Lyrics
[Verse 1] I take the last pew every week,
I keep my collar high,
and still the heads turn round to see
the shame come walking by.
I know I shame your holy name,
I hear the things you say,
you need somebody you can blame,
and I come anyway.
[Chorus] So pass the plate and take my coin,
you never ask from where,
and sing about the Magdalene
with one right sitting there
a prostitute in church,
a prostitute in church,
who ruins the view
for all of you.
[Post-Chorus] With nothing left to give
and nothing you’d forgive,
among the perfect saints
that your religion paints.
[Verse 2] The sermon’s all on love today,
on love and on the poor,
and no one sits beside me here,
there’s room for twenty more.
Your whispers travel down the aisle
and settle on my skin,
I sit as still as stone and smile
and never let them in.
[Chorus] So pass the plate and take my coin,
you never ask from where,
and sing about the Magdalene
with one right sitting there
a prostitute in church,
a prostitute in church,
who ruins the view
for all of you.
[Post-Chorus] With nothing left to give
and nothing you’d forgive,
among the perfect saints
that your religion paints.
[Bridge] I know the words of every hymn,
I mean them when I pray,
and Jesus said that girls like me
would go in first, someday.
[Chorus] So pass the plate and take my coin,
you never ask from where,
and sing about the Magdalene
with one right sitting there
a prostitute in church,
a prostitute in church,
who ruins the view
for all of you.
[Post-Chorus] With nothing left to give
and nothing you’d forgive,
among the perfect saints
that your religion paints.
[Outro] My soul feels torn by all your scorn,
the night is long and cold,
but every Sunday I come back
to sit inside the fold.
With nothing left to give,
and somehow, I forgive.