Does Neal Morse annoy you?

Morse: It takes place in Luther's time, but I go beyond that all the way to the book of Revelation. I think it's important to understand that throughout history, the church fell away from Jesus and his teachings. It fell away from "Love your enemies," for example. That's what I'm trying to paint through Martin Luther and the Catholic Church. That is the first step to understanding Sola Scriptura.

The second step would be to ask, "If the church fell away and got poisoned and tainted, then what else besides 'The just shall live by faith' got twisted?" What else do we see in the Scriptures that we don't see in the church, or do we see in the church but don't see in the Scriptures? What do we all need to reform?

In "The Conflict," the second track on Sola Scriptura, you have the Catholic Church of that day declaring, "Look, I've got great big armies like a General/I may have a mistress but at least I'm a hetero" Why did you write those lines?

Morse: I read about a pope who wanted to be known as the conquering pope, like a great general, and I thought what a contrast to Christ's life. There was another pope that was homosexual, and another pope had a lot of mistresses. I wrote that line mainly because I was looking for something to rhyme with "general," but I wasn't sure whether I should leave that. I prayed about it, and even up to near the end of the album I wondered if I should change some of the lines because they were pretty hard. But a couple weeks later, a friend who didn't know anything about the album said to me he was reading that Luther was so appalled by the immorality when he went to Rome. One of the priests said to him, "We may have mistresses, but at least we're not homosexuals." But of course, all the sins of the flesh are equal. They're not listed by degrees.

Is the criticism fair that the story of Martin Luther and the Reformation often neglects the shortcomings of the reformers?

Morse: I don't really want to focus so much on Martin Luther and the Catholic Church, but on what is the spirit of the corrupt church and what is the spirit of the true church? My thought is that there is this spirit in the church that wants to kill everything that isn't like it. Even the reformers had it, and the reform churches may still have it.

When do you believe the corruption of the church began?

Morse: It seems to me that there was a steady decline. My goal is to have people step back and take a look at the big picture.  What are the fruits of this declining church?