Katie’s Beer

My favorite local radio station is giving away tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar and I’m sitting here wishing I had tried a little harder to win tickets. It was one of my favorites as a young teen. I had the album from the musical and played it many times a day. However, after finding the following reader comment last night posted on my favorite American Idol blog, I think that the tickets should be used to educate our youth:

“… Carly sang very good last night but maybe if she realized that “Superstar” was not a FUN song, but a song that is about Jesus dying and crying and asking why. She then would have connected with more passion to pull her thru…”

Thankfully, another reader corrected her:

“In the play, the song is sung by Judas and he was questioning some decisions made by Jesus. It was sung in rockstar fashion. ETA: I found a clip from the movie on YouTube.”

Judas sings somewhat angrily:

Ev’ry time I look at you I don’t understand, why you let the things you did get so out of hand. You’d have managed better if you’d had it planned. Now why’d you choose such a backward time and such a strange land? If you’d come today you could have reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It follows the struggles between Judas Iscariot and Jesus based on the canonical gospels’ accounts of the last weeks of Jesus’ life, beginning with Jesus and his followers arriving in Jerusalem and ending with the crucifixion. Modern references abound in the musical. The song, Jesus Christ Superstar, was sung by Murray Head, who played Judas. Murray Head later had the 1984 hit song “One Night in Bangkok” which was originally from the “well-known” musical, Chess. Chess was a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Bjorn and Benny of ABBA.

The story involves a romantic triangle between two players in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any specific individuals, the characters’ personalities are loosely based on those of Victor Korchnoi and Bobby Fischer.(from Wikipedia)

Tags: Religion, American Idol 7 by TK
7 Comments »

“Religion is the single most important factor that drives American belief attitudes and behaviors. It is a powerful indicator of where America will end up on politics, culture, family life. If you want to understand America, you have to understand religion in America.”

~ Michael Lindsay, assistant director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University on the latest Pew report

The Pew survey, available on the Web at http://religions.pewforum.org/, was conducted between May and August of 2007.

Tags: Religion, politics by TK
No Comments »

The news report of Lydia Playfoot, a London 16 year old, has intrigued me. As part of a youth movement, The Silver Ring Thing, Lydia wears a a ring on the third finger of the left hand. It is inscribed with “Thess. 4:3-4,” a reference to a Biblical passage from Thessalonians which reads: “God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.” The problem is that her school has a rule against religious jewelry which is not a key component of a particular religion. Lydia Playfoot commented on the ruling,

“I am very disappointed by the decision this morning by the High Court not to allow me to wear my purity ring to school as an expression of my Christian faith not to have sex outside marriage. I believe that the judge’s decision will mean that slowly, over time, people such as school governors, employers, political organizations and others will be allowed to stop Christians from publicly expressing and practicing their faith.”

Not surprisingly, Lydia’s case is just the latest in a series of cases regarding the country-wide ban on religious symbols in schools. Her purity ring is viewed in the same manner as a veil, headscarf, crucifix or a Muslim gown. Also not surprising is that her parents are key members in the Silver Ring Thing movement.

Lydias’s lawyers argued that the ban by her school in Horsham, West Sussex, breached her human rights to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion” which are protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lawyers for the school denied discrimination and said the purity ring breached its rules on wearing jewelry. They said allowances were made for Muslim and Sikh pupils only for items integral to their religious beliefs and that, for the same reason, crucifixes were also allowed. But it argued that the purity ring was not an integral part of the Christian faith.

A purity ring is a nice idea, to some, though I personally disagree that a ring will keep any teenager from premarital sex. God’s Word impressed on her by the Holy Spirit learned at the foot of her parents will keep her from premarital sex. I ring won’t do that. God promises to work through His word, not through a ring. I do think that her parents probably have taught her God’s Word. They are also teaching her about when to respect a law or rule and when to fight it.

Regarding her claim that the court ruling will affect Christians’ ability to publicly express their faith, I don’t agree with her. Currently we, both Americans and Britons, still have freedom of speech and reasonable actions. To me that is how we publicly express our faith, through conversations with others and church attendance (though I must admit that those things may be threatened one day in the Western world, as they are in some countries now.) To ask students not to wear religious symbols at school is a different thing. Of course, its too bad that her school has such a ban on religious jewelry, but it is understandable in today’s world. There are no bans like that, to my knowledge, in my state. Perhaps in the country. It would have been nice if the article’s writer had researched and mentioned that, considering that I read it on a US website, MSNBC.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19806312/

Tags: Religion by TK
3 Comments »

Tags: Religion by TK
4 Comments »

My favorite writer, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway,writes at First Things, regarding the popularity of online confession sites:

So where, how, and when does forgiveness come into play, if at all? In what ways are these online confession sites or Oprah shows similar to what you might get from a traditional church’s means of confession? Does the confessing individual forgive himself? Does the community forgive? Where’s the absolution?  Read on… 

Tags: Religion by TK
No Comments »

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway writes in the Wall Street Journal:

For many Americans, Sunday is unlike any other day of the week. They spend its luxurious hours curled up in bed with the paper, meeting friends for brunch, working off hangovers, watching golf, running errands and preparing themselves for the workweek ahead. But Sunday is also, for many, the Sabbath–a special day for religious reasons. Not that you would notice.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” we are told in Exodus. Of all the gifts Jews gave the world, that of a weekly day of rest is certainly one to be cherished. And yet the Sabbath is now marked more by its neglect than its keeping. Or so says Christopher Ringwald in his new book “A Day Apart.”  read on…

Tags: Religion by TK
No Comments »

Get Religion’s Douglas LeBlanc writes about Rolling Stone’s 40th anniversary issue and the discussion of religion in interviews. There are lots of interesting highlights, but these two caught my interest. Doug writes,

What’s more interesting, at least for the purpose of this blog, is how often the subject of religion emerges in these discussions, sometimes at the bidding of the interviewer, sometimes on its own power. God bless Jann Wenner — who did not recognize the word agape when Bono used it in a Q&A in 2005 — for trying so hard to coax Bob Dylan out of his fiercely guarded privacy on spiritual matters. [I am including links where possible, and these pages include embedded MP3s of the interviews’ best moments. Rolling Stone assures its readers that more are on the way.]

Wenner makes the mistake of framing question as “being religious.” That would open Dylan up about as much as “You were known for some time as a Holy Joe. What’s up with that?” This is not a question of malice, but of being tone deaf:

Do you find yourself being a more religious person these days?

A religious person? Religion is supposedly a force for positive good. Where can you look in the world and see that religion has been a force for positive good? Where can you look at humanity and say, “Humanity has been uplifted by a connection to a godly power”?

Meaning organized religion?

Corporations are religions. It depends what you talk about with a religion. . . . Anything is a religion.

At one point, you took on Christianity in a very serious way, and then Judaism. Where are you now with all that?

Religion is something that is mostly outward appearance. Faith is a different thing. How many religions are there in the world? Quite a few, actually.

What is your faith these days?

Faith doesn’t have a name. It doesn’t have a category. It’s oblique. So it’s unspeakable. We degrade faith by talking about religion.

That would have been a “fun” interview. Doug also highlights a piece from Jane Fonda’s interview.

The person who speaks most directly about her faith is Jane Fonda, in an interview with DeCurtis (who has written several articles for Beliefnet):

Somebody very hostile said to me, “Have you been saved?” I tap-danced around that, but later I asked a friend of mine who teaches Bible study, “What does that mean?” And she said, “What it meant to me was taking the next step.” Well, that’s all anybody had to say to me — I’m always ready to take the next step [laughs]! So I became a Christian.

And I remain a Christian, but I’m still on a journey to define what that means. I very much feel the presence of God. And then this person Jesus — I am utterly fascinated by this man. I feel that what he preached was revolutionary, and it’s totally what we need now. The most revolutionary statement anyone could make is “Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Whew, man. If we could live what he taught, everything would change. But it ain’t what goes by the name of Christianity right now.

Tags: Music, Religion by TK
No Comments »

Always a great site, I found this oldie but goodie at Ask the Pastor. Someone asks Pastor Walter Snyder a great question:

Q: I saw an article talking about the invention of beer in ancient Egypt, and it got me thinking: “Did the Israelites drink beer? What did they drink?”

A: Like you, I like to sit down occasionally to figure out what life was like in Bible times. It helps to understand the people and situations we meet on Scripture’s pages. I also like to sit down with a good beer. It helps to relax and refresh a world-weary pilgrim.

Since we Lutherans are often stereotyped as beer-lovers, it seems appropriate to examine Biblical precedent. After all, Martin Luther (probably only partially in jest) commented upon doing what he could, then having a brew and getting out of the Lord’s way during the Reformation: “I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philipp [Melanchthon] and [Nicholas] Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.” Read more… Note that amazing quote from Martin Luther: “I did nothing; the Word did everything.” There’s something to ponder.

Tags: Religion, Beer by TK
3 Comments »

A very interesting quote comes from an article by AP writer Rachel Zoll on documentaries questioning Jesus that appear during Lent.

““There is more tolerance in the general culture for all things wild and wacky about Jesus,” said Ben Witherington, a New Testament expert at Asbury Theological Seminary and author of “What Have They Done With Jesus?…”We live in a Jesus-haunted culture that’s biblically illiterate,” Witherington said. “Everybody knows who Jesus is. But the actual knowledge about early Christian history and the Bible is very low in the culture and even large segments of the church. In that situation, anything can pass for knowledge about the historical Jesus, even wildly improbable theories.”

Jesus-haunted and biblically illiterate.  Those are points to contemplate this week.

Source:  Mollie Hemingway’s commentary at GetReligion

Tags: Religion by TK
No Comments »

Reason #5,234,789 why I left Evangelicalism
`Idol’ Contestant’s Faith Questioned

Mar 20, 2:43 PM (ET)

By MEG KINNARD

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - Chris Sligh, the “American Idol” contestant who has won fans thanks to his curly mop of hair and soulful voice, has a few people concerned with his departure from strictly Christian music.

But for most others in this city of 56,000 about 100 miles southwest of Charlotte, N.C., Sligh has become a hometown hero.

Jonathan Pait, a spokesman for fundamentalist Bob Jones University where Sligh attended for several years, said: “We really are somewhat disappointed with the direction he has gone musically.”

He nonetheless tunes in each week to monitor Sligh’s progress.

Local fans - some wearing fake glasses and curly wigs and calling themselves the “Fro Patro” - gather each week at restaurants and bars to cheer Sligh on. The local newspaper has been tracking his progress on its Web site.

Sligh, a 28-year-old son of missionaries who spent much of his childhood overseas, kept his spot among the 11 remaining finalists last week with a rendition of “Endless Love.” He’ll try to improve on that performance, deemed “unemotional” and “uninspiring” by judge Simon Cowell, this week. The show will announce results Wednesday evening.

People who know Sligh well say that he may be singing rock ‘n’ roll on television, but he’s always clear about the faith that motivates his music.

“He’s not going to back away from the fact that he’s a Christian,” said Chris Surratt, pastor of Seacoast Church, where Sligh has been music leader for more than two years. “He’s going to let that shine through in what he does.”

Hundreds of people gather each week to hear Sligh’s music at Seacoast, where his electric guitar and vocals have become an integral part of services, Surratt said. (TK says: This is NOT a good reason to go to a church.) 
Support for Sligh also is strong at North Greenville University, the small Baptist school he attended for several years after leaving Bob Jones in the late 1990s.
Cheryl Greene, the professor who helped Sligh hone his vocal talents, said just because Sligh may not be singing strictly Christian-themed songs shouldn’t reflect on the depth of his faith.

“It would be like me being in a jazz band,” Greene said. “You can be a Christian or non-Christian. It’s a style of music.”

But Greene said she still has worries over Sligh’s long-term spiritual journey.”Is he going to stand strong by his true Christian morals?” Greene said. “Christianity is a lifestyle  (TK says: Christianity is NOT a lifestyle.  Christianity is faith in Jesus Christ as savior of the world (a world of people stuck in their sins, separated from God and unable to save themselves) through His death on the cross.  Following God-given faith in Christ, a genuine change in lifestyle usually can be seen by others, but is NEVER a guarantee that a person possesses saving faith.  ) … and there are things in your life that you do need to stand for.” (TK says: Or what?  A Christian must stand for certain things or what?  It sounds like she is saying that a Christian’s true faith is judged by certain behaviors and actions.  Of course, on one hand she has a point.  A Christian probably doesn’t kill people without cause, steal repeatedly from others, etc.  But taken in the context of this article and of her full comments it seems to me she is saying that Christians act a certain way and that way determines whether or not they have faith in God.)
John Jeter, the owner of a Greenville nightclub where Sligh has performed with his band, said Sligh’s wholesome attitude and his faith come through in his music.

“It speaks well to the fact that it’s not all blood, guts and trash,” said Jeter. “Music doesn’t have to be filthy. You can have a good time in a good environment, and Chris is proof of that.”

Tags: Religion, American Idol 6 by TK
2 Comments »