Punk Rock: Hamell on Trial's Tough Love

“Don’t Kill” by Hamell on Trial is the perfect song for teaching the Fifth Commandment in Confirmation class. However, play the song for your seventh graders, and you’ll probably have a long line of parents and elders at your door. “Just what are letting our kids listen to?”

Given that danger, I only use this most perfect song for teaching the catechism with our older confirmands, what I call AltConfirmation (students in high school needing more individualized discipleship). The song really catches the attention of students who are on the verge of throwing in the towel on this whole church thing.

Hamell on Trial is Ed Hamell. Crazed, acoustic punk that pulls no punches, just like what you expect from punk music. Think the wide range of styles from the Violent Femmes. Think the attitude of the Clash. And actually, think the aggressive folk, the speedwood of Lost & Found.

Hamell’s 2003 album, Tough Love, opens up with an electrified, acoustic, throw down blues punk song from God Himself. When you think of God’s reaction to murders and wars, do you ever really realize just how frustrated God must be? Hamell does. On “Don’t Kill,” he puts outrage, sarcasm, frustration, and judgment on the lips of God.

Sure the song is tongue in cheek at times, but it certainly drives home the point that God doesn’t condone killing. With all of our hand-wringing over violence in TV shows, movies, music, and video games, “Don’t Kill” is the kind of song that we need to say it forcefully, repeatedly, unabashedly, passionately, and with a little dose of sarcastic humor, that God said, “Thou shalt not kill.”

While in the United States we’ve been quick to condemn Islamic fundamentalists for killing in the name of Allah, Hamell actually calls Christians to remember that killing in our God’s Name would be wrong as well. Even though God gives the power of the sword to the government, “Don’t Kill” reminds us to watch our rhetoric. Are we turning the war in Iraq into “divinely sanctioned murders”? Hamell combines the role of both folk singer and punker, protesting society’s ills. Here he cautions us from assuming God is on our side of the killing; God’s desire is that there would be no killing. That seems so apparent (“What part of ‘thou shalt’ don’t you understand?”), but we need reminders like this song.

The problem is that this song uses one cuss word (see lyrics below). That’s where you’ve got to be careful and know your situation before using this song in class. However, I think the judicial use of a cuss word actually helps drive home the point of this song, since that is how we show our frustration. If God can call our sins “menstrual rags” in the prophets, it doesn’t seem that far of a step to think that He would use a cuss word to get our attention today.

Now Hamell also uses “Jesus Christ” in a double entendre in the last stanza. Here God could be addressing Jesus, but it also looks like God is using His Son’s Name in vain as many people do today. It’s clever, but of course, breaks the second commandment even while trying to call us back to following the fifth.

Finally, you may have trouble at first, because the song addresses Christians, Muslims, and Jews, equating all three religions. However, used in the context of a conversation with your students, here’s room for a side discussion about how people view the differences between religions and why someone might conclude that these three religions specifically are all worshipping the same God.

If you can set all of this aside, then definitely use Hamell on Trial for teaching. After “Don’t Kill,” the album only continues to take on edgy subjects, using questionable lyrics. However, much like “Don’t Kill,” those other songs with their rude language, drug references, etc., actually point towards positive decisions and even Christ-like living.

“Downs” is grooving jam about Hamell’s life-changing, near death car accident. After having gotten sober before the accident, the doctor prescribed pain killers which tempted Hamell into being addicted again. The song really deals well with the difficulty of staying clean and the contradictions addicts face.

The rocker “Halfway” uses the f-word as the main part of the chorus, but the song is about being a sell out. It ultimately teaches that you shouldn’t give up your morals, integrity, body, etc. Hamell even derides a band that uses the image of the crucifixion as a publicity stunt.

If you’re ready, use “Hail” to begin a discussion of homosexuality. The song finds Hamell in a tender mood stylistically as he imagines the homosexual victims of hate crimes in heaven. Tina Brandon (subject of the excellent movie, Boys Don’t Cry), Brian Deneke, and Matthew Shepherd discuss life while looking down on the earth, spitting over the rail. Here we see that Hamell’s idea of redemption is “we can be who we want to be.” Not only does this song challenge us to think again how we approach the subject of the sin of homosexuality, but it leads to a discussion of the unscriptural idea that heaven will be whatever we want it to be, an idea which leaves out God’s will for His creation.

Finally, when you’re not planning a Bible study or hot topic discussion, just listen to Tough Love. The album rocks in a way that some full electric albums never do. Hamell uses all of his energy to lay havoc on the strings of his acoustic guitar, banging around, looking to protest like a prophet calling attention to our sins.

For more on punks as prophets, see Andrew Careaga’s site who is working on an upcoming book on the subject.

Thank you to Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records for the review CD and to Ed Hamell for the permission to reprint his lyrics.

“Don’t Kill” by Hamell on Trial

1. God called down from the mountain,
God called down from the sky.
He said, “I told you, I told you, I told you.
Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill.

2. Don’t Kill for lovin’, please don’t kill for hate.
Don’t Kill in My name,
Don’t Kill for heaven’s sake.
Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill.

3. Once again you didn’t understand Me,
Or you disobeyed from all I can detect.
From what I remember I did more than ask you,
I commanded it, from what I recollect.
Thou Shalt, Thou Shalt—what part of ‘Thou Shalt’ don’t you understand?

4. Was it the ‘Thou’ part that threw you?
Thou means you.
Was it the ‘Shalt Not’ part that confused you?
Shalt Not means DON’T.
Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill.

5. There are no divinely sanctioned murders.
Who’d know better than Me?
I’m God, why don’t you hear Me?
I’ve been saying the same sh*t for centuries.
You say it’s Me that you worship.
All you Christians, all you Muslims, all you Jews.
I’m going to say it one more time, DON’T KILL YOUR NEIGHBOR.
Jesus Christ, this shouldn’t be news.
Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill—I thought I etched this in stone!”

By Ed Hamell, © 2003 Trial Size Publishing/ASCAP. Used by permission.