Like the band's first album, the songs were mostly written by singer/guitarist/lyricist Gordon Gano when he was in high school.

The Christian-related lyrics on Hallowed Ground were thought by some to be ironic, despite Gano being a devout Baptist. The other two members of Violent Femmes were atheists, and initially refused to perform those songs, but after their debut had been recorded, they relented and several of Gano's religion-themed songs were recorded for Hallowed Ground. Gano stated in 1989, "At the time, Brian (Ritchie) was very aggressively anti-anything Christian. He said he didn't want to be playing in a band that was expressing something that he felt so vehemently against."