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HNN Theme Song: "I Ain't Afraid" by Holly Near

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The theme song for the Humanist Network News Audio Podcast is "I Ain't Afraid" by Holly Near off her Edge album. Learn more about Holly Near at her website, HollyNear.com.

Holly Near generously donated the use of her song as theme music for the Humanist Network News. Download "I Ain't Afraid" by Right/Option clicking here Click Here to Download.

Lyrics

I Ain't Afraid
Words and music by Holly Near
Recorded on Edge
Click Here to Download Download the song at HollyNear.com
or listen to it in the player below:

play-><-volume


I ain't afraid of your Yahweh
I ain't afraid of your Allah
I ain't afraid of your Jesus
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

I ain't afraid of your churches
I ain't afraid of your temples
I ain't afraid of your praying
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

verse
Rise up to your higher power
Free up from fear, it will devour you
Watch out for the ego of the hour
The ones who say they know it
Are the ones who will impose it on you

I ain't afraid of your Yahweh
I ain't afraid of your Allah
I ain't afraid of your Jesus
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

I ain't afraid of your churches
I ain't afraid of your temples
I ain't afraid of your praying
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

verse
Rise up, and see /find/ know/ hear a higher story
Free up from the gods of war and glory
Watch out for the threats of purgatory
The spirit of the wind won't make a killing off of sin and satan

I ain't afraid of your Bible
I ain't afraid of your Torah
I ain't afraid of your Koran
Dont let the letter of the law
Obsure the spirit of the your love--it's killing us

I ain't afraid of your Yahweh
I ain't afraid of your Allah
I ain't afraid of your Jesus
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

I ain't afraid of your churches
I ain't afraid of your temples
I ain't afraid of your praying
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

I ain't afraid of your Money
I ain't afraid of your Culture
I ain't afraid of your Choices
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

I ain't afraid of your Sunday
I ain't afraid of your Spirit
I ain't afraid of your Teachers
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

I ain't afraid of your Sabbath
I ain't afraid of your Borders
I ain't afraid of your Dances
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God double

I ain't afraid of your Children
I ain't afraid of your Music
I ain't afraid of your Stories
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God

Rise up to your higher power
Free up
Rise up to your higher power
Free up
Let's try to be highly evolved
I aint afraid

Copyright 2000 Hereford Music (ASCAP)
Use/Reprint by Permission Only.

John Bucchino, keyboards
June Millington, electric guitar
Jan Marinelli, bass
Janelle Burdell, drums

HNN Podcast #12: Podcast Player

Listen to the HNN Interview with Holly Near in the podcast player below.
[segment ends at 12:05]

#12

HNN audio podcast 		HNN Podcast: Julia Sweeney - Letting Go of God
2006-10-25
player:<-volume
In HNN Audio Podcast #12 we have two, count 'em two celebrity interviews. We speak with singer Holly Near about her music and activism, and then we speak with comedian Julia Sweeney (of Saturday Night Live fame) about her show "Letting Go of God." We also talk to cartoonist Matt Bors about his recent visit to a "Hell House" and Matt Cherry reads an essay about the origins of Halloween.
Episode Details | Direct Download | Transcript

HNN Podcast #12: Transcript

Transcript of Humanist Network News interview with Holly Near, St. Rose College, Albany, N.Y. Oct. 6, 2006.

Duncan Crary: Holly Near, our listeners to our podcasts are very familiar with your song "I Ain't Afraid," because you generously donated the use of it for our theme music, and I wanted to ask you, what were you feeling at the time you wrote that song, why did you write the song, and have your feelings changed recently?

Holly Near: I grew up in a family that really supported the idea of fascination over fear, and that sometimes there really is a reason to be afraid, but we always try on fascination first. As far as I can tell, religion should be a way in which people gather together to honor the unknown, not the known. You gather together to be in a state of awe at the fact that we are spinning through space at an unimaginable rate of speed, the only planet that we know of that has life like this. And how did we get so that we let that lead to murder and to destruction and criticism and fighting?

Holly Near: So that is my belief system -- the open door policy, and interested in all sorts of things. Not that there should not be belief systems or spirituality or religion, but that none of those beliefs should be imposed on other people, and that it should all be in a state of investigation, and community building, and culture building; but not a war zone.

Holly Near: And I see in these times and probably for thousands of years before, but this is when I am alive that need for people to take sides around religion, to have everybody praying, or if you are not a Christian, or if you are not supporting this flag, or if you are not a Muslim and not supporting that flag, or if you are not a Jew and supporting that flag, that we are therefore at war with one another is just, to me, an absurd path to go down.

Holly Near: Once you start the idea that "my God is the right God and your God is the wrong God," and you get that feeling so strongly impounded into your brain as you are growing up, or in some sort of transformation where you feel that your life was so changed that now you are going to hold tight to this belief system. People over history have actually been talked into committing genocide in the name of their God, or destroying another culture.

Holly Near: So the song came out of my wanting to say to people, "It's not your God I have problems with, it is what you do in the name of that God."

Jes Constantine: You are well known for your gay rights advocacy, but you also sort of take the step back and focus on the broader human rights. I just want to know, why is that important to you? Instead of focus on one specific movement, why take the broader step back?

Holly Near: Well I don't believe in causes. I think that we are holistic people. We have arms and legs, and if you only struggle for arms you kind of leave your legs out of the picture.

Holly Near: So I have always felt like, as I learn something else... when I first learned about wanting to be against war, and then I learned about feminism, and then I learned about gay and lesbian rights, and I learned about the environment, and I learned about immigration, and I learned about the prison system; instead of running from one cause to another, I just keep putting that information into my toolbox as if I were in the University of Life and I'm heading for a Ph.D. I just want to keep bringing it all into my library. And it makes me a more holistic, interesting person, and it makes me capable of appreciating other people better the more I know.

Holly Near: So folks who just focus on one thing I mean, there are certain times when I think it is really important to take on an issue, we only have so much energy, and put your energy into it. But gay people come in all colors -- they come from all countries. So you can't really be for gay rights and not think about what is happening to someone who is in Rwanda. I mean, how do you separate that? Are we only for rights of gay people who are in the upper middle class United States? Well that's not a gay rights movement. And if you are working on racism, but you don't include gay people, then you only want freedom from racism for people who are heterosexuals? You know, you can't break us up into little pieces like that, much as people try, and I am just unwilling to be chopped up into little pieces.

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