Line #142 Main/LoveIsLikeReligion


1	->''To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.''
2	-->--Creator/JorgeLuisBorges, "The Meeting in a Dream", ''Other Inquisitions''
3
4	The inverse of GodIsLoveSongs, Love Is Like Religion is a trope commonly found in pop songs and other romantic works where religious imagery and terminology are used to talk about love as though it itself were a faith or as though the beloved were a celestial being.
5
6	Romantic love and religious faith are often portrayed as very similar states of mind in fiction. Like PropertyOfLove and LoveIsADrug, it's a common romantic desire to [[LikeAGodToMe worship or be worshipped by]] one's beloved. (See the split etymology of "passion".)
7
8	This interplay can be complicated, since many major religions now and historically have involved suppression of sexuality and supported power structures that make [[MarryForLove Marrying for Love]] almost impossible, especially for women and UsefulNotes/{{LGBT}} people. This means it may overlap with ProtestSong, and using it may reflect a character's CrisisOfFaith. It can also have a similar effect to InterplayOfSexAndViolence.
9
10	A common {{Motif}}. Subtrope of BlasphemousPraise; SisterTrope to the non-romantic LikeAGodToMe. Compare InLoveWithLove and ConvertingForLove. Common to characters and artists who are CulturallyReligious. Expect lots of ritual-inspired UnusualEuphemism.
11
12	Often incorporate BiblicalMotifs such as BloodOath, ForbiddenFruit, GardenOfEden, and SevenDeadlySins.
13
14	Compare DivineDate, where the object of affection is ''literally'' divine. Contrast HotAsHell, where they're the opposite. Contrast ReligionRantSong. See also EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory.
15
16	Note that this trope is about the motif where love is figuratively compared to religion, '''not actual religions based on love.'''
17
18	----
19	!!Examples:
20	%%
21	%%
22	%% NOTE: Music examples are alphabetized by artist.
23	%%
24	%%
25	%% SONG LYRICS ARE NOT ITALICIZED. SEE Text Formatting Rules.
26	%%
27	%%
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29
30	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
31	* Taken rather literally with Karen in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', who is such a rabid Kaguya/Shirogane shipper that she routinely compares their assumed love for each other to an act of god, even claiming that the idea of one of them going out with somebody else to be blasphemy. She goes so far as to directly quote the bible whenever she sees them engaged in a particularly romantic activity like holding hands during the fireworks festival or [[spoiler:their FirstKiss.]]
32	-->'''Karen:''' There is a God. He preaches the President x Kaguya-sama gospel...
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
36	* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame\|Disney}}'': "Heaven's Light / Hellfire" [[{{Foil}} contrasts]] Quasimodo's crush on Esmeralda with [[VillainLoveSong Frollo's]] lust for her, where they compare each to the light of {{Heaven}} and the fires of {{Hell}}, respectively.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
40	* ''Film/AKnightsTale'': William says of his love for Jocelyn:
41	-->'''William:''' You remember church as a boy. The fear, the passion. That's what she makes me feel. And for that, I say my rosary to Jocelyn and no one else.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Literature]]
45	* ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart'' is an {{Myth/Arthurian\|Legend}} text from the late 1100s, and the first story to contain the affair between Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. Lancelot's all-consuming love and devotion for his queen takes on some trappings of religion.
46	** Guinevere has been abducted and Lancelot is on a quest to find her. As he's tracking her, he comes upon an old campsite where Guinevere's comb has been left behind, with a strand of hair still caught in the tines. Lancelot picks up the HairMemento and spontaneously decides it has magical {{panacea}} healing properties. This seems really random unless you know about holy relics, a part of the Catholic faith which were particularly big in the Middle Ages when this story was written. Holy relics are body parts (usually bones) of saints. They are treated with awe and reverence, and are often thought to have healing powers. Lancelot is treating Guinevere's hair like a holy relic, and thus implying he regards Guinevere herself as something akin to a saint.
47	** Lancelot and Guinevere have a single night of passion together. Afterwards, "When he leaves the room, he bows and acts precisely as if he were before a shrine."
48	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': {{Twincest}} lovers [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireCerseiLannister Cersei Lannister]] and [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireJaimeLannister Jaime Lannister]] have built a quasi-religious personal mythology around their relationship. The central metaphysical belief is "We are one person in two bodies," "I am not whole without you," and "I need my other half. You are me, I am you." Jaime is convinced that "If I were a woman, I would be Cersei," and Cersei likewise thinks, "If I were a man, I'd be Jaime." Their little pseudo-religion even has a prophesy: that they'll die together just as they were born together. They invoke imagery from the local mainstream religion, the Faith of the Seven, casting themselves in the roles of the gods the Maiden and the Warrior respectively.
49	-->'''Lancel:''' I pray for you, cousin. And for Her Grace the queen. May the Crone lead her to her wisdom and the Warrior defend her.\
50	'''Jaime:''' Why would Cersei need the Warrior? She has me.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
54	* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac are in an [[TheMasochismTango intense, all-consuming]] relationship, and both use the language of religion to talk about it.
55	** "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E1InThroesOfIncreasingWonder In Throes of Increasing Wonder...]]":
56	*** Lestat (a HollywoodAtheist) compares his LoveInterest Louis to a saint.
57	---->'''Lestat''': I had planned to make a new life for myself in UsefulNotes/StLouis. That was to be my destiny. And now I know I was right. Only it turns out the saint is not a city, but a handsome man with a most agreeable disposition.
58	*** Later, when Louis and Lestat make love, [[https://brotherconstant.tumblr.com/post/705879784703606784 their hands are clasped in a prayer/supplication pose, and the Catholic Louis' eyes are raised to the heavens,]] which emphasize that TheirFirstTime feels sacred to them.
59	** "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E2AfterThePhantomsOfYourFormerSelf ...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self]]":
60	*** Invoked by Lestat when he addresses his boyfriend as [[AffectionateNickname "Saint Louis."]]
61	*** During the honeymoon phase of their relationship, Louis (now a lapsed Catholic) felt a religious-like reverence and adoration for his lover Lestat.
62	---->'''Louis''': There was present a kind of worship on my part. The earth beneath me always felt liquid.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Music]]
66	* SynthPop singer Music/AllieX has "Sanctuary", where she characters her lover as her sacred place of protection, also incorporating allusions to [[BurnTheWitch witch burning]]. There's also the line, "the Saints all dance to the trumpet sounds", alluding to [[CaughtUpInTheRapture the Rapture]].
67	* Similarly, the Music/AlyAndAJ album ''Sanctuary'':
68	** "Church" uses ''church'' as a metonym for unconditional love:
69	--->I need redemption\
70	For sins I can't mention ...\
71	I need a little church.
72	** [[TitleTrack "Sanctuary"]]:
73	--->Every waking moment\
74	Yeah, you always bring me to my knees\
75	Somehow no one does it better\
76	When you fall down and commune with me.
77	* Music/AnnieLennox's "Take Me to the River" combines the imagery of a [[SymbolicBaptism baptism]] with subtle [[DoubleEntendre innuendo]].
78	* From the unreleased Music/BillieEilish track, "6.18.18":
79	-->You made me wanna pray\
80	But I think God's fake.
81	* "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" by Music/BelindaCarlisle, where she claims being with her lover makes...Heaven a place on Earth.
82	* Music/{{Beyonce}}'s "Halo", where she declares her lover an angel sent to save her:
83	-->Baby, I can see your halo\
84	You know you're my savin' grace.
85	* "Primitive Kiss" by Music/CarolTatum:
86	-->Holy is my ancient queen\
87	A primitive kiss ...\
88	Salvation in her dark eyes.
89	* Cinema Bizarre's "[[ObsessionSong My Obsession]]" says, "You're my obsession, my fetish, my religion."
90	* The Commodores' "I Feel Sanctified".
91	-->Ooh, the sacred feeling\
92	Just blows through my soul\
93	Searching for sanctuary\
94	To rest it must explode
95	* "Baptized" by Music/{{Daughtry}}.
96	-->Take me down, take me down by the water, water,\
97	Pull me in until I see the light,\
98	Let me drown, let me drown, in you honey, honey,\
99	[[SymbolicBaptism In your love I wanna be baptized]]
100	* Music/DepecheMode:
101	** "Personal Jesus". According to WordOfGod [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Jesus here]]:
102	--->"It's a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It's about how Elvis Presley was [Priscilla Presley's] man and her mentor and how often that happens in love relationships; how everybody's heart is like a god in some way, and that's not a very balanced view of someone, is it?"
103	** [[LoveMartyr "Martyr"]]:
104	--->I've been a martyr for love\
105	Nailed up on the cross.
106	* Music/FallOutBoy:
107	** "Uma Thurman" is a [[IntercourseWithYou heavily sexual song]] incorporating much religious imagery, the singer promising to "move mountains", "work a miracle", and "keep you like an oath" and expressing a desire to "confess" to his beloved.
108	--->The blood, the blood, the blood of the lamb\
109	Is worth two lions but here I am.
110	** "Church":
111	--->If you were church, I'd get on my knees\
112	Confess my love, I'd know where to be\
113	My sanctuary, you're holy to me\
114	If you were church, I'd get on my knees.
115	* Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine [[AuthorAppeal just loves religion and passion]], so this trope is bound to happen.
116	** Her [[ObsessionSong obsession]] in "Drumming Song" is "sweeter than heaven and hotter than hell."
117	** "All This And Heaven Too":
118	--->And the heart is hard to translate\
119	It has a language of its own\
120	It talks in tongues and quiet sighs\
121	And prayers and proclamations.
122	** "Bedroom Hymns" is one long comparison of religion to [[IntercourseWithYou the ecstasy of sex]].
123	** "St. Jude" invokes the patron saint of lost causes for a failing relationship.
124	** "Big God". According to [[https://genius.com/14821376 Genius]]:
125	--->"Instead of trying to deal with them herself, Florence decided that she personally needed a being both higher and larger than herself--a God--to which to hand these overwhelming feelings, as she was unable to deal with them alone. She hoped it would allow her to reconcile with her loss and fill the hole her partner had left in her life."
126	** "Moderation" includes the line:
127	--->Then bow your head in the house of God.
128	* Music/{{HIM}}:
129	** They have a LoveMartyr song titled "The Face of God".
130	** In "The Sacrament", the narrator's religion is the relationship he has with his true love.
131	* Music/{{Hozier}}:
132	** "Take Me to Church" is an intense ballad that uses religious imagery throughout as the singer expresses wanting to worship his beloved instead of the church that rejected their love, with a prechorus of repeated ''amen''s.
133	** In "Foreigner's God", the singer expresses his love for a woman who does not conform to his society's edicts as "Screaming the name of a foreigner's god".
134	* Music/KatyPerry often makes nods in her love songs to her early career as a Christian singer.
135	** "Legendary Lovers" makes nods to various religious traditions, mentioning {{Karma}} and the {{third eye}} and telling her lover, "{{Say my name}} like a scripture / Keep my heart beating like a drum".
136	** "Spiritual" is this trope in purest form.
137	--->Lay me down at your altar, baby\
138	I'm a slave to this love\
139	Your electric lips have got me speaking in tongues\
140	I have prayed for a power like you.
141	* Music/LadyGaga employs this frequently, especially in ''Music/BornThisWay''.
142	** "Judas" remixes pieces of the story of [[Literature/TheBible Jesus]], Judas, and Mary Magdalene to explain the singer's current relationship.
143	** [[WordOfGod According to Gaga]], "Bloody Mary" was also inspired by Mary Magdalene. It Incorporates much of the same imagery.
144	--->And when you're gone\
145	I'll tell them my religion's you.
146	** "Electric Chapel" plays with the idea of sanctuary, asking her lover to commit to her by meeting her in the symbolic "electric chapel".
147	--->My body is sanctuary\
148	My blood is pure.
149	** One verse of "Teeth":
150	--->Got no salvation ''(no salvation)''\
151	Got no religion ''(my religion is you.)''
152	* Music/LanaDelRey has a lost-love song "Dark Paradise."
153	* While its literal message [[{{Applicability}} has been variously interpreted]], Music/LeonardCohen's [[https://genius.com/Leonard-cohen-hallelujah-lyrics "Hallelujah"]] is actually an inversion, as it combines lost-love tropes with a ''lot'' of Jewish symbolism to describe a man's troubled relationship with God.
154	* Music/{{Madonna}}, ''Music/LikeAPrayer'': Released at the height of the AIDS crisis, the album explores themes of religion versus sensuality throughout. The title track, "Like a Prayer," is probably its best example of this trope:
155	-->When you call my name\
156	It's like a little prayer\
157	I'm down on my knees\
158	I want to take you there\
159	In the midnight hour\
160	I can feel your power\
161	Just like a prayer\
162	You know I'll take you there
163	* "Funeral" by Music/MegMyers is a twisted love song that says, "You came in like a God from above" and "Let me wear your halo on a Sunday."
164	* "700 Club" by Music/NicoleDollanganger:
165	-->Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ\
166	Think I just found the light in your eyes\
167	Think I just became as religious as they come\
168	I think I just found God\
169	Dumbfounded by the glow of your gold halo\
170	Oh, God, I can't believe I'm staring at a living angel.
171	* Religious imagery is all over Music/PanicAtTheDisco's music, tempering the wild sin motif. Their lead songwriter, Brendon Urie, grew up UsefulNotes/{{Mormon\|ism}} . . . in [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]].:
172	** "This Is Gospel", a lost-love song. The promotional video for the album's tour featured Brendon WaxingLyrical to this song in the style of a mega-church evangelist.
173	--->[[ThisIsASong This is gospel]] for the vagabonds\
174	Ne'er-do-wells and insufferable bastards\
175	Confessing their apostasies\
176	Led away by imperfect impostors.
177	* Music/PeterGabriel's "Lay Your Hands on Me".
178	* Music/{{Prince}}'s "7" plays heavily into religious imagery, including comparing his lover to an angel and saying their love will defeat the SevenDeadlySins.
179	* "Rev 22:20" by Music/{{Puscifer}} is an IntercourseWithYou song comparing lustful feelings with Biblical imagery.
180	* Zig-zagged by Music/{{REM}}'s "Losing My Religion". The music video features religious imagery, although the song itself isn't about religion: it's derived from the southern expression meaning "Losing one's temper" or "Being at the end of one's rope"; Thus, the song is about unrequited love.
181	* In one lyric from Music/{{Sia}}'s "Cellophane", she compares her lover to a saint:
182	-->[[SevenHeavenlyVirtues Patience is your virtue]], saint o' mine
183	* "My Religion" by Music/{{Skillet}}:
184	-->I don't need to stare at stained glass and a steeple\
185	I don't need to dress to impress all other people\
186	Don't need no priest, don't need no pew\
187	You are my religion, my religion is you
188	* {{Discussed}} in IndiePop SingerSongwriter Squalloscope's "Big Houses" (featured on ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale''), where she explores the relationship between love and the Catholic Church, questioning what sort of commitment her religious lover wants from her.
189	-->If I sign this piece of paper\
190	Do I sell my soul along with my duty?\
191	And we won't put our money where your Catholic mouth is
192	* Music/{{Sting}}'s "Sacred Love":
193	-->I've been up, I've been down\
194	I've been lonesome in this godless town\
195	You're my religion, you're my church\
196	You're the holy grail at the end of my search
197	* Music/SuzanneVega: The similarly themed "Bound" and "Penitent" both play with the idea of the singer as the disciple of her lover, asking them to take her back like a prodigal son and wondering to what extent she would obey them.
198	-->You appear without a face\
199	Disappear but leave your trace\
200	I feel your unseen frown.
201	* Music/TaylorSwift:
202	** In the opening track of ''Music/{{Red\|2012}}'', "State of Grace", she compares the short time she spent with her lover to a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin state of grace]], though she admits in the bridge that "you were never a saint / And I loved in shades of wrong".
203	** The similar "{{Holy Ground}}":
204	--->And darling, it was good\
205	Never looking down\
206	And right there where we stood\
207	Was holy ground.
208	** In "False God" on ''Music/{{Lover}}'', Taylor pledges religious devotion to her paramour, even if it turns out to be a "false god".
209	--->We might just get away with it\
210	The altar is my hips\
211	Even if it's a false god\
212	We'd still worship this love
213	* "Wings Of Heaven" by Music/{{Tiamat}}.
214	-->The wings of heaven are descending\
215	The touch of her naked skin's amending\
216	The skies will collide\
217	Only for a little while\
218	And it will take us through the night
219	* "Deeper" by Valerie Broussard incorporates some religious imagery, including saying she wants to lead her lover through the darkness (an allusion to [[https://biblehub.com/psalms/23-4.htm Psalm 23:4]]).
220	-->Ain't no saint without the sinner\
221	No relief without the fever\
222	So c'mon and cut me deeper, deeper.
223	* Music/{{Zolita}} expresses her love as a form of worship in "Holy", from the album ''Immaculate Conception''.
224	-->Worship your body as you walk my way\
225	You're the only one who can make me pray\
226	I fall at your feet, your breath defined\
227	And underneath my skin's an intrinsic shrine.
228	* "Love Is My Religion" by Music/ZiggyMarley is about love in general rather than the specifically romantic variety, but it does contain lines that play into this trope.
229	-->I'll [[UnusualEuphemism take you to the temple]] tonight.
230	[[/folder]]
231
232	[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]
233	* Literature/TheBible: The book of ''Literature/SongOfSongs'' can seemingly be read as a straightforward love poem, bordering on outright erotic in some places. Many prominent Jewish and Christian interpreters through history have understood it as metaphorical for God's love for His people.
234	[[/folder]]
235
236	[[folder:Poetry]]
237	* Several of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's sonnets explore this trope.
238	** In Sonnet 31, the poet, speaking about his past lovers, laments:
239	--->How many a holy and obsequious tear\
240	Hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye
241	** In Sonnet 105, the poet protests that his devotion to his beloved should not be considered "idolatry" (worship of idols distracting from {{God}}), because his love is, like his faith, "To one, of one, still such, and ever so."
242	** In 108, he compares the beloved's name to a prayer:
243	---> ... like prayers divine,\
244	I must each day say o'er the very same,\
245	Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,\
246	Even as when first I hallowed thy fair name.
247	[[/folder]]
248
249	[[folder:Theatre]]
250	* ''Theatre/{{Heathers}}'': J.D. and Veronica sing a song called "Our Love Is God" about destroying what they've known and building everything new with the power of their love.
251	-->'''J.D.''': I worship you.
252	* ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'':
253	** Romeo begins his famous "But soft ... " speech comparing Juliet to the sun and moon, and ends by straight up calling her an angel:
254	--->'''Romeo:''' O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art\
255	As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,\
256	As is a winged messenger of heaven\
257	Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes\
258	Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him.
259	** Later, when Romeo has been exiled, he laments that "Heaven is here, where Juliet lives!"
260	** Juliet during the balcony scene (Act II, scene 2):
261	--->'''Juliet:''' Do not swear at all.\
262	Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,\
263	Which is the god of my idolatry,\
264	And I’ll believe thee.
265	* ''Theatre/TisPityShesAWhore'': Giovanni is [[BrotherSisterIncest in love with his sister]] Annabella. Near the beginning, he angstily monologues:
266	-->'''Giovanni:''' O that it were not in religion sin\
267	To make our love a god, and worship it
268	[[/folder]]
269
270	[[folder:Webcomics]]
271	* ''Webcomic/AlienbyComics'': In the last few panels of [[https://www.instagram.com/p/C5MWP8QPgk_/ "Trans Jesus"]], Riri states how finding queer and trans community has helped them to feel loved after moving away from religion, even stating that Jesus would show love for people that evangelicals dislike.
272	-->'''Riri:''' As I came to know and love friends who were queer and trans, and came out myself... I realized that the most inclusive love lay outside the walls of the church I once called home.
273	[[/folder]]
274
275	[[folder:Western Animation]]
276	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In episode [[Recap/RickAndMortyS6E3BethicTwinstinct "Bethic Twinstinct"]], an exercise at couples' therapy shows that Beth's ideal version of her husband perceives her as a literal goddess.
277	[[/folder]]

Context Main / LoveIsLikeReligion