaning for a song is just
as valid as the writer's.  If the Steven Curtis Chapman interp works for me,
then it is just as valuable as "Who Will Be Jesus For Me."  Even if I were to
read tomorrow that Martin Gore meant to ridicule personal relationships with
Christ, if I still think of being Jesus for someone who needs him, then it is
for me a helpful song.