this single was conceived in june of 2022 when roe v. wade was overturned by the united states supreme court. that moment felt like a tipping point to me like .... oh the right-wing authoritarian camp of so-called christian nationalists really do want to take us all the way back to when women and queer folk and trans and gender-variant folk were essentially barred from public life, treated as second-class citizens, and left to slowly rot in lifelong misery, often leading to them dying far far too young. and this is all being done in the name of Christ, whose main message as far as i'm concerned was to care for the downtrodden, to protect the downtrodden, even to give your life on behalf of the downtrodden.... i had to do something, and so that very day it was overturned i wrote this song, which i titled "you may have the kingdom of this world, but i have ten trans girls, the Spirit of the Lord, and a goddamn crowbar," which sort of laid out in pretty clear terms how i felt about the whole situation:

"you pigs use christ as a weapon!"

i brought in the marvelously talented and passionate artist anna pest to help me realize this track, and over the course of the next year we went back and forth bringing this track to fruition, admittedly slowly because frankly both of us have been pushed to the forefront of the global culture war over gender against our consent.... it's hard out here if you're genderqueer, if you wanna write a rhyme about it. but i am extremely proud to say that the track is finally here, along with a couple little b-sides that i had accumulated in my vault in the last couple months.

musically, "you may have the kingdom of this world..." is a tribute to what i call the "high scene metalcore" period, mixing harsh vocals and heavy riffing with catchy clean choruses and quirky electronics, often with christian lyrical themes and orientation. it's a sound i had always loved, and i hope that this single is successful in sort of reinterpreting that sound and era in favor of a resolutely queer and anti-authoritarian interpretation of the message of Christ, something i personally think the mystical body of Christ sorely needs in this moment.........

all money raised by this single (which is pay what you want) will be donated to the national network of abortion funds <3 if you think you can't follow Christ and support access to safe abortions, then i'm just gonna say it: you know neither history nor scripture....