What does I Constantly Thank God for Esteban mean?

Panic! At The Disco: I Constantly Thank God for Esteban Meaning

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Album cover for I Constantly Thank God for Esteban album cover

I Constantly Thank God for Esteban Lyrics

Give us this day our daily dose of faux affliction
Forgive our sins
Forged at the pulpit with forked tongues selling faux sermons.
Because I am a new wave gospel sharp, and you'll be thy witness
So gentlemen, if you are going to preach, for...

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 6th 2008 !⃝

    This is so sad.
    i LOVE panic! at the disco && I'm a full on catholic.
    :(
    i had no idea it had to do with doubting the church.

    OH WELL. badass band.

  2. anonymous
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    Dec 10th 2007 !⃝

    He's talking about religion in general, but mostly about evangelism and a little bit about the catholic church. the catholic church is all show, pomp and circumstance, priests all dressed up, stuff in latin, nothing to do with conviction, but fake repentance and repeated prayers. and evangelism is famous for doing crazy things that aren't in the bible, such as falling to the floor when "touched by the spirit" and convulsing. and using things like this to make money, since they are all paid ministers, partaking of the tithes and offerings of the blinded followers and believers in their "show". many times they cut the lights in their cults and have live bands. they say things like halleluja, glory to God about 5,000 times an hour just to take up space and it never sounds like they mean it. they also make up many of their own comandments and tell everyone they are sinning (sins forged at the pulpit). it's also interesting to note that catholic or mormon "sermons" are not called sermons, but masses and talks. evangelists also many times present repented sinners, walking contradictions such as "yolanda the damned" who is now a pastor after being a cross dresser for years. in the catholic church, the things the evangelists do such as speaking in tongues and convulsing on the floor are considered disorderly and thus condemned in the catholic church. I can't really think of any more connections right now, but if I do, I'll post them.

  3. anonymous
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    Nov 26th 2007 !⃝

    Seriously?

    noone has gotten this yet? oh well

    the song is a direct referance to the movie the life aquatic wwith steve zissou.

    yes I don't understand that well, but the song is that movie, completely directed towards religion as opposed to what actuually is going on in the movie.

  4. anonymous
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    Nov 11th 2007 !⃝

    This is obviously about sexual abuse in the clergy. These catholic priests make little boys their sex slaves. It's happening all over our country and probably europe as well. It's a terrible, horrific, continuous cycle of abuse where little boys are done terrible things too, smacked in the face, told they are going to heaven for having "special masses" with the priests. This obviously happened with one of these members of this band. I am a social work, and have dealt with this issue on many occasion. Spread awareness. Keep our children out of the catholic church.

    Please.

  5. anonymous
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    Sep 20th 2007 !⃝

    Its not about a church or crazy ass Scientology. It's about how people follow bands "religiously" and the just about that whole scene in general (Being at a concert). It seems pretty obvious to me, But I could very well be wrong.

  6. anonymous
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    Aug 16th 2007 !⃝

    Based on the name "Thank God..." and "Esteban", I assumed that it had something to do with the church or religion in general. The name Esteban -Stephen- is probably alluding to Saint Stephen. Saint Stephen was an early deacon of the early church that followed Jesus' teachings. He is better known for being the first martyr in christianity. The word "martyrdom" is used in another song's titled along "press coverage".
    My guess is that this song talks about hypocrisy in church as well as hypocrisy in mass media, which ultimately mirrors church in many ways.

  7. anonymous
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    Jul 15th 2007 !⃝

    It's not about emo kids! they even said that they're not emo and all that crap! it's about a cult like Scientology that was made as a joke but people actually believed it.

  8. smartgurl333
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    Jul 7th 2007 !⃝

    The main theme of this song is that if you're going to claim to believe in something you have to actually live by it, you can't be a hypocrite. No matter which way you look at it's about hypocrisy. If you take it kind of literally It's kind of like religious hypocrites from an atheist's point of view.

    --Give us this day our daily dose of faux affliction Forgive our sins Forged at the pulpit with forked tongues selling faux sermons.--

    That's mocking the people who are religious, saying that they're all naive or fakes.

    --Because I am a new wave gospel sharp, and you'll be thy witness So gentlemen, if you are going to preach, for God sakes preach with conviction! --
    basically says that "Well I could pretend to be a gospel too, and I'd be more convincing than you even though I don't even believe in what I'm saying"; accusing them of blatant hypocrisy

    --Strike up the band! Whoa-oh, the conductor is beckoning Come congregation, let's sing it like you mean it No. Don't you get it, don't you get it? Now don't you move. Strike up the band! Whoa-oh, the conductor is beckoning Come congregation, let's sing it like you mean it No. Don't you get it, don't you get it? Now don't you move. --

    this is kind of mockingly inviting you to join him in his fraud religion and put all of your conviction into it and saying "don't you understand how big of a hypocrite you're being?"

    --Just stay where I can see you. Douse the lights! We sure are in for a show tonight --

    He's announcing that the "show" is about to begin, the "show" being him shoving hypocrisy in the face of the hypocrite.

    --In this little number we're graced by two displays of character, We've got: the gunslinger extraordinaire walking contradictions And I for one can see no blood from the hearts and the wrists you allegedly slit And I for one won't stand for this if this scene were a parish you'd all be condemned.--

    a metaphor comparing these "religious sinners" to a gunslinger whose never killed. By saying "I see no blood from the hearts and the wrists you allegedly slit" it basically says that these hypocrites preach and preach but never follow their own rules.


    If you don't take it literally you could apply it to almost anything that could be related to hypocrisy (e.x. music "fans" who don't even try to understand the lyrics they listen to, musicians who don't believe in what they write, etc.)

  9. anonymous
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    Jun 12th 2007 !⃝

    This is song is just calling catholics hypocrites

  10. anonymous
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    Jun 5th 2007 !⃝

    Ok I broke some of the lines down
    -FAUX AFFLICTION= FAKE PAIN
    -FORGED AT THE PULPIT= forced to go to church.
    -JUST STAY WHERE I CAN SEE YOU. DOUSE THE LIGHTS WE SURE ARE IN FOR A SHOW TONIGHT= the guy is tellin the other person to stay in a place where he can see him so he can see if he does anything bad.
    -GUNSLINGER EXTRAORDINAIR WALKING CONTRADICTIONS= the guy does everything different then anyone else.


    Yeah that's all I got so far but I will dig deeper into it when I have more time but let me know if you agree or not.

  11. anonymous
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    Jan 31st 2007 !⃝

    im pretty sure it's about "survivor" but that's just me...

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. ViolentPosex
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    Jan 22nd 2007 !⃝

    C'mon we all know they are talking about scenes (emo/punk/goth/whatever).
    What they're trying to say is that everything's a lie & they all "pray with no conviction".

  13. anonymous
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    Dec 2nd 2006 !⃝

    well, faux affliction means fake state of pain so I think this means give us our daily dose of fake pain and as it says, forgive our sins? (I don't know, just guessing)

  14. anonymous
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    Nov 28th 2006 !⃝

    its about the hypocrisy of the press.

    'gentlemen, if you're gonna preach, for god's sake preach with conviction'

    its talking about how the press say one thing then do another and that they have the whole world listening to what they say, but they don't take any responsibility to that and just make up whatever they like as long as it sells a story.

    'congregation, lets sing it like you mean it! no? don't you get it?'

    saying that no matter how many times you try to explain it the masses will be lead by whatevers being fed to them through their TV screens, regardless of whether or not it is true.

  15. anonymous
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    Nov 25th 2006 !⃝

    all of you that said this isn't about emo kids.. your dumb... If you even read the lyrics its really self explanatory. "trike up the band!
    Whoa-oh, the conductor is beckoning
    Come congregation, let's sing it like you mean it
    No. Don't you get it, don't you get it? Now don't you move"

    the conductor is the "scene/emo" bands and the congregation are the little wannabe followers.(strike up the band = jump on the bandwagon= follow the crowd...)

    In this little number we're graced by two displays of character,
    We've got: the gunslinger extraordinaire walking contradictions
    And I for one can see no blood from the hearts and the wrists you allegedly slit
    And I for one won't stand for this if this scene were a parish you'd all be condemned.

    the two displays of character are the gunslinger (which has absolutely nothing to do with trigun) which represents the emo/scene bands! and the walking contradictions are the little emo follower kids. They show why they call them this in the next few lines. The "gunslingers" or the emo bands talk about how their hearts are always bleeding and all that bullshit, but PATD calls them out by saying that they can't see any blood. Same thing with the "wrists you allegedly slit" which is the emo kids saying oh ya man I cut 3 times last night blah blah.... So where are your scars at?

    anyways If you don't beleive it now then your a little emo kid in denial... PATD thinks that the scene is bullshit.... Thank god someone finally said it




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