I recently read about this insane study from the 1960s, where a psychiatrist did a study on three paranoid schizophrenics, who all claimed to be Jesus Christ, at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan. There is a book on it called, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.
I read through the explanations on Genius Lyrics and there were speculations on a few of the lyrics that he may be referring to Jesus Christ, which makes sense as Sufjan often explores Christian themes, even if he won't admit it.
>I have called you preacher, I have called you son
Genius Lyric Annotation: "PROPOSED SUGGESTION (Emphasis on "proposed"):
The line about having a father or not might be talking about the immaculate conception of Jesus. Sufjan sometimes questions the stories of his beliefs even if he never show doubts in his faith. Even if the story is not completely facts he still do anything for his saviour."
Couldn't help, but think that considering the content of Sufjan Steven's song, that he may have heard/known of The Three Christs of Ypsilanti and if it had any influence on this song.
The Genius Lyric page (at the bottom) has a long quote from Sufjan Stevens explaining the story behind this song and there is no mention of the aforementioned Christs, so it's not likely, but at the very least I found it a fascinating coincidence (is "coincidence" the right word choice here? Lol.).
What do you guys think?