The Sublime Poet within Chris Daughtry

Continuing stride from the previous post, I thought a short comment on the lyrical brilliance of Chris Daughtry was in proper order. It is not certain, from my brief investigation, what Daughtry's current religious sensibilities are. I am not sure if he is religious or irreligious. I am not sure it matters. Though by my guess, he is at least somewhat religious. The only definite statement I found from the horse's mouth was: "I'm not out to force my political or religious beliefs on anyone. If I can influence people, I hope it's to follow their own hearts... [I] had a very conservative, Christian upbringing. As you get older, different things develop that can maybe contradict what you grew up believing in. You get a more worldly view of how the world works" (USA Today). 

A screen-capture from Daughtry's music video, Waiting for Superman.

Whatever the state of his religiosity, Daughtry professes a rare insight into the nature of God and Grace in his song, Baptized, a track on the album, also given the name Baptized. His lyrics are often sprinkled with the sensibility of faith and spirituality. About the song, Daughtry has said, "The song 'Baptized' isn't a spiritual or gospel song in the traditional sense, but I wanted it to have that 'O Brother Where Art Thou' type gospel feel to it, complete with a chanting section... Lyrically, it's really about me and my wife Deanna, but it's also very powerful in the way of analogy for this rebirth in my career" (Songwriter Universe). The lyrics read:

It's safe to say I'm lost,

Without you in my arms,

So I call your name and I pray you might,

Come and wash over me like the pale moonlight,

Until the sun comes back around.

Take me down, take me down by the water, water,

Pull me in until I see the light,

Let me drown, let me drown, in you honey, honey,

In your love I wanna be baptized.

Take me down, take me down by the water, water,

I wanna be baptized.

And the days and nights are cold,

Without your body to hold,

So I close my eyes hoping you'll appear,

Cause it feels like grace every time you're near, yeah,

Don't leave, until the sun comes back around.

Daughtry masterfully crafted a lyrical poem in which the Love for, and of, his wife becomes a baptism. Baptism is a sacrament in which our old self is drowned in the waters—for water in the rite represents death—and our new self rises again to new life. Without the sexual (physical) presence of his wife, Daughtry is forsaken and broken. It is only with her sexual presence near, "in my arms", that new life exists within him—that he can be brought to the fullness of life. 

Yet, many people bicker about the real intention of this song. One side insists that the song is a metaphor about Christ (or God). Daughtry is a Christian, so this song is obviously a belabored metaphor for the close relationship between him and Christ—their logic contends. The other side places attention on the sexual language in the lyrics, and therefore insists that it is a metaphor for the beautiful relationship Daughtry has with his wife. Daughtry uses sexual/bodily imagery, so this song is obviously not about God—their logic contends (see image below).  

I pasted together Youtube comments using GIMP to artificially create this image
 and give it some coherence.

The trick to understand this is to abandon the either/or logic with which these commenters comprehend the topic at hand. We need to embrace a logic of both/and. Notice that Daughtry writes, "Cause it feels like grace every time you're near". Perhaps I am doing violence to the song by reading my own theological/philosophical predilections into the song, but it appears to me that the song tells us that God's Grace (God's Godself) permeates throughout the Love Daughtry and his wife have for each other. Sexual Love is truly dying and rising again, because it is the very space where the God is immanent. It is not merely an earthly event, but a heavenly-transcendent process, this falling in love. It is God's essence which permeates the entire sexual event between Daughtry and his wife. The movement of their Love is the movement of God's Grace. If this were not the case, the identification with baptism would be a mere similitude. Yet, I think the sublime poet within Chris Daughtry is trying to tells us something more. His song is not mere poetry. It is poetry-plus. It is a poetry which seeks to reveal the Divine immanence in the very act of sexual love. 

Chris Daughry sings about the Love he shares with his wife, and in doing so, he equally sings about God, and his relationship with Him.