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would have been just as easy to write a lyric about a pair of drug-abusing parents who went to church each Sunday and when the girl got to her new family, she got to express that she was always glad about Jesus, despite the fact that the rest of her life was terrible, or maybe that she was scared about losing Jesus along with her bad parents, or something like that.
Well yes, but then that defeats the whole "ahh, how sweet" effect that she'd known Jesus outside of church. In fact, I believe that's the point of the song: that Jesus exists in the real world and is not just confined to the church.
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What if, instead of atheists, the bad parents had been identified as black?
Well that would not have really served the story by giving the girl a reason not to have been to church. It would have definitely been offensive, though.

I do get your point, however. The coupling of the athiest parents (though I'm sure "athiest" is a bit strong- perhaps non-churchgoers is all we can assume) with negative behavior makes it feel like the writer is painting with broad strokes. As I was trying to say earlier, sometimes that's the way I feel about how religious people are portrayed in movies. But I generally try to give the writer the benefit of the doubt.

In the end, though, I'm really playing more of a devil's advocate here. I really don't care for the song much, nor do I think it's a shining example of Christian music.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.