gavoweb

spiritual | cultural | technological life

Video

religulous : bill mahar on radical faith & people who don’t think

By

i've spent bits and pieces of my morning watching religulous, the documentary by bill mahar on faith & reason. my quick thoughts

  • he takes on more than just the christian faith, which i know is in the target hairs of skeptics/critics etc. since he goes to all faith expressions i'll say, he's balanced in his critique.
  • i agree with him on a few of the 'questions & doubt' he brings up. case, he was standing in front of the vatican and said 'where does Jesus talk about this?' (or a similar caveat). which i agree, our systems and buildings, which are or can be testaments to God inspiration within persons, can also wreak of our own needs. but with this case example, people are moved spiritually by such structures & people are have probably been sacrificed (financially & socially) in making such structures exist. we live in both worlds as a faith, we cannot seperate the them.
  • i have a hard time calling it documentary, more like docudrama, in that the film is littered with snippets of video from various culture angles (from gay porn, war footage, to children's bible cartoons) that give little to the overall conversation than to elicit an edgy response. there is also times, especially in the conversations with various leaders of islam where they subtitle what is being said. now, it could be what is actually said (i do not speak arabic) but in a case where a cleric takes what looks like a phone call/txt message, they put in subtitle what he txt message. those instances just fuel stereotypes which is not helpful for his overall message.
  • his overall message is that religion needs to go away (and for those religious/christ follower folks, you might think the same), but his crass nature in sharing his message will probably only put off people to what is probably a greater message, that we need to question & answer our faith. that type of questioning is not a bad thing to be avoided, but should be embraced as part of our spiritual pilgrimage.

i might suggest a more graceful response in putting out a similar message to the christian church is to check out 'Lord save me from your followers' by dan merchant

monday music : zehnder music review

By

a first for the monday music is to review some new music. this stuff came to me via the ooze. i’ve often wondered what would emergent music sound like? after brian mclaren wrote his manifesto to worship songwriters some years back i have been looking out for those who might fit into taking that seriously.

the zehnder guys give their angle on it. here is a video of them doing the song of peace hymn.

So Who’s Zehnder?
(found at their website)

Twins Tom and Tim Gibbs Zehnder compose, arrange, perform and record as an indie worship band based in Los Angeles. Tim plays bass and doumbek, Tom plays guitar and djembe, and the two raise their voices together in elaborate duets. They serve a local church with their music, L.A.’s Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

A few accolades:
“Zehnder communes with those who hear their music.”
-Ched Meyers | Author/Speaker/Theologian | Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries
“Take a unique harmonized vocal sound and a punchy groove and combine that with provocative lyrics and you start to get a sense of Zehnder.”
-Rev. Dan Hoffman | Co-Executive Director | Hollywood Urban Project

For more about Zehnder

i am not the aficionado of music, but what i liked about these guys is that they take some chance with their lyric. its not repetitive chorus which gets taken into a quick circulation of the worship spectrum, but there is rounded thought mixed in with their lyric. i would liken their songwriting to more a folk songwriter. the sound of the group i might describe as an experimental acoustic. even their rap song “justice jam” (which is probably my favorite) is bass lined with a chello (or what sounds like chello).

monday music : Jesus is our jubilee

By

not being a nashville native i have adopted some of the norms of the nashville culture. one of the norms of being in nashville is that you don't "out" the celebrities. they are regular people and you let them be regular. since nashville is a country music home this is rather easy for me. being from the philadelphia area there was maybe one country station and going to alabama i tried to give country a go, but it didn't take. some of the icons i can point out, the dolly or… well, the dolly.

this not 'outting' the celeb became a big thing when i was working for awhile at rei in brentwood (a camping co-op store for those that don't know & a tn town where a lot of celebs reside). people would come in and i'd ask them if they were a member (a common question when you visit a co-op) and i'd get their name, jackson, brooks, etc. i knew of people, so i would realize that they were somebody.

i lost my cool though, once.

i had this very ordinary guy stop in buying some stuff. i rang him up, his co-op membership was under his wife's name, not a problem. he gave me his credit card and i looked at it for signature and matching name. when i saw his name it said 'michael card'.. my eyes widened and i looked up at him and sneaked the question "are you, the michael card, the musician?" he answered back "yes" and didn't look to pleased about it. so i needed a recovery.. i responded back with what was amazing brilliance "i know one of your old piano teachers." note: this was not a lie, rolland puckett who went to church with me. rolland is an older gentleman who was a concert pianist and would play his steinway in the church sanctuary at night. i'd sneak in and listen to him, it was a real joy and we had a good friendship. anyway, back to michael. he replied back "really?" i said, "yes, rolland puckett is a very good friend." michael's shoulder's let down, we talked about rolland a bit and the gear that he was purchasing for a 2 week romanian mission he was undertaking at that time. i was on cloud nine. went home and told my brother who i ran into and he was stoked too. i told other folks about my run in with michael card, but they were like "who?" yes, he's more the artist for the church geek.

michael was never the most well known artist. he didn't fit the trendy mold of contemporary christian music. his stuff was challenging too. none of his stuff is fluffy & couldn't really get adapted to the growing worship music scene. he talked with a lot of the words and metaphors you see in the emergent community now, only this was steeped in more liturgy and lived out in the early & mid '90's, long before that stuff start.

so, in this time of advent i share with you michael card's song jubilee. i would also suggest his song with phil keaggy 'poem of your life'

things on tab : stories sex religion church teens and technology

By

as part of my new integration of lifestream stuff into my blogs newer look. i've been plugging a lot of stuff into my gavin del.icio.us account. so you can track back to these and other links of interest long after this posting (and others) have cycled out of view. i'm working on figuring out how i like stumbleupon or digg.