The Gospel of Mary

Debuted at his 2019 Tiny Desk appearance with Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, “The Gospel of Mary” is a song that likens the journey of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus from Bethlehem to Egypt to that of modern-day refugees to the United States. We often think of biblical times as particularly brutal but here Josh refers to them as a “simpler time” where refugees were taken in rather than being separated and kept in cages. At the conclusion of his first performance of the song, Josh said, “We love you America, but you’ve gotta change.”