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