conforming to the image of ourselves

Jesus Christ was a revolutionary.

He died because he was killed.

He was killed because he was offensive.

His whole life as recorded in the accepted cannon of scripture documents an individual who flew in the face of society on almost every level.

The religious order as well as the governmental order were confused and disturbed, even outraged at his lifestyle, his teachings and the things he did.

Even his closest followers and devotees were offended and confused at his every move, his every word.

In these days there are millions, perhaps even billions who declare themselves to be disciples and passionate followers of this same Jesus Christ.

Perhaps I am no more than a cynical, disgruntled, negative, anti-establishment, rebellious dysfunctional, …. but including myself, I battle to see even one person amongst the odd seven billion people in the world today who lives their lives in the remotest similitude to the one we claim to follow so passionately and exclusively.

why today’s musicians are treated like sex workers

http://bcove.me/oc7vm0y4

In this short but thought provoking interview legendary “Smashing Pumpkins” guitarist Billy Corgan sits down with Brian Solis to discuss the state of the music industry and why he feels today’s musicians are treated like sex workers.

As powerful as the ideas expressed are, to my mind there is still a very dominant ‘marketing’ drive evident in this discourse.  Is this the only basis from which to evaluate the arts?
The present capitalist economic/advertising/self-promotion market system is the only context we have at present, but could it be seen as being similar to a picture of condemned prisoners on death row squabbling over who gets the best cell with regards to proximity to the exit door leading to the inevitable gallows?  Is there not another way?
Should artists be like common disposable commodity hawkers? … going around with cap in hand, desperately peddling their art as commercial wares almost exclusively to the demands of the mostly uneducated and consumer driven masses, usually at minimum rates just to fill our stomachs?

Another angle is whether musicians and artists are themselves not selling their own souls to the “pimps” who offer the promise of sustenance  or “fame?”  Many musicians perform under the false allure of “exposure”. .. not unlike the sex worker on street corners selling themselves in hope for a fee essentially determined by the buyer.  Are musicians and artists themselves not living lives just like sex workers when they participate in this type of seedy transaction?

Personally I am very concerned at the toll this is taking on the arts and culture on a deep level.  Perhaps the desperation for survival, scratching out an existence, is only adding to the degradation of society and humanity as we see it in our day?

For me this is no more glaring and disturbing as in the Christian music and specifically the so called “Worship” industry today.

Music and the arts in the spiritual realm of human consciousness is an expression of the ethereal in the most powerful way.  Through it we are able to explore new dimensions of meaning, new frontiers of communication and understanding.  The arts were there long before we ordered and symbolized our means of communication in symbols and cognitive speech and thought patterns.  The example a Christ reveals how he chose the metaphor in parables and the mysteries of “supernatural” demonstrations in word and deed to convey deep and challenging ideas to a culture essentially stuck and locked in to superficial memes and limited  two dimensional language.

To harness the creative arts and bring it under the power and control of popular culture and the  surface tension of linear thought and communication is to place a lid on spirituality.

In  the New Testament writings we are challenged not to conform to the patterns of the world but instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in order that we might test and approve the perfect will of God for our lives and for our times.  But at least to my mind it is blatantly clear that in churches world wide we seem mostly if not exclusively to follow trends and popularity stakes.  We follow ‘feel-good’ consumerist systems in our ‘worship.”  And the standards of this interaction are determined and set by the Christian worship industry and the “pop stars” who parade as its front, its representatives.  Our “worship leaders’” and Christian “Pop Stars” do not seem to operate from a platform of a biblically renewed minds but rather seem blatantly to conform to the patterns of popularity and the success it offers in the world today – looking, speaking and sounding exactly like the regular music industry celebrities.  Relevancy and spiritual accuracy and authority is measured by popularity and accessibility to the common ground of  consumer sentiment.

In our churches we seem only willing to play that which we are led to believe has been tried and tested by the Christian worship industry as if it has the divine anointing and authority with respect to the sounds of the Kingdom of God but which is instead almost exclusively run on aggressive capitalistic, strictly profit based, manipulative economic strategies, – methods copied verbatim from the successfully implemented patterns of a greedy and an undeniably profit motivated secular music industry.   After all, it’s pure business, right?

I have asked as many pastors of churches as I can if they would feel happy if instructed not to preach from their own individual heart  perspective but instead to copy a great audio or DVD teaching by one of the great present day popular Christian preachers as their regular congregational church sermon, … following each word exactly (or as best they can) , using the same analogies, the exact same visual prompts and effects.  The answer I received each time, even though the “popular Christian preacher” was deemed acceptable and even highly regarded and embraced as theologically sound and “anointed by God” was always, “no.”

Yet amazingly those same pastors instruct their worship leaders and musicians to copy verbatim (or as best as they possibly can) what is popular and selling in the Christian retail outlets worship CD and worship DVD racks.

If we believe that there is a “Holy Spirit” amongst us who dwells in each believer and leads each believer into all truth, taking what belongs to Jesus and making it know to each as the bible says, … why do we only permit the singing of songs by the industry backed and promoted superstars?

What is this repetitious sensual liturgy amongst us?

Where are the “new songs” expressed in and from the hearts of the local  redeemed of the Lord?

Sometimes it even feels like God lives exclusively in USA or Australia these days.

I also ask the question, “why are today’s Christian musicians and creative artists being treated like sex workers?”

And why are we letting it happen?

call and response

Having been a musician virtually all my life I have often been involved in musical recording projects ranging from individual demo songs, to high-end popular artists albums, to movies, all the way across the spectrum to 30 second radio and TV advertisements recorded solely for the purpose of getting people to buy a specific product.

I have also been involved in many forms of “Christian” worship projects and meetings as a musician and on more occasions than I care to remember I have been asked or ‘instructed’ by the pastor/evangelist/preacher/teacher/worship leader etc. to play specific worshipful styles and songs with specific words, messages and cultural meaning that ‘set the tone’ for the message that they want to convey and to assist them in getting the desired response from the people.  (Usually this response is intended to be a good one that is meant to be specifically helpful to the audience in attendance – or so it is believed).

As a person who believes in what scientists might call “intelligent design” and what most religious folk might in various ways and forms refer to as “God” I have often asked myself what exactly we are doing when we do what we do.

I also believe that most of us are sincere in what we say, do and even believe (although there clearly are malicious deviants out there who intentionally manipulate others to gain personal advantage out of them. However, I believe these deviants are a small, lunatic fringe …. well, er, …I can only hope sincerely that I am correct in this personal belief).

Over the years I have begun to ask whether what we do as orthodox and sincere religious activity on a regular basis is rooted in basic and elementary aspects of our humanity (specifically our nature as physical beings in a physical world) that is more emotionally and sensually driven and not nearly as ‘spiritual’ or even as cognitively or intellectually based as we would like to believe it is.  I have often begun to ask myself whether the sense of the “presence of God” or the “rightness” of a spiritual way, thing or activity or even the ‘rightness’ of a specific community or religious grouping or order is really valid?  Is the sense we have, be it however intentional and well thought through, actually a link with the divine creator or a higher order of spiritual life or consciousness, or just an emotional and physical process of perception resulting in an experience that makes us feel that it is so?

We all want to be ‘right’ and we all want to ‘belong’ and these desires are neither good nor bad – they are natural, human, even instinctual.  They seem to be what we are, how we were created even.

The following link is to an article on some interesting research that I came across that introduces an interesting and possibly alarming angle on the way we tend to respond to certain stimuli.

(Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker) ~ http://ow.ly/98sLK

 

___________________________

we, the free

There was a great man who in the full stretch of his official journey and right in the middle of his immense and frantic schedule stopped everything he was doing and sat down with a scruffy little child on his lap.

He had seen his personal assistants harassing the excited young children who were scurrying around, playing amongst the feet of those pressing in.  They were pressing in in an attempt to be near the great man and hear his wisdom, possibly even get to touch him in the hope that they might be noticed and healed in some way.

The little children were just being children and this was a nuisance and a distraction to everyone, even the great mans personal assistants.

With a scruffy little child on his knee he had stopped all activity and suddenly the whole massive group had become silent.

First he turned to his assistants and scolded them for their handling of the children in this way and while he spoke he turned to address the multitudes as well.

“Don’t chase these little ones away” he said.

“Don’t hurt them by preventing them from being children at my feet whilst I am doing my work,”  he went on to say.

Continuing to scan the people around him he continued…  “In fact people, unless you become like one of these little children you will never understand about my kingdom and neither will you be able to enter in to it.”

There was a chilling silence at that point and he turned his gaze to the little ones who had been scurrying around, disrupting the proceeding by bumping into the legs of those following the great man and picked them up, one by one, touched them individually and blessed them.

Nevertheless now we have launched specific children’s ministries and specialised focus groups – at great cost of course, but it is worth it because we are important and cannot be distracted from what we feel blesses us directly.  And the leaders amongst us do not get bothered by the pitter-patter of little feet as scruffy little children be themselves.  Their servants do this dirty deed, removing this tiresome inconvenience from their very important agendas.

In desiring to press in to our heavenly father we have forgotten how to allow children to press in even to their earthly fathers and rather send them away so that they will not disturb us as we pursue our own priorities.

And the personal assistants still hear our calls of desperation and clear the temple of the apple of our heavenly father’s eye.

And strangely we all continue to do this as an act of sincere worship.

’tis the season to make money

deck the malls with signs of folly

fa la la, la la, fallaciousness

 

’tis the season to make money

fa la la, la la, fallaciousness

 

forget the poor, and stuff your tummy

fa la la, fa la la, fallaciousness

 

abracadabra sounds so jolly

fa la la, la la, fallaciousness

 

join the throngs of mindless nations

frolic in sensual divination

 

fa la la, la la, fallaciousness

___________________________

 

 

 

religion

For me, religion is an ordered system of belief, agreed upon by people that serves essentially to bring reassurance and not the pursuit of pure truth or honest understanding. I see religion as a social system created by people to pursue subjective opinion and wishful beliefs that agree with their own preconceived ideas rather than the pursuit of the pure, objective comprehension of our intra and inter-personal worlds. It is no more than a social club, a gathering of hopeful, like-minded individuals, who desperately need confirmation of their own views. This is the world we live in, the world we have created. This is the god we live with, the god we have created. It started with humankind being created in the image of God and we have steadily and almost totally turned that around and created god in our own image. As a result, we serve ourselves and raise our fists towards the heavens when things don’t go our own way. And when things do go well for us we forget our sorrows and turn towards ourselves. In other words, we turn to god.

a song for you?

a song for you

but it’s really for me

a song for me, hope you like it too!

a life for me – a life for you

a life

for me

a life for me, …. a life for me!

 

a song about you

but it’s all about me

yet this is your song:

your life for me……

your life for…

me

 

worship, – for what it’s worth?

you sing for we have worth

we sing for …

… what we have worth?

worthship

worship?

ship

wreck?

(Lloyd Martin)

_________________________

31st of the 12th

 

For a full day, throughout the whole world,

as the globe spins on its tilted axis

the world unites in an act of communal worship.

As the time zones roll on in their endless track of spiral momentum the clock strikes midnight,

for what seems to be a full 24 hours.

So too, mankind spins out and down in their own spiral of momentum.

Some accelerating, some decelerating, but spinning nevertheless.

“Let’s remember and do it better!”, “Lets forget and start again!” we all cry.

A confused yet united shout of worship to the god of human endeavour.

“To times past!”, “To times to come!”

we remember with nostalgia the folly we have called achievement.

We exalt hopefully in a hopeless time of hope in hope,

for what we would like,

but in ourselves cannot.

 

_________________________________________

…. and, speaking of words …. and the textualization thereof …

…. and, speaking of words …. and the textualization thereof … one of the thoughts which has intrigued me much is the way that Jesus himself lived in relationship with the culture, theology and religious order of the day. Then as now, his life and teaching were filled with controversy. Jesus made some extremely bold claims and possibly at the top of this pile is the claim he made to be the awaited Messiah. If one believes these claims to be true it could possibly be argued that if anyone had the ‘right’ to get dictatorial, even anal about ‘truth’ and anything pertaining to ‘absolutes’ it was Jesus. If anyone had the right to publish his teachings and doctrines and set them down in measureable form it was Jesus. But in these days there are books, blogs and papers on every conceivable issue. Men and women write their opinions down feverishly. Indeed, it is not difficult to begin to think that perhaps there is not a single thing that has evaded the scrutiny of the human eye. And there seems to be as many opinions published as there are people who publish their opinions. We seem to love to be ‘right’, and for the average fundamentalist this means a strict and unyielding adherence to the ‘letter of the law’ as contained in the scriptures (and I include the so-called New Testament scriptures in this). Yet to my mind the life and teachings of Christ is in stark contrast to all of this. We tend to publish books by the millions. Jesus, never penned a single word. Now clearly I am not Jesus, but if I were to take a little liberty here and, in keeping with my fundamentalist grounding, and using the theology and methodology of our ever so enlightened times, reflect on what I as a healthy little modern day Pharisee and religious leader might have done if I had been Jesus, I would surely have recruited a vast troupe of scribes (elders and deacons, if you will). I would most probably have lined them all up with parchment ready and quill and ink pot charged. I think then that I would very possibly have sternly instructed them to be clear and concise, obedient, articulate and accurate in every detail. My next step would have been to dictate the specifics of what was needed in terms of everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. I would have got them to record for all time all the words of life and truth. I would have explained in great detail the reason for my being there, the significance of my actions, the times and seasons set by the will of God over all eternity. I would have dictated a detailed narrative of the history of man and God – the why’s, the when’s, the where’s, the how’s …. I also would have focused on the future in great detail, especially in the light of my immanent departure. I would, like any good religious leader and strategic planner have given them a 1-year, 5-year, 10-year, even a few 1000-year plans to make sure that all were clearly informed and in line with the overall strategy of Heaven. My intent in this would have been to leave something for those who would follow that would be clear, incorruptible and more than adequate for clarity and undisputed interpretation and process ….. But clearly, I am not he as Jesus did nothing of the sort ….. and in the light of this disturbing revelation it strikes me that other than what was apparently written in the sand when a woman, allegedly caught alone in the very act of adultery, was thrown down at his feet to test him and his theology, … there is nothing Jesus wrote at all. … and even that which he had written in this instance was etched with his own hand in dry soil, in mere particles of sand which was totally at the mercy of the wind and other natural elements as well as exposed to the mercilessness and insensitivity of the trampling of mens feet. Jesus spoke to his closest disciples in veiled terms and withheld much from them (mainly because they were unable to bear it). He left them mostly clueless as to the present time they were in as well as the times that were to come. He also tended to confuse them with his special and mostly unusual interpretation and application of the scriptures they all knew so well. Most of the time he taught in metaphors and in them used common content and everyday situations rather than the direct scriptural texts the religious rulers of the time used. In fact, right up to the time he disappeared from their collective view for the last time they were still virtually totally in the dark as to the social, political and chronological realities of the time they were in let alone the future. Compared to the standards and systematic ways of church leaders of today Jesus was a pretty bad leader. Even the team he picked would never have been chosen by any self-respecting church leader today. He picked a real pack of inflammatory, divided ruffians who constantly quarrelled amongst each other over the most fleshly of issues and it’s possible that if many years later Paul of Tarsus had not come along they would really have been deep in the proverbial doo-doo. And by their own confession, even Paul’s teachings were very confusing and difficult for them to understand. This is why I suggested the method of recruiting a set of scribes earlier. It was clearly really very necessary. Yet Jesus was not at all bothered too much about this. He spoke on about another strange ‘comforter’ who would come along and be a guide and a companion to them after he had gone. He told them that the Father would send what he called the “Spirit of Truth” and that this individual would not only remind them of the things he had said, but also take them further into more of an understanding of things that were clearly way over their heads at the time. Even this was completely confusing to them and near the end they seemed to all but give up and possibly they just nodded energetically when he spoke on and tried to look as intelligent as possible. Surely a written codex was urgently needed under these circumstances? Surely a tight structure with clear lines of authority and a streamed-lined business strategy was what was needed? Organograms, lines of accountability, shepherding areas, overseeing leaders and area pastors, worship team leaders, worship musicians, psalmists, intercessory teams, prayer schedules, cell-group structures, office badges, official ministry allocations, Christian merchandise salespeople, ushers, stewards,  velvet lined offering trays, and the like. Surely Jesus urgently needed to take them all through a rigorous training schedule, perhaps a retreat somewhere in the mountains, a Leadership Training School perhaps where all the points of Kingdom leadership and theology, missiology, methodology, outreach strategies, feeding schemes, banking procedures (we can’t forget that most important of all worship tools), prophetic workshops, etc. etc. etc. be alpha-numerically delineated, indexed and implemented according to target timelines and accountability schedules? Strangely, Jesus did none of these. He just walked with them for a few years and left them in the hands of a mystery friend whom no-one could even see. And the most amazing thing of all is that they did pretty well under his shoddy leadership and lack of ministerial definition. As I have said before, this is indeed in stark contrast to the religious leaders and intelligentsia of his day and ours.

Why, I ask, would he conduct himself in the way he did?

And why, I ask, do we continue to conduct ourselves in the way we do?