Maynard James Keenan on Fundamentalism.

For those of you who don't know, MJK is the frontman for both Tool and A Perfect Circle. Below is his commentary from the newly released aMotion DVD on the video for the song "Judith". I thought his comments were fantastic...The song lyrics are provided for reference.

"Judith"

You’re such an inspiration for ways that I will never ever choose to be
Oh so many ways for me to show you how your Savior has abandoned you…

Fuck your god, your lord, your Christ
He did this, took all you had and left you this way
Still you pray, never stray, never taste of the fruit
Never thought to question why…

It’s not like you killed someone
It’s not like you drove a hateful spear into his side
Praise the one who left you broken down and paralyzed
He did it all for you…

Oh so many ways for me to show you how your dogma has abandoned you…

Pray to your Christ, to your god
Never taste of the fruit, never stray, never break, never choke on a lie
Even though he’s the one who did this to you
Never thought to question why…

It’s not like you killed someone
It’s not like you drove a spiteful spear into his side
Talk to Jesus Christ as if he knows the reasons why
He did this all to you
He did it all for you…

Commentary:

Fundamentalist extremists. They’re everywhere. I grew up in Ohio, and there’s a great film called The Apostle – Robert Duvall directed and funded it himself, and starred in it. And if you could actually somehow insert yourself into the film, in some way, you would realize right away that you can’t turn around and look at somebody else, and both of you have a moment together when you realize that everyone is absolutely insane, and without any sense of reason. And that’s what it was like for me growing up in Ohio in a Southern Baptist environment. No sense of irony. The fundamentalism chokes out any possibility of seeking real truth. It chokes out compassion. It’s really terrifying, having no sense of connection with each other – very isolationist…

The song itself is called Judith, which is my mother’s name. She was paralyzed very early on from an aneurysm, and it just strengthened her faith – which is fine, because she didn’t really have anything else but her faith. But the people around her, marching like ghouls to tell her how strong in her faith she is, and then going home and talking behind her back. It was just amazing the hypocrisy that went on…

Initially in the song, I say “fuck your god,” but, I’m not really saying fuck the ACTUAL god, I’m just saying fuck YOUR god – the god that would isolate people, and punish. Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.” In the original text, that word was Yahweh or Jehovah, which means “light” and “love.” We’ve kind of twisted it to mean this guy with a beard passing judgment. But it’s not. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was “love” and “light” – infinite, unconditional, and without judgment. At that point, you can pretty much close the book. It’s very crazy to me, everything that’s going on in the world in the name of a religion. Fundamentalist extremists just messing stuff up. If they all just get together and realize: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was LOVE.” Seems like a pretty simple concept, but people just can’t quite seem to grasp it…

And it’s funny how they say that the Devil mixes the lies with the truth. Well, go check out Constantine back in 320 A.D. and realize that, yeah, he mixed the lies with the truth, and tricked you into thinking there’s a guy with a beard passing judgment, and took LOVE out of the whole equation…

Maynard is brilliant. People who aren't familiar with his lyrics probably think his songs are hateful, violent and satanic or something, when actually he speaks about profound issues of communication and truth. I've never read any of his commentaries but his poetry has always spoken to me.

Have you heard the String Quartet's Tribute to Tool? There's no lyrics but it's musically genious.

You should check out the aMOTION DVD. It's really good - both MJK and Billy Howerdel give commentary over most of their videos. It seems like APC has become Maynard's emotional outlet. He seems to have opened himself up a little more, which is great. He's very insightful.

I do have the String Tribute, and I love it. I do think some of the songs could have been done a little better, but overall, very good. Sober is my personal favorite on that one.