Excerpt from an article by Alan Creech:
|
-LINK
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Alan Creech: We have finally reached our goal!" "Bull&@*t!
Excerpt from an article by Alan Creech:
Friday, May 28, 2010
VIDEO: "Pudgy Methodist Pastor" Performs with Alice Cooper
News story:
Up until now, Mark Wilkins' life has been pretty much what one would expect from a middle-aged pastor.
Pastor Mark Wilkins got to "Live His Dream" and meet his musical hero.
The 49-year-old man of the cloth has spent most of his life in northwest Indiana. He is wholly devoted to the Crown Point Methodist Church and its worshippers. Oh yeah -- and he loves to blast a little metal.
"If I'm having a stressful day or a really good day, you're going to hear Alice Cooper," Wilkins said. "And you're going to hear it pretty loud."
That's right. The self-described "pudgy" Methodist pastor has had a thing for the iconic rock legend since he was 13 years old. He has every Alice Cooper album and song ever released on his iPod.
So it was the dream of a lifetime when Cooper invited Wilkins onstage to be a part of his horror-infused extravaganza at Live Nation's Uptown Amphitheater in Charlotte, N.C., as one of four winners of "Good Morning America's" Living the Dream contest.
The experience "far exceeded" Wilkins' expectations, he said today on "GMA." "This went so far beyond anything that I could have imagined … it was amazing."
-link
meet his musical hero.RELATED, Alice Cooper on his Christianity:
-St. Alice Cooper: anointed satire vs. sugarcoated praise
Thursday, May 27, 2010
David Byrne and Brian Eno: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
This record was born as a dinner conversation. While dining in New York with David and some other friends, I mentioned that I had accumulated a lot of music, which, despite my intentions, I had never formed into songs. David volunteered to give them a try. By and large, we stuck to our separate territories: I worked on the instrumentals, and he generally focused on the lyrics and vocals. This arrangement seemed to work well.
Upon starting this project, we quickly realized we were making something like electronic gospel, music in which singing becomes the central event, but whose sonic landscapes are atypical of such vocal-centered tracks. This notion tapped into my long love affair with gospel music, which, curiously, was inadvertently initiated by David and the Talking Heads.
“Surrender to His Will,” by Reverend Maceo Woods and The Christian Tabernacle Choir, was the first gospel song I ever really responded to. I heard it on a distant South American radio station whilst in Compass Point, Nassau, working with Talking Heads on the album More Songs about Buildings and Food. Spending time with them, and becoming aware of their musical interests, opened my ears to genres and styles I hadn't really noticed up to that point, including gospel. So, it's fitting that the circle should close with this record.
As a foreigner in New York — where I ended up shortly after recording More Songs — I was surprised by how little attention Americans gave to their own great indigenous music. It was even slightly uncool, as though the endorsement of gospel necessarily implied support of its associated religious framework. Thanks to Reverend Woods however, I began to see gospel music as conveying the act of surrender more than the act of worship; and this, of course, intrigued me, and has informed my music ever since. Perhaps it's the reason I use modes and chords that are easy to follow and harmonize with. I want music to be inviting, to offer the listener a place inside it. I think David responded to this with sensitivity and skill, and his natural edginess made those familiar progressions sound new to me once again.
— Brian Eno
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Video: Hitler Finds Out U2 Tour Gets Postponed
On a serious note, keep praying for the Bonoman to stary down as long as he needs to.
For the two of you who don't know what happened,s ee
news video here:
BBC News - U2 cancel Glastonbury and US tour after Bono's injury
and Edge's wonderful video here:
The Edge on Skpe
poet =priest
"Poetry is a deep inner calling in man; from it came liturgy, the psalms, and also the content of religions. The poet confronted nature... See More’s phenomena and in the early ages called himself a priest, to safeguard his vocation. In the same way, to defend his poetry, the poet of the modern age accepts the investiture earned in the street, among the masses. Today’s social poet is still a member of the earliest order of priests. In the old days he made his pact with the darkness, and now he must interpret the light."
~ Pablo Neruda, Memoirs, Chapter 11 “Poetry Is An Occupation”)
Ht: Michael Kear
"Maybe the poet is gay
Let himl be heard anyway
..
May be the voice of the Spirit
In which case you'd better hear it"
-see this on Cockburn's line
More Neruda? see label below
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The "Lord's Prayer" does NOT say "daily bread"..yada..This is NEWS?
Any pastor who has done
their homework knows the huge "secret" outed in Diarmaid MacCulloch's magisterial book,
Other than commentaries (and books by George Eldon Ladd) why does it only leak out in books like this by gay Anglicans (!!) that most of our flock will never read? And in reviews (by moderate Anglicans) of that book in a publication like The New York Times Book Review, that most of our flock will never read, but should?
Love the wry "not in Kansas" last line of the reviewer below, as he ponders these same questions, and maybe answers them. Time for us to kickstart out of Kansas and modernity and into an Oz-fest. Maybe the Anglicans (Phyllis Tickle, anyone?) are leading the way:
Maybe we are just afraid of what will happen if the flock find out they have been fleeced about what anyone who has studied the Bible (Matt. 4:17...) knows is THE central message of Jesus:
Guess not many churches are quoting Dallas Willard either..
---------
their homework knows the huge "secret" outed in Diarmaid MacCulloch's magisterial book,
"Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years."
So why don't we preach this stuff?Other than commentaries (and books by George Eldon Ladd) why does it only leak out in books like this by gay Anglicans (!!) that most of our flock will never read? And in reviews (by moderate Anglicans) of that book in a publication like The New York Times Book Review, that most of our flock will never read, but should?
Love the wry "not in Kansas" last line of the reviewer below, as he ponders these same questions, and maybe answers them. Time for us to kickstart out of Kansas and modernity and into an Oz-fest. Maybe the Anglicans (Phyllis Tickle, anyone?) are leading the way:
..in a wonderfully revealing insight of MacCulloch’s, that the “daily bread” for which countless Christians ask in the Lord’s Prayer is not what most people think it is, a humble plea for sustenance. “Daily” is the common translation of the Greek word epiousios, which in fact means “of extra substance” or “for the morrow.” As MacCulloch explains, epiousios “may point to the new time of the coming kingdom: there must be a new provision when God’s people are hungry in this new time — yet the provision for the morrow must come now, because the kingdom is about to arrive.”
We are a long way from bedtime prayers here.
-link
Maybe we are just afraid of what will happen if the flock find out they have been fleeced about what anyone who has studied the Bible (Matt. 4:17...) knows is THE central message of Jesus:
"..the Gospel is not that Jesus died on the cross for your sins so you can go to heaven when you die, but that the Gospel that Jesus preached was the Gospel of the Kingdom.
When you say this to people they look at you like you’re insane.
‘Of course the Gospel is that you can go to heaven when you die’, they say.
But the Gospel isn’t a one-time event, it’s a daily participation with Christ in the Kingdom life.”
Interview with Dallas Willard in RELEVANT Magazine
(read it all here)
Guess not many churches are quoting Dallas Willard either..
---------
MacCulloch describes himself as a "candid friend" of Christianity."I have a strong appreciation of the importance of it all," he says. "I've struggled with statements of belief. I think it's hugely important. It's still very important to me. I play the organ and sing in a church choir and I can't imagine life without Christianity. But I cannot sign up to doctrinal statements."
-link
"better than a hallelujah"
Just when Amy Grant was finally getting played on Christian radio again,
she slyly and wonderfully subverts it again with this song's honest lyrics (co written by Chapin Hartford and Sarah Hart..a ...gasp..Catholic, wait till the fundies find out).
Maybe next she'll cover a song about God smoking a cigarette, and being a little late..
Hope so!
Song and lyrics:
She even sang it in a Christian bookstore
(notice she snuck it in as a last quick song):
Amy talks about the song:
Live acoustic:
Ambient mix:
Kristin Swenson: The Bible as Porn?
Excerpts from a blog post by Kristin Swenson
(Just noticed she translated Isaiah, Lamentations, and Numbers for The Voice
Bible..awesome!):
The Bible as Porn?
Atheist students at a Texas university are offering porn in exchange for Bibles arguing, “same diff.” Inflammatory, to be sure, but are they right? The Bible is indeed full of racy material, from its very first book on. Robert Crumb’s Genesis in graphic novel form warns on the cover that adult supervision is recommended. The Song of Solomon’s highly suggestive erotic poetry is inspiration for a line of Christian sex toys ...
and that’s just a wee sampling of the sex. But pornography isn’t just about sex, is it? There’s something more that makes it what it is… and so difficult to define. There’s
Wouldn’t it be nice to say that the Bible includes no such narratives, images, and invitations? But it does.
,,If we loose our grip on what the Bible can and cannot do, on what we allow that the Bible says and doesn’t say, then maybe we’ll witness the Bible embrace what seems pornographic only to assimilate and transform it into a mandate for the fully realized life for all beings in a family at home on this breathing earth.
Monday, May 24, 2010
"Jesus is a hero only to the extent that he is...."
"Jesus is a hero only to the extent that he is human"
-Cioran, "Tears and Saints" p. 81
More: Cioran on music/mysticism
U2 devotionals #8: Shuffling Sound and Death
Listening to U2 on shuffle (which is way better than listening to Gaithers on crack) is enlightening. Time becomes relevant in a fresh way when it's not linear..
I just heard "Breathe"
back to back with "Mercy,"
and this learned by holy juxtaposition that God is both:
- "the Roar on the other side of silence"
and
- "Silence looking for a sound."
It works both ways. Physics has well established that the arrow of time runs both directions; Bono might preach that it carries sound with it. An Escher Loop of sound. God sounds good going and coming.
But he meets us in the Sound either way.
-------------------
Then came "Tomorrow" (Common Ground mix) which faded out with:
- "Oh boy, stop your crying/Soon it'll be death that's dying"
which merged unexpectedly in a smooth cut and paste into:
- "Sleep, sleep tonight, and may your dreams be realized"
And so it is. "God will make a new type of material not subject to death out of the old material." (NT Wright)
Shuffle on into holy randomnity
The Violet Burning sends an unshaved pastor to the mall to convert his epistemology
Suddenly, I heard the audible voice of God...
more specifically of Jesus Christ....
call out over the sound system of Fresno Fashion Fair Mall.
It was a stunning experience.
His loving, aching, pleading tone instantly confirmed that it was indeed Him.
The ancient Bat Kol showing up at a modern mall!
And it was also clear that the message was intended as a wake-up call to those walking the mall:
- "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you!"
- "You know I love you so!"
And most potently and powerfully:
- "For you, I bleed myself dry."
It was incredibly touching, and strongly self-authenticating as the voice of the Jesus who
flung stars into space, loves us relentlessly, and bled himself dry on the cross
... that all within earshot might be saved.
The only catch is every walker seemed oblivious.
Only the lone listener on the bench seemed to even hear it.
I am unworthy.
At this point, as I reveal that the voice of God came through the voice of a singer whose song just happened to be playing throughout the mall, some respond, "Oh, it wasn't that supernatural after all. All that happened was a song with spiritual lyrics played."
But I still maintain it was naturally supernatural.
Even though the fact that the song was not (gasp!) by an officially Christian group.
The voice that Jesus borrowed for those moments was that of Chris Martin and Coldplay.
One can debate what the classically Coldplay song "Yellow" is "really about"..
..but that is irrelevant to the fact that
Jesus borrowed or hijacked it.
I am all about that.
As I moved from pondering the potentially negative epistemological implications of a Reformation hermeneutic (yes, that is seriously what I was thinking about) into something far more practical:
praying for the shiny ( yellow?) Shekinah presence of Jesus the to envelop the mallfolk...
...a smiling man walked right up to my bench and sat down..just two inches past our culture's comfort zone. He had never read E.T. Hall on proxemics.
He was either full of s&*# or full of shekinah.
"Hey, how are you?" he ventured.
I contemplated answering with a version of one of these (:...
- "Uh, I am pouring myself out in prayer for everyone in the mall to know the love of Jesus. Do you mind leaving me alone?
- Uh, I am pouring myself out in prayer for everyone in the mall to know the love of Jesus. Do you know Jesus?
- "Actually, I am trying to read a book, so excuse me..."
I offered a more neutral, but at least invitational, "Good, how about you?"
The reason I was sitting on a bench on my day off was all prayer's fault anyway.
It was just an impression while praying for, and thus with The Violet Burning (meaning,while listening to The Violet Burning...specifically, "Oceana,"... as fellow
fans will want to know), that I really was supposed to go there; that there may well be someone I was called to meet or run into there.
So I grabbed the obligatory book....so in case I was wrong, and God didn't show up, I would still get something done (:
...and made my pilgrimage.
I grabbed Fashion Fair St Arbuck's (watch this interview I did with RevKev Foster if you want to know about the Starbucks anointing) and sat, well aware that I was sitting on a bench I may well have sat in thirty odd years ago, when I was a kid, and the mall was new.
Wow, who would God send to me: a childhood friend?
It felt time-warpish.
Even though I still felt sheepish about any potential divine encounters.
(And as a couple of Victoria's Secret models/employees eyed my bench as a potential pl;ace to take a break, I wondered if this would be Uncle Ernie at Uncle Harry's all over again).
Unshaven (maybe why the models decided against my bench, huh?), wearing my Violet Burning T-shirt (Ever since the day I bought it, 0nce in awhile, I meet a fellow fan, or get to
tell someone about the band when I wear it) some old
clothes, and a few whiskers after a few busy days of teaching, and some old clothes, I probably didn't look like who I was: a pastor and Bible teacher, who had brought a book (this one here; the one which got me going on epistemological implications of a Reformation hermeneutic)along to prep for a class I would soon be teaching...
So when the man spoke next, I knew it was time to send the right non-verbal message:
I shut the book in awe.
"I know Pastor Bruce Hood of Feed My Sheep Ministries."
"Really? I know Bruce, I love that guy and
I love the ministry.Well, anyone who knows Pastor Bruce knows Jesus (:
...so I didn't have to waste any time asking if this guy did.
Instead I was honored to hear some of his story, how he came to faith, and came to be involved with Feed My Sheep.
He was at the mall trying to gently (without getting kicked out) sell charity raffle tickets for the ministry...but more importantly, see who God would lead him to.
That would include me, the unworthy unshaved one... I guess I was an answer to Brian's prayer, too.
Brian was a delightful man who has been clean and sober for several months thanks to Jesus, Bruce and the ministry. As we talked, I followed my usual protocol (which drives Keltic Ken Adams nuts) of not mentioning I was a pastor or Bible teacher.
So I asked if he knew Ken (as I knew that Ken from the church I pastor was heavily involved, through his subversive radio station, with Feed My Sheep.
He smiled and said he did.
"Cool, Ken goes to the same church I do."
(Note, not "I am Ken's pastor.")
Brian nodded to my book, and asked about it.
"Oh, I am studying for a church history class."
(Note, not "I am prepping for a class that I am teaching.")
I am sure he assumed I was a "lay" church attender, and a student at some kind of college.
And indeed I am.
I love how Len Sweet, when introducing former students of his, says something like, "This is Ted, we studied together in the nineties."
(Not, "I was Ted's professor in seminary."
I was thrilled to be able to pray for, and with, Brian...right there, smack in the middle of what my friend (half-jokingly) calls the "666 Mall."
I mentioned that he might tell Bruce hi for me if he remembered.
If he does, Bruce will say, "Oh, you met Pastor Dave...he also teaches Bible and ministry at a couple colleges."
And Brian will find out my secret.
A secret that was irrelevant to the fact that he and I are brothers, and I have a lot to learn from him.
It was Monday, the traditional pastor's day off
(Ever seen a pastor on Monday?)
And even though I am not mush of a traditional pastor, I still keep that tradition.
And I was pleased to be able to pray for someone on a day when I am not "paid to do so" (:
And anyway, had I told him that I was a pastor, he might not have believed me, I was dressed way too down-home to look like one (:
He never asked me about The Violet Burning.
But it was The Violet Burning ...and Coldplay I might add, that God used to connect us.
Thanks to all three..
...and as a bonus, I learned something about the epistemological implications of a Reformation hermeneutic after all.
I heard the Voice.
Thanks above all To Jesus, who bled himself dry for us, that we might hear and heed his voice,
wherever and however it shows up.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
the church is not real
"..'the church' as a separate entity is just a phantom. It is not real."
-From a great post by NakedPastor (read it all here) on why pastors lose so may friends/relationships from church, but not from the world.
"I cast you out, foul spirit of effectiveness!'
"...the word 'effective' has led many churches astray. Because our goal is that God's power and purposes be at work through our weaknesses, we can concentrate not on the results, but the means in the very gifts of God's tabernacling...
As Yoder Nefeld points out, 'this is why alternative cultural forces of truth, justice and peace are so important. When they are yielded by a community that is in Christ; then its very life is exorcistic.'
The church's call is to exorcism, not effectiveness.
Perhaps one of the most recalcitrant spirits that needs to be exorcised is that of needing to be effective."
-Marva J. Dawn, "Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God," pp. 132-133
Friday, May 21, 2010
Sexual Detox: free e-book
What started as blog posts by Tim Challies:- Sexual Detox I: Pornifying the Marriage Bed
- Sexual Detox II: Breaking Free
- Sexual Detox III: A Theology of Sex
- Sexual Detox IV: Detoxification
- Sexual Detox V: Freedom
- Sexual Detox: Recommended Resources
here .
(versions for single and married guys)
Thursday, May 20, 2010
the children from Zoo Station got off drugs by elevated time travel
Bottom line: prayer and God are the best way off drugs.
I knew that.
But a fresh look at a vintage U2 song helps me see it anew.
"Toto, we're not in Dublin anymore."
I knew that.
But a fresh look at a vintage U2 song helps me see it anew.
"Toto, we're not in Dublin anymore."
That's what the grungy opening bars of U2's "Zoo Station" boldly announced:
We're in Berlin. And it's a whole new day.
U2 is dead. Long live U2.
Not in the 1980s U2 anymore.
Some have claimed they haven't been U2 since!
(Maybe they became U3 at that point..more on that in a sec).
Understatement: If we only
knew then what the fullness of 1990s U2 would look like.
So that was was what the "dream it all up again" New Years Eve 1989 comment was all about!
What I didn't really get about the song until now, is that the song may well be:
1) in a long tradition of U2 songs, before and since, that are commentary on the bankruptcy of drug use (a line from"Bad" to "Unknown Caller" by way of"Running to Stand Still")2)in a long line of songs about time travel..uh, I mean the Kingdom of God, which,as all theologians know, is the same thing. (:
Many fans have suggested that the song is based on a real subway station in Berlin, one where the "U2" and "U3" lines meet...Googling the U3 Station is interesting.
(by the way, the "U2" station is elevated ....Wikipedia: 'The 'elevated station' of today's U2 remained completely unchanged"....which of course connects to another U2 song).
Here are some comments from "Song Meanings" (as often, a grain of salt is necessary, but a grain of truth looks to be there..the 2nd comment in particular just sounds like Bono):
The song is about Zoo station in Berlin that is the pick up place for those getting off heroin.
Alphaville's song Big in Japan mentions it which is about a couple trying to get off heroin - should I stay here at the Zoo or shall I go and change my point of view...
-----------
There is a German book called "Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo". This means "The children from Zoo Station". It is a story about a teenage girl who is addicted to heroin. In Berlin there is a well known drug scene at Zoo Station, where young children get money for prostitution.On the "Children of Zoo Station" book, it's true. And the movie synopsis has further U2 connections..if you remember the songs "Discoteque" "Vertigo" and "Boots"/ "Fez" (Let me in the Sound)-------------------------
No. It's from the Communists. You know the 4 parts from Berlin, in that time? Well, there was a train station (Zool�gischer Zugbahn) in the west part of Berlin, but it belongs to the Russians. So what have happened there? The station was full of glass. And the Russian and east-German teenagers had their free cocain from the communist state, to attrack the west teenagers to communism. This is at least the meaning of "Zoo Station". But if it's meant in the song or not, I don't know
Fourteen-year-old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a small apartment in a typical multi-storey concrete apartment building in a dull neighbourhood in the outskirts of West Berlin. She's bored and lacks things to do and is sick and tired of living there. She hears of Sound, a new disco in the city center, called the most modern discothèque in Europe. Although she's legally too young to go to the disco, she dresses up in high heels and make-up and asks a friend from school to take her. At the disco she meets Detlef, who is a little older. He is in a clique where everybody is experimenting with various drugs. At first she takes pills and trips, but gradually she becomes drawn deeper into the drugs, eventually ending up as a heroin-addict and prostitute.
-link
Hmmm .. "We're at a place called'Zoo Station'. "
That station as an innocent-looking station,,It is the station for the Berlin Zoo, by the way:
The Berlin Zoo is the most visited zoo in Europe with approximately 3.0 million annual visitors from all over the world. It is open all year long and can easily be reached by public transportation. The Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station (also simply known as Zoo) is one of Berlin's most important stations. Several modes of transport such as U-Bahn [U2 and U3 etc], S-Bahn and buses are interlinked here.
-link
also being a Vertigo/vortex portal into temptation. Here's a comment which ties the song to two other albums, an early era ("Boy") and late era ("Dismantle") which are about innocence, losing it, and finding second innocence in moving on:
Oh, the time travel connection?
I'm ready for what's next... ready to say I'm glad to be alive, I'm ready for "the push," I'll be crawling around on my hands and knees... the whole first verse and bridge is simply about being born.
The second verse deals with the middle teenage years, as the child-becoming-a-man/woman is forced to come to terms with the angst of soon having to leave the safe cocooned life he/she knows (Zoo Station), and go out into the world (The Zoo) to find his/her own way (face pressed up against the glass in anticipation). The train (time) is what carries us along on life's journey.
Pretty straightforward stuff for Bono, IMHO. So the band's new direction, subjecting them to those same feelings of anticipation, uncertainty and insecurity as the child in the song, could well be another level... a metaphor on top of a metaphor.
Oh, the time travel connection?
"Time is a train, makes the future the past
"standing in the station/with your face against the glass"
Whether one commenter's thoughts relate or not (that Zoo Station in communist days was "full of glass"), the future becoming past can only technically happen via time travel.
And on the innocence/new innocence connection ("I'm alive, I'm being born/I'm at the door of where I started out from/And I want back inside"- from the prayer/song"All Because of You".
Once travels "backwards" in time, yet with knowledge from the present and future, to make that happen.
Since the Kingdom of God IS time travel ("Before Abraham was, I am."... That is the gospel/Kingdom/Trans-time message. The future has invaded the present time, as George Ladd and John Wimber often phrased it.), remember U2 have been preaching time travel from the beginnng: "Another Time, Another Place." Just don't get "stuck in a moment" on your way there.
How nonlinear is all that.
Of course:
"Music is time travel"
More?
"time is a helix of semi-precious stones, it's not linear"
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Delirious moments
It's pretty bold, presumptious....or not.... for a human to say "Thus saith the Lord,"..
or as I once heard Martin Smith of Delirious say, "G0d says.."
I wish I still had the audio; it was one of those chilling spontaneous moments Delirious are well-known for.
How did he finish the sentence?:
"....watch Me, I'm coming."
At least it wasn't "Jesus says he is returning March 12, 2102." (:
Which is why it rang true.
Sometimes the spontaneous moments sneak in a little Bongolese-ish glossolalia.
Sometimes they are instrumental "words." (see #3 here)
Here below are a few random samples of Delirious spontaneous moments
(BONUS: click here to hear our interview with Martin. ):
or as I once heard Martin Smith of Delirious say, "G0d says.."
I wish I still had the audio; it was one of those chilling spontaneous moments Delirious are well-known for.
How did he finish the sentence?:
"....watch Me, I'm coming."
At least it wasn't "Jesus says he is returning March 12, 2102." (:
Which is why it rang true.
Sometimes the spontaneous moments sneak in a little Bongolese-ish glossolalia.
- From the "Access: D" album, play 4:01-4:17 of "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever." Here, many hear Smith singing ecstatically in tongues. He is actually(also) singing in Spanish (I remember the first time I visited a Spanish-speaking Pentecostal church...i was never sure if they were singing in tongues or in Spanish..or both (:...)
- From the same album, play 2:07ff of "Access D Part 6: Lord You Have My Heart." Dare you to transcribe it. Better yet, interpret it. Best yet, soak in it.-link
Sometimes they are instrumental "words." (see #3 here)
Here below are a few random samples of Delirious spontaneous moments
(BONUS: click here to hear our interview with Martin. ):
"Is God Still an Englishman?"
Cole Moreton:
Is God Still An Englishman from Greenbelt Festival on Vimeo.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
"time is a helix of semi-precious stones, it's not linear"
"Time is irrelevant, it's not linear, " the prophetess said to to the motorcycle cop in U2's "No Line on the Horizon." Bono was just donning a character to preach some good physics and sound theology.(Of course, a literally "sound" theology (see also the "sound theory" tag below) is the whole point of the album.
Many would agree that time is not linear...at least not in a linear sense.
It's helical. That is, helix-like.
Brian McLaren in "Generous Orthodoxy" has a great section on the helical nature of emergence, and all truth.
Maybe the nonlinear line on the horizon is helical.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin (p 144 of "Buried Treasure") suggests that the biblical Hebrew paints time as an "ascending helix."
All of life is lined up like that.
By the way, this is not the first U2 album to call to mind a holy helix.
SEE this list of articles..the first of course, is quite a find..Bono must have read it while writing the helical "Moment of Surrender".
The last will be of interest to Trinitarian types
- Time's Harrow: A Study in the Nature of Time and Fiction, Brian Tierney
On the Physics and Phenomenology of Time by Ben Goertzel
- INTRODUCING THE SPACE-TIME HELIX By Roland Weiss Clopton
- Fractal Supersymmetry of Double Helix
- Time as Infolding Helix
- Relations between musical and scientific properties of time
The Horn of Joy: A Meditation on Eucharist, Eternity and Time, Kairos and Chronos
the-path-to-heaven-is-a-triple-helix
"U2 is definitely (not) a Christian band" : Good Sociology and Kubler-Ross
The cool thing about the Stuff Christians Like website is it has room for tons of items that didn't fit in the book, or that the author came up with after the book
(by the way, Chrisianity Today was not exaggerating in saying the book is "far more accurate sociology than all of the sour-faced 'explaining evangelicalism' books that came out after Bush's re-election")...
..like today's post:
"Stuff Christians Like #772: Arguing about the Faith of U2," a great post, which takes the argument through Kubler-Ross's 5 Stages of Grief as a grid for the argument.
>Click to read