This song is my week. Just was. The whole album has a just has crazy good story to tell, and here’s a review with some other lyrics too. Blu is way talented. I first heard through Jay Smooth from Ill Doctrine that it might be the best hip-hop album of the year.
I only talk from my heart
so open yours when your listening
every man has his own heaven
the difference is the way that he envisions it so….
if you make your heaven pictureless
by the time you die youll be drifting in an imageless fieldso fill your heaven full of blessing thoughts
thats real
you could stress it or just let it walk
I got a question if a man can make his own heaven
then can he make his path to get to it too
And, if you haven’t seen yet: Robert Putnam said that young people are losing their religion, but in terms of people’s lives I know this has been going on for years. And not an easy change. So, I’m not sure how important it is that Putnam says it, too, because it’s already happening. Welcome to the “knowing this is happening club.” It didn’t happen like that for me; and it kind of sucked to be there alone for a while. As for what’s happening now, I think people are building back up social capital in innovative ways; I’m guessing that’s the innovation he’s talking about in the article.
People, it’s time to come out of the woodwork…
On the contemporary music scene:
My dislike for much of what is called “Christian” music is simple to understand, I question the term itself. I actually do not like the expression. It is sometimes a part of a kind of worldview that separates faith from real life. This kind of an approach sometimes seems to present music that does not have religious words attached as “secular.” Interestingly, an entire genre of such music has evolved. It use to be almost exclusively part of evangelical culture but now it is spreading into some contemporary Catholic circles.
“Comment: Why I Don’t Like Christian Music” via Catholic Online.
I’d say that heavy metal and rock music are both symptoms of perceived youth alienation and an escape from difficult realities. I don’t really think that music is a gateway to demise, so I find it interesting that so many Christians think music can serve as a gateway to salvation.
The quote above is from Religion Dispatches and in an article called “Christian Punk Meets American Pop; Evangelicals in the ’Burbs.” My beef with the post is that it doesn’t point out that there are similarities with movements in other religions, a comparison I think you have to make when talking about American society. Heavy metal and punk Islam are youth movements for instance that might coincide with the American view of secularism as a pluralistic vision. But, for consistency’s sake, I’ll stick with Christianity as well for now…
Comprehending how Islamic values are expressed in Muslims’ lives today is of central importance to the cause of peace and understanding and to realizing the promise of pluralism on which America and the global world is based… But conversations aren’t one-sided; they involve at least two parties. What does this mean? It means that the opportunity Muslims now have is shared with their neighbors. When a Muslim goes online to blog about why she wears a headscarf, a Christian or Jewish woman who is interested in the topic can ask her questions directly.
Read more: Commentary: New media, new Muslim voices via CNN. Right on, mainstream media. Nice work framing actual reality. Speechless. How bout you?
NYC (from my Brooklyn Bridge set)
For nearly a year, I’ve been blogging about Islam. I’m not Muslim. Actually, I decided to “meet Christ” in high school, which is a phrase I usually avoid since it wreaks of lofty testimonials but will use here because that is just what we called it. I did have great leaders in my faith early on and to this day, I still believe that religion is a very important part of life. Even for people who don’t believe in organized religion and disagree with it in principle, I think religion itself is an important part of understanding the world and how people interact with each other.
One of the leaders in my life was B; he led the Christian youth group I was a part of early on. Looking back, his interpretation of how the new testament and the old (or Torah as 75% of my classmates at the time would call it) fit together was pure genius as far as I am concerned. It’s also a fact that he was the first and probably the best youth group leader in the area and his job that wasn’t easy. We were a minority in a predominately Jewish community, and he did a great job of talking with the Jewish leaders and helping us understand Jewish faith as well as Christian morality. This was my first experience learning from an interfaith leader about how to talk about religion in an intellectual way.
