i'm not usually inclined to listen to "contemporary christian music"--mainly because i think much of it would send me into a diabetic coma because it's so sugary sweet. but there are there are those few exceptions who have some great theology and theological integrity...
it also became a little clearer in a conversation with al recently that probably the main reason i get near (and even lean over) the edge of pluralism is because i'm just not willing to be so exclusive.
so here's a song about that (written by kyle matthews)...
went to a church that was on a mission
they try to stamp out sin
but since they've thrown all the sinners out
now, nobody can go in
no, nobody can go in
is no one
looking for a place for everyone?
isn't anyone
looking for a place for everyone?
went to a club with a long tradition
they raise the social bar
now they know who they won't let in
but they don't know who they are
no, they don't know who they are
is no one
looking for a place for everyone?
isn't anyone
looking for a place for everyone?
Jesus warned us, if we life him up
we might not like what we find
'cause when perfect love is lifted up
it draws all humankind
i dreamed i died and joined the millions
there are the pearly gates
but when they saw who'd gone in before them
they turned away and said, "no, thanks"
they turned away and said, "no, thanks"
is no one
looking for a place for everyone?
isn't anyone
looking for a place for everyone?
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6 comments:
Pluralism is a crazy free fall! It CAN be a total rejection of eveything you've ever known (but aren't we already doing that little by little anyway?) Then again it allows you the wiggle room to believe whatever God is teaching you! You mentioned freedom in another post (something I plan on posting about) but isn't pluralism the ultimate freedom, both for yourself and others. However, like all freedoms it comes with responsibility... the responsibility to perpetually work on your journey. It means knowing and accepting that each day the beliefs you hold dear may not be the same as yesterday (i believe this is a formation of your own words to me).
I think that what draws us to pluralism from a background in a non pluralistic Christian upbringing, can be the exact thing that holds us back from embracing it. You nail it: "not willing to be exclusive." yet there's some part of us that is ingrained (perhaps indoctrinated is a better word)that we are still exclusive to the point that we are stuck in the middle. I'm not sure that's a healthy place to be, but then again, who knows?
MLK, Buddha, Gandhi, and Christ go walk into a bar... what would they talk about? would they speak with a pluralistic assumption? Or would it turn into a big bar brawl? (notice they all were pacifist so.... that was the punch line of the bar joke i started?:)
so, just to make your life more difficult, I've picked out another song with lyrics for you...this time not Christian (although I really like the Kyle Matthew's song; and I neither and a Christian music fan (nor a kyle matt. fan altho ali is).
_________________
"It's All Understood"
Jack Johnson
Everyone laughed at her joke
As if they'd never even heard it before
And maybe they were truly amused
But every word that she spoke was a bore
And maybe it's because they had seen
The previews on the TV screen
Well this part is good and that's well understood
So you should laugh if you know what I mean
But it's all relative
Even if you don't understand
Well it's all understood
Especially when you don't understand
Then it's all just because
Even if we don't understand
Then lets all just believe
Everyone knows what went down
Because the news was spread all over town
And fact is only what you believe
And fact and fiction work as a team
It's almost always fiction in the end
That content begins to bend
When context is never the same
And it's all relative
Even if we don't understand
And that's well understood
Especially when we don't understand
Then it's all just because
Even if we don't understand
Then lets all just believe
I was reading a book
Or maybe it was a magazine
Suggestions on where to place faith
Suggestions on what to believe
But I read somewhere
That you've got to beware
You can't believe anything you read
But the good Book is good
And that's well understood
So don't even question
If you know what I mean
But it's all relative
Even if you don't understand
Well it's all understood
Especially when you don't understand
And it's all just because
Even if we don't understand
Then lets all just believe
But there you go once again
You missed the point and then you point
Your fingers at me
And say that I said not to believe
I believe
I guess
I guess it's all relative
i'm a big fan of jack johnson...and usually find more theologically sound lyrics in the secular stuff anyway.
it gets tiring sometimes, this perpetual working on the journey...these things run around my head and get twisted up in knots and perhaps i make it harder than it is...or maybe i make it more authentic than it started out.
so thanks to season 1 of scrubs who brought us colin hay's overkill:
I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications
Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know I'll be alright
Perhaps it's just imagination
Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Alone between the sheets
Only brings exasperation
It's time to walk the streets
Smell the desperation
At least there's pretty lights
And though there's little variation
It nullifies the night from overkill
Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Come back another day
I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications
Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know I'll be alright
It's just overkill
Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away
touche' (sp?) on the lyrics contest! anyone who pulls out scrubs and esp. the colin hay overkill song (one of my personal favs. both episode song!), always wins:)
I know what you mean...sometimes I wish i could go back to the plain and simply fundy that I was my first day of undergrad...but even then I was questioning things that were said. the difference was that then, i assumed (how stupid of me) that these fundamentalists i was listening to were actually smart and understood God and the Bible and faith and...well life!
yes living life in pious judgment was more simple and allowed me to sleep at night. Now however, I may have trouble sleeping due to all of the questions and such, but at least when I do sleep, I can sleep well knowing that I'm on a better path both for myself, and for the way I treat others!
as Monk would say, "it's a blessing.....and a curse."
i was listening to a little jack johnson, and never has this line jumped out at me before now, but since (entirely out of it's context) this topic, the line is quite interesting!
and there were so many fewer questions
when stars were still just the holes to heaven
-holes to heaven--jj
yeah, i was listening to that to, yesterday and this morning, and that line stuck out for me as well...so does "there's more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line...and the less i seek my source for some definitive, the closer i am to fine"
you know, some days I agree with that whole heartedly! but then i feel days where, like john mayer, numb is "the new deep"! but, like johnny boy, whenever I try to fool myself that i can ignore the haunting questions, then I feel even more like "somethings missing"
"stop this train, i wana get off and go home again, can't take the spirits moving in, i know i can't, but honestly won't someone stop this train?"
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