Songfacts®:

• Although Brandi Carlile is open about her strong faith in Jesus, she doesn't shy away from holding Christians accountable for their actions that contradict his teachings. In this track from her In These Silent Days album, the Americana singer tells the story of a God-fearing man who lives by a strict set of rules and expects others to do the same. After spending his life turning away refugees at the border for not doing
  things "by the book," he finds himself locked out of heaven for the same reason.
  
  Carlile told Stereogum why she was passionate about the song's message. "To me, there's nothing on planet Earth more maddening than the religious right's rejection of displaced people. It's just baffling," she said.
  
  "It could only be from a place of abstract evil, that there would be anything Christian about the concept of rejecting someone who's had to leave their home, which no one wants to do for any reason, war, hunger, unrest, economic impact. For any reason that a person should become displaced and then systematically rejected is just antithetical to everything… I won't even use the word 'Christian,' but everything Gospel-based."
• In These Silent Days was Carlile's second album to win the Grammy Award for Best Americana album. The first was By The Way, I Forgive You, which took the prize in 2019.
• The album peaked at #11 in the US, where it also topped the Folk Albums and Top Rock Albums charts.