Video: A Little Further on Down the Way

Video: Christian McIvor sings Further on Down the Way in front of the Unity Flag at College Park Church.

By Christian McIvor
Earlier this past week, Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and evangelical adviser to the president, made news by saying that God has given Trump the authority to take out North Korea.  I wrote this song on Friday as a response to that statement, and I was originally going to introduce it by talking about how Jeffress’s interpretation of Romans chapter 13, verses 1-7 was taken wildly out of context.  But then yesterday happened, with alt-right extremist groups, many of which claim to be Christian, bringing a day of violence and insanity to Charlottesville.  Any time anyone – regardless of their position or status – takes pieces of the Bible out of context and uses Scripture and the name of Jesus and the Christian church to propagate an agenda of hate, fear, violence, racism, sexism, or discrimination of any kind, they are acting in direct opposition to the Way of Jesus.  Following Jesus means sharing in and acting in accordance with God’s infinite love for all people.  As Paul writes in Romans chapter 13, verse 9, immediately following the passage Jeffress used to call for a war supposedly authorized by God, “The commandments… are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  This song is called “(A Little) Further on Down the Way.”

(A Little) Further on Down the Way
©Christian McIvor, 8-11-2017

It doesn’t make you any taller holding that Book above your head
When you’re mowing people down with Scripture the way you have it read
Instead of faith, hope, and love “the likes of which you’ve never seen,”
You’ve made hate, fear, and ignorance all part of the routine

You might change your call to war
If you’d just read a little more

“Fire and fury,”
Is called for by God, or so you say
But, “Love one another,”
Is what you’ll find a little further on down the Way

When will you be satisfied?  When will you have won?
Or will you keep waving that Book in people’s faces like a loaded gun?
You’d better hope your God is with us when the missiles start to fly,
‘Cause I forget the part where Jesus said, “It’s your turn to die.”

You might change your call to war
If you’d just read a little more

“Fire and fury,”
Is called for by God, or so you say
But, “Love one another,”
Is what you’ll find a little further on down the Way

You might find
That love, it changes hearts and minds
Love always wins
A little further on down the Way…