So many Christian establishments are failing their target market.
This is the first sentence I have to deliver, dear readers. Welcome to God Listens Through the Fuzz.
I was called to action, so to speak, by the latest teacup tempest to rock the world of Christian rock.
It's bad when the first I hear of a band is some PR disaster involving a band member. For Today is a Christian metalcore band that I'd never heard of until said PR disaster. After Louie Giglio's anti-gay past sermons prompted his withdrawal from Obama's inauguration, For Today's guitarist had the following to say...er, tweet:
Naturally, this rustled some jimmies. A conspiracy rant about a "state church", a true Scotsman fallacy proclaiming that you can't be gay and Christian (excuse me?), the idea that there's one monolithic way to be "true to God" that dovetails with conservative ideology....hmm, understandably, Mike Reynolds might've pissed some people off.
Ironically enough, he pulled a Giglio, pulling out, and today became the ex-guitarist of For Today.
The lead singer, Mattie Montgomery, independently whipped up a video response. "I've been thinking and praying what would be the best way to handle it..."
I scoffed to myself, "I wonder if he prayed, 'Dear God, help me convey my band's conservative beliefs!'" My scoffing was premature.
The main thing he conveyed is that he was sorry. "Instead of trying to argue or try to defend what was said...I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry to anyone who felt alienated by those comments...condemned...rejected...written off...The last thing any Christian should do is make someone feel that way." Mattie even had the cojones to leave his personal phone number.
I really do see God in such a response. It reminds me of Donald Miller's "confession booth", wherein he invited strangers in, only to confess to them that Christians have done a lot to hurt people.
Honestly, it might be best for me to just leave it here.
But this is just one situation. There will be dozens more like it. 2012 saw Chick-fil-A, "legitimate rape", and battles over Texas textbooks. And does even a most heartfelt apology cancel out the hurtful underlying beliefs that gave the band something to apologize for?
There's plenty of Christian rhetoric about the need to "stand up". Stand up for Jesus. Stand up for what's right. But this rhetoric always makes me bristle. A lot of the time, the rhetoric about "standing up" is coming from parties that hold a narrow definition of marriage, a rigid literalism of Scripture, and a questionable age of the Earth.
Why are those perspectives the ones that we keep seeing "stand up"? I know as a Christian we are called to be unified with our fellow believers, but I find myself more and more alienated from the rude and vocal newsmakers. There are plenty of Christians (many of whom have had higher education) who love Jesus and don't believe it's a sin to be gay, who don't believe God really ordered genocides, and who don't think the Earth is 3,000 years old.
I count myself among them.
Christians are supposed to stand up for the dispossessed, the weak, those who don't have anyone to stand up for them. Instead, so many Christians on the news are standing up for the powerful establishment and the status quo.
A major part of why this blog now exists is because of this urge to "stand up". There need to be other voices shouting just as loud as the obnoxious and uninformed ones. It needs to be made clear that there is not one way to be a Christian.
And above and beyond my own need to write and soap box, I want to point to higher things. I have to believe that even in this mess there is some order, that there is a light that never goes out, to quote the Gospel according to Morrissey. If there is an awesome God, worshipped by both Gene Robinson and For Today, what might this God think about it all? And how do we hear this awesome God through all this noise and fuzz?
Fed
This is the first sentence I have to deliver, dear readers. Welcome to God Listens Through the Fuzz.
I was called to action, so to speak, by the latest teacup tempest to rock the world of Christian rock.
It's bad when the first I hear of a band is some PR disaster involving a band member. For Today is a Christian metalcore band that I'd never heard of until said PR disaster. After Louie Giglio's anti-gay past sermons prompted his withdrawal from Obama's inauguration, For Today's guitarist had the following to say...er, tweet:
Source: Alternative Press
Naturally, this rustled some jimmies. A conspiracy rant about a "state church", a true Scotsman fallacy proclaiming that you can't be gay and Christian (excuse me?), the idea that there's one monolithic way to be "true to God" that dovetails with conservative ideology....hmm, understandably, Mike Reynolds might've pissed some people off.
Ironically enough, he pulled a Giglio, pulling out, and today became the ex-guitarist of For Today.
The lead singer, Mattie Montgomery, independently whipped up a video response. "I've been thinking and praying what would be the best way to handle it..."
I scoffed to myself, "I wonder if he prayed, 'Dear God, help me convey my band's conservative beliefs!'" My scoffing was premature.
The main thing he conveyed is that he was sorry. "Instead of trying to argue or try to defend what was said...I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry to anyone who felt alienated by those comments...condemned...rejected...written off...The last thing any Christian should do is make someone feel that way." Mattie even had the cojones to leave his personal phone number.
I really do see God in such a response. It reminds me of Donald Miller's "confession booth", wherein he invited strangers in, only to confess to them that Christians have done a lot to hurt people.
Honestly, it might be best for me to just leave it here.
But this is just one situation. There will be dozens more like it. 2012 saw Chick-fil-A, "legitimate rape", and battles over Texas textbooks. And does even a most heartfelt apology cancel out the hurtful underlying beliefs that gave the band something to apologize for?
There's plenty of Christian rhetoric about the need to "stand up". Stand up for Jesus. Stand up for what's right. But this rhetoric always makes me bristle. A lot of the time, the rhetoric about "standing up" is coming from parties that hold a narrow definition of marriage, a rigid literalism of Scripture, and a questionable age of the Earth.
Why are those perspectives the ones that we keep seeing "stand up"? I know as a Christian we are called to be unified with our fellow believers, but I find myself more and more alienated from the rude and vocal newsmakers. There are plenty of Christians (many of whom have had higher education) who love Jesus and don't believe it's a sin to be gay, who don't believe God really ordered genocides, and who don't think the Earth is 3,000 years old.
I count myself among them.
Christians are supposed to stand up for the dispossessed, the weak, those who don't have anyone to stand up for them. Instead, so many Christians on the news are standing up for the powerful establishment and the status quo.
A major part of why this blog now exists is because of this urge to "stand up". There need to be other voices shouting just as loud as the obnoxious and uninformed ones. It needs to be made clear that there is not one way to be a Christian.
And above and beyond my own need to write and soap box, I want to point to higher things. I have to believe that even in this mess there is some order, that there is a light that never goes out, to quote the Gospel according to Morrissey. If there is an awesome God, worshipped by both Gene Robinson and For Today, what might this God think about it all? And how do we hear this awesome God through all this noise and fuzz?
Fed
Excellent post buddy, I look forward to popping in every now and again
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