A lovely food analogy, using one of my favorite beverages, from The Refugee Baptist:
What we need is an officially endorsed Baptist coffee: Bitter enough for fundamentalists, smooth enough for moderates, and weak enough for liberals. Then we could get an “overwhelmingly” supported creamer from a B&R poll..short on substance, easy to write about, and luke-warm journalistically.
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…except for that part about not suing fellow believers. From Burning Screams:
Even while directly contradicting its belief in the “inerrancy” of scripture by disobeying the command to not sue your Christian family, I find it ironic Belmont’s endowment is approximately the amount the SBC (sic) is asking.
In the case of a SBC victory, how many scholarships will be cut? How many programs will be lost? How many people will lose their job? But the truest question and maybe the only one that matters is how many non-Christians will be completely repulsed by this Baptist action of selfishness and greed. How many non-Christians on that campus will swear off Jesus Christ forever because of pettiness of the Christian church.
…instead, one Christian sues another–right in front of unbelievers! - 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 (NLT)
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Derek Webb has an eloquent treatise on the state of Christian Music in his new podcast (click here), much like my argument here (though, again, much more detailed and sound).
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I thought the writers of Seinfeld were all absolutely genius before, but this takes it to a whole new level. My buddy Dave calls me earlier today to let me know that he’d been doing some study in the Hebrew language (he’ll be going to Seminary in the fall), and came across a brilliant little jewel. The Hebrew word ‘yada’ is often used in reference to sexual relations between a man and a woman. So apparently, you really can ‘yada yada’ the best part.
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Instapundit has a bit of a round-up on the Belmont blog scandal. As if Glenn Reynolds needs my assistance.
Michael Silence at my hometown newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel, notes that Bill Hobbs’ assassin might not really be able to handle the openness of the blogosphere.
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Caught the second episode of this tonight. The show is called “God or the Girl”, and it follows four young Catholic men as they’re trying to decide whether or not they’re called to the priesthood. It seems to be taking a positive look at the Catholic church, yet it’s not something that’s aired on a Catholic channel. Instead, it’s being promoted by A&E. It intrigues me. And I think that’s the whole point. In it, not of it. When you segregate your culture and give it its own channel, you take away your legitimacy. But when a mainstream network like A&E carries a show on God, people stop and take note.
Just a thought.
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I’m still confused about the whole situation, but once again, Belmont makes waves in the blogosphere, and it’s for a nasty reason.
Update: All you could ever want to know about the Bill Hobbs story, thanks to Half-Bakered. And more. All for the children. And now, for some queries into how the trouble-maker’s employer might feel about Kopp himself.
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Here I am, living in Nashville–the capital of Country and Christian music. And I’m just in another one of those moods. I’m sitting in church, actually, running sound for the youth program this fine Sunday mornin’. As the high-schoolers file in, I’m watching the music video playing on the screen. The pre-screened, fully-approved, sanitized music video. It’s a song called Apparitions of Melody by the band Kids in the Way, a group akin to bands like The Juliana Theory or Mae. Anyway, it’s not particularly incredible. What catches my attention, though, is that this is approved. Frankly, I’m glad it’s now accepted in the Christian mainstream, but I’m very disturbed by the reasoning behind its acceptance. The hardcore-, screamer-, emo-type music groups are accepted by Christian labels, not because Christians feel that these are people of worth with real talent and quality music, but because Christians realized that they can use bands like Kids in the Way to “reach” the unchurched emo kids. Really, they must know that anyone that doesn’t go to church isn’t going to pickup an album that screams rather inartistic lyrics about how there’s a guy out there that knows how they feel. Christian label executives surely know they are really marketing this stuff to parents of these kids, parents that don’t know what else to do but buy clean music that claims to safely replicate the music their kids already enjoy. Until they stumbled on this brilliant idea, those weirdo emo kids just made Christians uncomfortable, and we can’t have that in the Church.
If the purpose is to reach unchurched kids, then why is all the marketing done in-house? Why are there so many concerts inside church buildings? Why are new releases flooding our youth ministers’ desks? Why did it take Switchfoot making it to a secular label before their music really took off?
The concept is so transparent, it’s laughable. And everyone outside the Christian music bubble can see it coming a mile away, but it seems that no one inside the Christian music industry can figure out why “Christian Music” (as if music itself were somehow saved, rather than a person’s soul) is the joke of the entertainment industry.
It’s completely the wrong approach! The most heartfelt music is always that which is honest, sometimes even painfully so. The first time I heard Nickel Creek’s Doubting Thomas, it brought me to a place of intimacy with the artist, a feeling of common understanding, and then to a long moment of introspection. But that kind of song would never be allowed on a “Christian” album. Why? Because the artist is honest about his questioning of God. Yes, that’s powerful music. But it’s not safe. Out-of-touch parents wouldn’t approve, they wouldn’t buy it for their kids. It wouldn’t sell. Not to the Christian market.
Perhaps that’s one word that can sum up the Christian music industry: safety. It’s all about the music being safe, clean, and sanitized. And it cannot exist any other way, for it cannot survive.
“Is he safe?”
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver… “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
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The TBC contributes $2.3 million a year, less than 3% of Belmont’s budget. Belmont has said it won’t have any trouble replacing the money.
More here.
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Well, I’m on Fall Break right now, the family’s all gone to bed, and I’m stuck on a college sleep schedule in a time zone one hour ahead of my norm. I was finally able to look deeper into the issue between Belmont and the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Perhaps I don’t understand the finer intricacies, but it seems to me that a shareholder commanding 3% of a company’s stocks can hardly demand a right to 100% of the trustee positions. But that’s just what the TBC does. They provide about 3% of Belmont’s financing, and are gettin’ all hot and bothered over a proposal issued by Belmont to have 60% Baptist trustees and 40% non-Baptist (but still Christian) trustees on the Board.
The funny thing is a letter to the editor in the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s weekly paper–Baptist & Reflector–bids good riddance to Belmont. As if it’s all Belmont’s loss. As if Belmont misses out on the TBC’s whopping 3% and can’t more than make up for it with contributions from donors that have been reluctant to donate as long as we’re controlled by the TBC. The letter to the editor reads like it’s all to the TBC’s benefit, since of course pulling funding from Belmont would mean increased funding for the two remaining Tennessee Baptist colleges, Carson-Newman and Union. But I suppose the author of this letter, Kevin Shrum, would say that. He’d be thrilled to see more money go to Union. That’ll give him and everyone else on Union’s Board of Trustees more to play with.
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