Rustbelt Religion

[Intro] [Piano] Divine Transmissions From Our Father Or from Ford Not affording either A region ignored Rusted Forgotten Fly over drive-thru Is this all there really is— to do Old but no antique Past its peak Fading Rust invading Not on the surface In its veins Holding on to Rustbelt Religion Like It’s all that remains [Verse 1] It’s Rustbelt Religion Once Great Great Lakes Our faith Now passed it’s expiration date As we Live off the long ago revolution Gnawing on the bones of industry Salivating over scraps As churches collapse Mother’s relapsing as we Trade refinement for refineries Swapping Increase for elbow grease And call ourselves proud The glass is half empty but we Built the glass so Doesn’t that count for something [kick, kick, kick] You can count on this When you outsource the source Expect shutdowns Decay and Rust Eating away At great cities and churches Cuz the research is in In Rustbelt Religion The priests wear blue collars And they traded devotion for dollars Long before you were born [Verse 2] Cities scarred with incisions Plywood siding in style, mile after mile Hiding the exposure, the truth Rustbelt’s sacraments Abandonment and Neglect Baptizing whole cities in rejection We’ve rejected Him Our altar an assembly line Time clock replacing church bells Nothing as holy as overtime But when the laborers are few It’s hard for us to build anything new And Its Erie all around Lake Erie All that water and all that dying Cities crying Weeping But we can’t stop the bleeding Detroit Ex-ploited Cleveland anointed with rust and grime as Buffalo is overrun with violence and crime While Pittsburgh’s stoic all steel and silence A whole region in defiance Of death But Rustbelt Religion persists Pretending to be resilient How can this way of life still exists Kill it We can’t allow it to go on Akron, Canton, Toledo, places Where Rustbelt Religion Must die [Verse 3] Grit and smoke and Loss You tell me to lay off But Prophets have to lay it on Thick The Rustbelt is sick No one cares who built the hospital When you’re on life support. We’ve imported decline for too long Allowed destruction to steal our song Jesus didn't leave with white flight Yet churches are closing on every corner Faith seeing red at every stop light Right when we need green Green the only color we see Children dying in our streets Mother’s Collecting Obituaries Like receipts Auditor taking a census While the coroner is counting bodies Cleanse us, Lord cause its just getting worse Son’s hotwheels a hearse When did funerals start getting rehearsals Only business that’s booming Death the new industry consuming the whole market A whole region that feels unseen Between broken mirrors And wanting to put it in the rearview But you can’t see to busy Rejecting His Gaze It’s amazing He hasn’t razed this place to the ground Some of us think that would be better A fresh start Let her go Goodbye Toledo It was nice to know you But He promised He promised No more floods [Interlude] [32 bars] Streets flooded with His blood Washing the town, washing the rust off Not just wiping off the dust Resurrection A flattened city called to be A city on a hill As the skyline begins to reflect the cross Embracing Revelation He’s going to save a nation Starting with the part That holds it all together The Rustbelt [Final Verse] Rustbelt Religion is in a Recession Toledo confessin He confessed Called us Holy Holy Toledo Will you go? Will you be? All that he has called you to be? Will you be Holy? A city set apart Not falling apart, no The heartbeat of the city is His heart The start of something new Renewed Revived Restored He has so much more For us [Interlude] [32 bars] We were dealt Rustbelt But we won’t fold No An entire city beholding him A region With one Gaze One voice Of Praise Behold Him Be Holy Toledo