In a manner not terribly different from the way Metallica’s James
Hetfield describes it, Nietzsche depicts Christianity as a “slave morality.”
Originating among the members of a relatively insignificant ethnic group living under the heel of Roman rule, Christian morality found its origins in a sentiment both puny and dishonorable— “resentment” (ressentiment). Resenting Roman power, members of the Jesus movement argued that it’s really the meek that are blessed.
Resenting Roman wealth, they praised poverty and simplicity. In the
face of Roman pride, Christians promoted humility. Against Roman military might, they deployed peacemaking. Since the Romans ruled this world, Christians concocted a better, truer kingdom in another world, a transcendent world beyond this one, beyond Rome. But it wasn’t enough for early Christians simply to defy Roman rule. They also produced their own distinctive way of ruling, of exerting
power over others. Perhaps the most effective way Christians exerted power was by collecting the faithful into a docile “herd” through the idea that we all carry an internal debt called “sin.”2 Having convinced people of this, Christian priests proclaimed that they alone could forgive the debt, that only through the authority of their religion could human beings find consolation and salvation
(John 14:6, 10:9). It was a wildly successful technique.
Aside from Nietzsche’s, perhaps the most influential critique of religion was articulated by Karl Marx (1818–83). While it would be wrong to characterize Metallica as a Marxist band, there are elements of Metallica’s critique that overlap with Marx’s. Writing in the year of Nietzsche’s birth, Marx famously described religion as the “opium of the people.”3 This opium, says Marx, deadens people,
submerging them in a stupor that renders them unable to think clearly or resist effectively the exploitation to which they’re subjected. Metallica is certainly no stranger to this insight.
Hetfield’s lyrics in, for example, “Leper Messiah” describe religion alternatively as a “disease,” an addictive drug, a form of mind control, and an instrument of power.4 In an especially rich and compressed lyric, Metallica weaves together Nietzschean and Marxian themes into an evocative bundle: “Marvel at his tricks, need your Sunday fix. / Blind devotion came, rotting your brain. / Chain, chain /
Join the endless chain, taken by his glamour / Fame, Fame / Infection is the game, stinking drunk with power. / We see.” The song also depicts the way Christianity weakens people and gathers them into an obedient herd: “Witchery, weakening / Sees the sheep are gathering / Set the trap, hypnotize / Now you follow. / [Chorus] / Lie.” “Holier than Thou” announces a kind of solidarity with the working
class and threatens (religious? revolutionary?) judgment in response to the way things posing as “sacred” and “just” commonly cloak privilege and exploitation. “It’s not who you are, it’s who you know / Others lives are the basis of your own / Burn your bridges build them back with wealth / Judge not lest ye be judged yourself.” “And Justice for All” expresses a more impotent and defeated sentiment, but nevertheless an understanding of how things really work: “Halls of
justice painted green / Money talking / Power wolves beset your door / Hear them stalking / Soon you’ll please their appetite / They devour / Hammer of justice crushes you / Overpower.”
For all its apparent defeatism, however, there is perhaps a kind of ambiguity in that last line, “overpower”—a call to the oppressed to rise up and overpower the forces that are crushing them. But, if revolutionary inspiration’s what you’re after, these few half-submerged suggestions offer a pretty thin reed to cling to.
