Listen to the Rain

It seems to me that Litany of Earth is a conscious inversion of the alienforeign-as-something-to-be-feared that Lovecraft seems to rely on in some of his work. The Innsmouthers (Innsmouthians? Innsmouthites?) similarities to regular humans are played up in order to underline humanity's bad habit of underplaying other humans' humanity. And that's a message that needs to be underlined in our world.

As a filthy athiest, I of course regard all religions as 'just another religion'; if the Innsmouthans' religion actually has a living god who can do stuff (when he's awake or at least stirring), then that's an interesting feature, but it's still just another religion for all that, with traditions and lines of authority and obligation. Not a lot different from modern cults, really, except the central figure in all this is potentially more powerful than a merely human sociopath using the material wealth his followers gather to support his hedonistic lifestyle.