Green Day: God’s Favorite Band?

I plan on using punk band Green Day as one of the main case studies in my new book, Broken Hallelujahs. I’ll say more later about why, beside the fact that they are the best-selling punk band ever, and one of the best selling rock bands period. For now I’ll just offer an image from the concert DVD “Bullet in the Bible” filmed at their widely hailed mega-gigs at Milton Keynes Bowl in England where over two days over 130,000 fans saw them play. Just before taking stage , drummer Tre Cool shouts to his bandmates:

“This is a place of worship. The place of rock. This is a holy place.” A fellow band mate, as if on cue, says “Why are their no clouds in the sky?” to which Tre responds “Cause God wants to watch his favorite band again!”

Part of what I hope to accomplish with this book is to show that despite everything one might say to the contrary such a statement might just be right. While some Christians and some punk fans will cringe at that statement, I think it is actually really important to ask what it might mean to answer Tre with a solid, “Yea, maybe you’re right.”

Peace,

Chris

under contract

I’ve been off the trail of this book for four months as I tended to other stuff including an amazing job search that will likely have me land in a Lutheran seminary teaching worship and culture–and that’d be cool.  I want to teach more (I only teach one course a year at Yale b/c my main appointment is as a project administrator and researcher. Yale has been great in many ways, and I’ve grown hugely from the freedom and focus in my work at the Center for Faith and Culture.  I’m ready to take the next steps.

Part of the reason for doing this book on faith and pop music now is that I thought I might be in transition this year and need a fun project to work on.  I really enjoyed writing my U2 book, and have enjoyed the conversations it has sparked even more.  So the idea in this book is to flip the script.  The U2 book foregrounded the band, with a theology of culture in the background.  Broken Hallelujahs will foreground a proposal for connecting faith and culture, using examples from pop music.  Then I’ll be done writing books in this area for a while.  I think.

Anyway, I need to get cracking on this book.  Brazos Press and their brilliant, savvy, and funny editor, Rodney Clapp, gave me a contract for this book.  A vote of confidence, to be sure.  My challenge: make it worth reading, worth the paper, and something that aids the church, that helps struggling people who want to follow Jesus and live deeply in the vibe of the culture.  The tensions of holding spirituality and materiality, faith and culture, together in a lively interaction offers way more interesting prospects that building walls between the two.  So let’s dive into the tensions.  For more on that, read the post below on KOL.

anon, and peace,

Chris

Kings of Leon–Running Away From God (sort of)

Last night I saw them play at Toad’s Place, a famous venue here in New Haven. Lots of the great bands (and lots of so-so bands, too) have played here–including U2 in their early years. I saw KOL in 2005 when they opened for U2 on the Vertigo tour. I’d never heard of them and at the time didn’t know any of their songs. I was impressed by their energy, though, and by their tight pants (read my report on that concert here). According to Jared Followill, the bassist, “I mean [U2] called us KFC instead of KOL ’cause we have chicken legs. But in a funny, cool way. They’re the nicest guys.” I mused at the time about what the influence would be given the maturity of U2 as a band, as spiritual men, and on the road with this young band also with spiritual roots but exploring the tensions of faith and the life-style of rock n’ roll fame. As the story goes, the influence was low-key, and likely more powerful as a result. They showed, rather than told or scolded. KOL, for those who don’t know, grew up traveling with a father who preached revivials in the United Pentecostal Church but after troubles with drinking and finallly a divorce, left the ministry. The experience was dramatic for the boys.

Broken hallelujah as theological perspective

Let me unpack a bit why I draw on the song “Hallelujah” and especially this phrase, “Broken Hallelujah,” for thinking about pop culture in relation to faith. It is a shorthand way to point to a fundamental view of human life as a broken reality, and broken beyond our ability to fix. The Christian term for this is “sin” which many people today see as an antiquated and unenlightened idea. However, that cultural shrug in response to the idea of sin usually is a reaction to the idea of sin as sins. The shrug throws off the presumed legacy of a medieval and psychologically damaging introspection in relation to sinful acts and impulses which modern liberated society now knows are actually normal. Like: sex is supposed to feel good. Or drinking in moderation is good for you.

Why Broken Hallelujah? (3): Not “You Carried Me”?

You carried me is a song from the band Building 429. The song is a single off their 2007 release Iris to Iris and is currently topping the contemporary Christian music charts. Building 429, for those who don’t know, are a Christian rock band from North Carolina. They won the Gospel Music Association 2005 “New Artist of the Year” award and have been rising since. Their name points to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” You can take a listen to the song here, and read the lyrics, followed by some comments about why songs like this, written from “a strictly vertical perspective,” can’t bear enough weight to carry the message I’m trying to develop in this blog (and in the book to follow, I hope).

Why Broken Hallelujah? (2)

This song is, one could say, larger than life. It is the kind of song that seems as if it has always been written. Of course that is partly because its main theme, the chorus “hallelujah“, has indeed ‘always’ been written. It is the the ancient Hebrew word ” הַלְלוּיָהּ ” meaning “praise God” and is found over and over in the Psalms. It has also struck a cord because of the interplay of the music and lyrics. I don’t know how many people have done a cover version of this song, but there are a lot of them. The hyperlink on the song title will show the history of covers, and among my favorites are Jeff Buckley, Allison Crowe, Bob Dylan and of course U2. Read through the lyrics and I’ll then make some interpretive comments at the end.

Why Broken Hallelujah? (Part 1)

Ah, so you are curious about the title? Check out the song, first, before I continue. I have to admit that the video seems a bit cheesy in its staging, so you might find yourself closing your eyes.  I do,  or else I just laugh.

What’s next . . .

Welcome to what’s next in my thinking about faith and pop culture. I’ve written on faith and one of my favorite bands, U2. while writing that book, I kept a blog to chronicle the process and it was a blast (it was on blogger, however, which seems like a much less attractive platform compared to wordpress so I’m glad I switched!) I met lots of thoughtful and faithful people through the process and learned about faith and about U2 from people’s comments.

So why the new blog? A new book, that’s why. No, I don’t have a book yet, and I don’t have a publisher. but I’ve started writing and I need a forum for thinking out loud so that I hopefully spark some feedback. The topic is faith and pop culture. The book title is Broken Hallelujah: Faith in Pop Culture. Yes, you should hear a Leonard Cohen reference here.

If you like to think about faith and movies, music, or the arts generally, then stay tuned.

+anon.