"To Be Alone with You" by Sufjan Stevens, Friday, July 16, 2021

In 2004, Sufjan Stevens released Seven Swans, a folk-rock album that is his most religious work to date. Drawing on Biblical themes, both Old and New Testament, Stevens has continued to intertwine the Bible into his folk and electronic music, but rarely could his works after Seven Swans be mistaken for CCM. That's not to say that Seven Swans is a typical Christian album. In fact, songs like "To Be Alone with You" introduce new themes that much of his Christian audience would condemn. In "To Be Alone with You" the most obvious subject of the song is Christ who "gave up a wife and a family. . . . to be alone with [us, Christ] went up on a tree." However, the last line of the song: "I've never known a man who loved me" helps to offset the Christian interpretation and started listeners to think that Stevens was talking about homosexual love, a theme Stevens has embraced by writing and contributing to the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack. 

I'D GIVE MY BODY TO BE BACK AGAIN IN THE REST OF THE ROOM. Sufjan Stevens withholds many details of his life from the press, particularly about his romance and religion. On one occasion, Stevens revealed where he was attending church. On albums like Carrie & Lowell, he doesn't shy away from delving into his personal life; however, in prior works, listeners are left wondering if it's personal details or the work of a skilled storyteller. Like with his lyrics, Stevens often teases CCM connections, associating with Christian folk artists like Denison Witmer, Rosie Thomas, and Danielson Famile, even performing at Cornerstone with the latter. "To Be Alone with You" is an intensely personal song about devotion, which seems to be constructed for misunderstanding. A now criticized component of Christian songs is the ambiguity of "Is it Jesus or a girlfriend?" Often Christian artists gained crossover success thanks to that ambiguity. Artists like Michael W. Smith, Avalon, dc talk, and Amy Grant are just a few examples of artists who have mastered this kind of trickery and scored mainstream radio success. Anyone who started listening to the CCM genre as an outsider, might have questions about this level of devotion, which often sounded sexual to an outsider. In a recent episode of Good Christian Fun talking about this song, co-host Caroline Elly said that she thinks that song is about Jesus, "but it could also be about the confusing queer love you feel for Jesus, especially if you're in the middle of purity culture, and maybe you don't have a place to put romantic love."

YOU GAVE UP YOUR BODY TO BE LONELY. "You all have someone in your life that needs to be saved," Allan's Bible teacher said one day. "Even though we live in the Bible belt, you all have one friend who hasn't invited Jesus Christ into his or her heart. You meet these people and talk about movies or sports. But when all of hell is poured into the Lake of Fire, before that moment, those missed opportunities are going to call out to you, by name, asking 'Why did you never tell me.' Now is the time you plot out these conversations you must have. Now is the time you plan how to bring them to church." Allan prayed for his friend, Steven. His parents had gone from church to church but had settled into to the church of whatever was on TV. He thought about how to make authentic conversation revolving around faith and eternity. He would play only Christian music around Steven. However, this plan backfired one day in the car. Allan was taking Steven home because Steven didn't have a car. "You've been listening to all this Christian music lately, and there's something I don't get." "What's that?" "Are the singers just trying to have sex with Jesus? I mean all of words are: 'I want to be close to you/ I want you to know me like no one else does/ Look inside me / Fill me with your holy presence." Taken aback by the question, Allan muttered, "I guess I've never thought of it that way. Allan thought the question was sacrilegious, but not insincere. Is this how the devil has tricked the world, he thought, by perverting something pure and holy? 

 

Read “To Be Alone with You” by Sufjan Stevens on Genius.