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 may 2, 1997
Notes from the Road pretty big news: new indigo girls cd, "shaming of the sun" came out this last tuesday. probably their darkest record, but their most musically exploratory project yet. i'm really enjoying it. i love how brave they are about changing their musical styles from record to record. you really should pick it up if you have the means. i find myself talking quite a bit about the indigo girls. emily saliers and amy ray have probably been my biggest songwriting influences over the years. cliff and i recently had the pleasure of meeting the indigo girls backstage after a pre-record release concert that they did in ft. worth, texas. amy, emily, cliff, and myself were left to talk in a room, just the four of us, for about 10 minutes. they knew what we were about, and we knew what they were about. they were both very warm and appreciative of the complements that we had for them. they even asked a bit about how things were going for us on the road, and by the end of the conversation we all had a few good laughs. for the sake of my subject matter here, i feel it's important to interject here that indigo girls are professed lesbians. now i say all this to tell you that they were just as i had hoped that they'd be; they weren't one dimensional, narrow-scoped, unfeeling people. i think that more often describes us, rather than them. the recent "coming out" of ellen degeneres on her show 'ellen' comes to mind as well. our road manager, micah ottosen, and i talked about this for about an hour last night after the show in fayetteville. obviously this is a multi-faceted and very complicated issue, so i'll try and remain non-biased about it, but there is one thing that i'd like to say. i watched an interview with ellen degeneres on tv a few night's before the controversial episode was aired. basically she was describing (i paraphrase) how she didn't want to be a militant representative for the lesbian and gay community as much as she wanted to make a move in her personal and professional life that was going to be more true to who she felt she was. now let's all of us begin to feel ourselves judge. the thing that really struck me was when she was asked what she thought of all the Christian uprising against what she was doing on her show, and if she herself had any religious background. her response really hit me. she said that all she saw from the Christian groups was picketing and screaming and hatred. she then went on to say that she had learned of Jesus throughout her life, and that what she knew of Him he was all about love, not judgement. he ate with the prostitutes and the tax collectors (of the day), and didn't judge them, but loved them. he loved them despite their sins. you see, in just the same way, He loves us despite our sins. sins carry different weight on this earth, but to God all sin is the same; it all separates us from Him. but see the whole point is that what Jesus did was big enough to bridge that gap for all of us and God, if we believe and accept it. ellen doesn't see Jesus in those Christians that hate her, and frankly, neither do i. here's some truth: the Bible calls us so instruct, correct, and sometimes rebuke our brothers and sisters in Christ ALL IN LOVE, in order that we would all press on to be the people that God would have us be. but what the Bible says in regards to the world (non-Christians) is a little more simple; we are called to LOVE them. that's all. let me say that again to make sure i heard it. we are called only to love the world, not to judge, not to rebuke, only to love. come to think of it, we aren't to judge even our brothers and sisters. we have no authority to judge, just as we are not judged. we don't judge people folks, the Bible does. if we're not either God, Jesus, or the Bible, then we should be judging no one. i'm really trying not to be judgmental in my tone, rather to be (hopefully) instructive, in love. now this lack of love that we show the world goes much wider and deeper than just making comments under our breath about how much more moral we are than they are. i know that this will be stepping some toes here, but i have to be true to my convictions. i have a real problem with many of the "Christian" t-shirts that are sold and worn. first of all, i'm not crazy of the whole "marketing" of the gospel. i mean, Jesus' life was evident enough that He didn't have to wear "Hey look at me, i'm Jesus!" on his robe, or brand an ichthus on the back on his donkey. my point is that even though some "Christian" t-shirts are well done and tactfully, questions are raised in the basic intentions surrounding these t-shirts. now let me run some slogans by you that i've seen recently on some "Christian" t-shirts and you think for yourself about them.
"turn or burn!" i don't think that i have to convince you that any of these are real, because you've probably seen most of them before. now i don't see t-shirts like that and think, 'love.' i don't see the undying, forgiving, unconditional, all-encompassing love that Jesus had. you see, that's the love that we're to be showing the world, not this pointed, judgmental, alienating pseudo-love. what scares me is the basic thinking that says wearing these shirts and putting out this general message is showing love of any kind to anyone, let alone evangelizing. especially at this time in our history, i don't think that we can afford to be this careless and compromising in what the world sees of us. what we need to remember is that we are human beings, and are naturally going to screw up in trying to translate Christ's love through our imperfect lives. but that's just the point; if we are bound to come short of showing Christ's love to the world, then we need to be going the extra mile and really doing our best to see that love is what we're all about as a people. "live with the best, or die like the rest!" isn't doing our best, in my opinion. now, in closing, allow me to say a few more things. i really hope that i haven't offended anyone by this, but i'm sure that i have, so let me say this: it's all too easy to get into a rut doing things and thinking that they're right, just because you've been doing them for so long the same way. i'm frustrated on a daily basis discovering deep down that my thinking was wrong on a particular issue, and having to change my thinking. i ask no more than that you seek the truth regarding these things. please consider all of this as no more than my personal opinions/convictions (in other words, don't send emails to my manager, kirby, telling him what a horrible band we are for saying such things...), and consider it all prayerfully. i think simply that our Christian culture here in the west is in need of a little examination-a little 'soul searching' if you will-and since all of us make up that culture, it's up to us to decide what we think is right and what we think is wrong, and to act accordingly. thanks also to all the folks who have been coming out to the shows. it's been a real blast traveling and getting to know all y'all. thanks again for reading. peace and love- |
