Oh God, there is nothing that Morrissey can do wrong. Or right, for that matter. For Coke and Morrissey and God, they will decide when and what is too much, not us mortals. To look upon the face of Morrissey is to look on that of the Christ child. It seems that they both age at the same rate, as well as enjoy the same loyal following legions of Latino fan-boys. Coke reinvents itself every summer. But Christ had to be perfect, Coke has to apologize all the time and Morrissey, well, he's not sorry at all. The arrogance of Morrissey is his infallibility. With his most recent outing (though not what many keep hoping for) finds Him in typical form, for the best, still creating lovely pop songs, still emitting a haunting sexiness in his throat and still being indignant as a smooth faced teenager. He has song titles that read like high school journal chapters, like loud absolutes: “America Is Not The World,” (fair enough), “I'm Not Sorry,” (pretty clear there), “The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores,” (if you're Morrissey, that is), “All The Lazy Dykes,” (what?) and the pinnacle of pop declarative, “I've Forgiven Jesus.” Not even Jesus could say that he'd forgiven himself with being accused of oversized hubris. And though the bombastic is a challenge to try to hate Morrissey, in the beginning of the song we're introduced to the sweet child that Morrissey must have been. He promises that he's such a good boy, but wonders why he has so much pain, why did Christ give him so much desire and then bar all the outlets of such passion. Pleading, He cries, “Jesus, do you hate me?” Hearts fall to the floor. How could Christ be so cruel to the Morrissey child? And this is the best pop – one that which allows an offense to become implicitly forgivable – merited by the sincerity of the performer. Morrissey has forgiven Jesus. At least someone is being the bigger man here.
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