Former Ruins - Flannelgraph Lyrics

Cross-references to defend
Reverend's answers in Genesis
First you read Velvet Elvis, then some Bart Ehrman
No one ever sounded so intelligent
Now dress him up in flannelgraph to model metaphysics
Roasted at the table of sophisticates
He's the dead tongue Latin mass, the church plant that doesn't last
He's whatever you want to dismiss
I want to get angry, but I cannot

We were all true believers
All my friends, we used to skate
Little WWJDers
All our bands broke up and so did childlike faith

Shelter in the branches of
That Bazan album you love
You said it dealt with doubt so honestly
Babe, I didn't doubt your sincerity
But it planted an image in your brain
With just a little poetic turn of phrase
About misbehaving and magic trees
At seventeen you're deconstructing

But we were all true believers
All my friends, we used to skate
Little WWJDers
All our bands broke up and so did childlike faith
But something said in Gethsemane
It's never left me
It's something I haven't found easy to shake
When I was caught in adultery
I saw him drawing me into
A large startling figure 8
But from a far-off distance, they can size up
And crush us between two fingers
That's just how it feels
But I see you flashing like fire
For the half-blind and beleaguered
You're a large startling figure