This is one of my all time favorite songs. Depeche Mode (the peach, with ice cream?) wrote a haunting offer to stand in for a missing element:

Your own, personal, Jesus. A Jesus you don’t have to share with the rest of humanity.
Someone who cares A wonderful indictment against an indifferent Jesus.

Johnny Cash’s acoustic version brings out a different perspective. When I listen to this version, it seems like he’s the one missing something in his life:

Feeling unknown/And you’re all alone Cash’s country twang and heart-rending voice are the response to Depeche Mode’s offer. Nothing could replace that which is missing.
Lift up the receiver/I’ll make you a believer Oh, how wonderful it would be if it were just that easy. But Cash knows it’s not, and that makes his heart break just a little more.

Marylin Manson’s version teases out a third way of hearing the song. Here, again, the singer offers to stand in for the missing diety. But Manson’s is the voice of atheism, of the adversary:

Things on your chest/You need to confess A tantalizing offer (with a forked tongue) to one disaffected by religion.
You know I’m a forgiver/Reach out and touch faith Again playing on the missing elements in a life without religion, offering to replace it.

Each of these amazing artists brings their own personality to one of the classic songs for recovering religionists. As I made my way slowly out of religion, this song played a major role, as did each version. Depeche Mode’s original reminded me that I was not alone at a time when I felt like everyone in the world had religion. Johnny Cash’s was validation for the pain I was feeling; it was a dirge for the death of my faith. And Marilyn Manson’s was vaguely hopeful while at the same time slightly dangerous; a perfect definition of atheism for me at the time.

EDIT: none of the Manson videos will export to here. There might be some kind of a flag on them that they’re NSFW or something. Here is a link to the video on YouTube and a link to the clean one (there’s a nipple at the end of the first one).