Praise Be
She had blue back ink scratched into her lower back, said “Damn right he’ll rise again.” Yeah damn right you’ll rise again.
As anyone who knows would know, I’m a big fan of religion. I’ll debate theological philosophy until the second coming of Christ or the ninth coming of Buddha. Passionately.
But I guess up until very, very recently, the only religion I’ve not been greatly interested in was Christianity. It seems like if you grow up with it all around you and everything it says seems so massively stupidly wrong, you tend to just get bored and disillusioned. I was trying to get away from that kinda scene.
But the thing that has changed my perspective somewhat is naturally my other great love in the world: Music. We’ll start by looking at the Hold Steady, who the opening quote is taken from. Lead singer Craig Finn has the kind of abusive real-life dogmatism that only comes from the converted-but-cynical. Now here’s someone who doesn’t like to make a big deal out of religious beliefs, but understands the power of the symbology, the stories and force of faith. And he uses it without preaching at all. It’s just part of the mix.
And that’s what I think the main detractors of Christianity and Islam need to contend with. Whilst they fully understand the concepts and precepts, I think for a long time I, and many others, missed the awesome power that it still wields.
On that note, the second musician that got me thinking was Kanye West. I just bought The College Dropout, which among other excellent tracks has “Jesus Walks”, his breakthrough hit. So it got me thinking about the fanatical American bible belt, and the lonely beautiful strength which an embellished and misinformed image of Christ and Christianity gives to poor people around the world. Which almost makes Christianity a forgivable sin. For all the damage and hate, for all the stupidity and cringe… well… maybe it offers some really useful beautiful stuff as well, like stories and support and other nice little things in brown paper packages tied up with string.
The point I’m trying to make is that by no means am I… well, no… what I mean is that no one should ever degrade anything that has influence, nor underestimate it. We might hate the ringtone downloads, but they cannot be ignored, and the clever people can make a lot of big changes about everything from such things. Christianity is like that in this utterly secular age. We’re ignoring a creeping vine of ivy just because we don’t like it.
Now I’m watching Answered By Fire, and it’s really good. I like things that deal with… well, issues now. None of this WW2 crap, this kind of thing is happening now, commenting on the now and the recent. I’m disappointed that entertainment can’t be more like this, and less like Big Brother. Bad example – excessive. I wish it could be more like this and less like channel 7 News.
I would rather die, than not be relevant. You don’t have to be right, you just need to be relevant.
Terima kasih
As anyone who knows would know, I’m a big fan of religion. I’ll debate theological philosophy until the second coming of Christ or the ninth coming of Buddha. Passionately.
But I guess up until very, very recently, the only religion I’ve not been greatly interested in was Christianity. It seems like if you grow up with it all around you and everything it says seems so massively stupidly wrong, you tend to just get bored and disillusioned. I was trying to get away from that kinda scene.
But the thing that has changed my perspective somewhat is naturally my other great love in the world: Music. We’ll start by looking at the Hold Steady, who the opening quote is taken from. Lead singer Craig Finn has the kind of abusive real-life dogmatism that only comes from the converted-but-cynical. Now here’s someone who doesn’t like to make a big deal out of religious beliefs, but understands the power of the symbology, the stories and force of faith. And he uses it without preaching at all. It’s just part of the mix.
And that’s what I think the main detractors of Christianity and Islam need to contend with. Whilst they fully understand the concepts and precepts, I think for a long time I, and many others, missed the awesome power that it still wields.
On that note, the second musician that got me thinking was Kanye West. I just bought The College Dropout, which among other excellent tracks has “Jesus Walks”, his breakthrough hit. So it got me thinking about the fanatical American bible belt, and the lonely beautiful strength which an embellished and misinformed image of Christ and Christianity gives to poor people around the world. Which almost makes Christianity a forgivable sin. For all the damage and hate, for all the stupidity and cringe… well… maybe it offers some really useful beautiful stuff as well, like stories and support and other nice little things in brown paper packages tied up with string.
The point I’m trying to make is that by no means am I… well, no… what I mean is that no one should ever degrade anything that has influence, nor underestimate it. We might hate the ringtone downloads, but they cannot be ignored, and the clever people can make a lot of big changes about everything from such things. Christianity is like that in this utterly secular age. We’re ignoring a creeping vine of ivy just because we don’t like it.
Now I’m watching Answered By Fire, and it’s really good. I like things that deal with… well, issues now. None of this WW2 crap, this kind of thing is happening now, commenting on the now and the recent. I’m disappointed that entertainment can’t be more like this, and less like Big Brother. Bad example – excessive. I wish it could be more like this and less like channel 7 News.
I would rather die, than not be relevant. You don’t have to be right, you just need to be relevant.
Terima kasih
posted by Cal Samson at 9:29 PM
4 Comments:
ARGH before i even read your entry... im just commenting to register my disgust that the title of your blog MAKES ME THINK OF THE HANDMAIDS TALE THE MOST GODAWFUL BOOK EVEN WRITTEN.
i believe they had atwood committed for it.
now i will leave and read and then return. but im not really leaving. sigh. online can be just no fun!
mm...that was ever...
I really do like the way you write and saying "i really do like the way you write" doesn't seem at all fitting for the fluidity with which you put to us all those truths and untruths and faith-inciting lines of rhetoric that would reduce the bible belt to the fashion accessory it never was.
this has been my argument for years - that religion, no matter how much we dog it and push and pull and challenge it, gives to many people what we either never have to question or are never spiritually aware enough to appreciate. I realised this when i took the liberty (and a great liberty it is, freedom of religion) to attend a church with my friend that some may call 'fundamental'. Here, i didn't see fundamentalists or jesus-crazies, i saw a lady in the front row swaying to the music she was singing, singing from somewhere deep within with a power of expression i would count myself lucky to have had once in my whole life. i saw little kids who actually listened to the word of God. I saw old people, who would look at me in the street with fear, open their arms to me and welcome me, as a stranger in their midst. what i saw was a place where people had the chance to be good, to gain strength, and to come together in a way that we actively avoid today as we skirt around each other, too afraid to touch for fear we might retain those undesirable humanistic (is that a word?) qualities that make us vulnerable to failure.
I don't see religion as the problem. I see it as the solution that has been put in the wrong box. Hell, (haha) if everyone abided by what religion preached, we'd all be living in plush houses, dressed in warm clothes and wearing hush puppies. The problem is not religion - it's the mad idiots who take it and wield it as a weapon, much like the wield everything else - guns, which would make nice ring holders, swords, which look much nicer clean, and on walls, and politics, which they douse in a good dose of human corruption and add to it their idiosyncratic ideas of adversarialism. And they are, my friend, akin to those at the helm of the channel seven news tank, which, might i add, is at your door waiting to interview you about being a political radical and a fundamentalist who is trying to brainwash the civilised world into a new evil phenomenon known colloquially as 'religion'
So watch out, the anti-hedonists are coming.
Hi,
I'm finishing off the monthly challenge book (yes, finally) and wanted to know your name (real or stage, as opposed to your forum handle)
You can email me at mike at mpm dot org dot au
Cheers,
Mike (makepeace)
Rosie also speaks truth, dear readers.
Makepeace speaks truth too, but not here. Seriously, check out the Pulp faction link on the main page to check out one hellava great community. Woot for underappreciated artists. 24 comic challenge soon everyone!!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home