The UmBlog

This past Sunday at church we sang O Holy Night , and I'm shocked at the liberal bias in this carol I thought was so innocent and supported me, Jesus, and 'murica. The liberal part is buried in the third verse. Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever, His power and glory evermore proclaim. His power and glory evermore proclaim. At first I thought it must have been written by one of those Lincoln lovers with all that talk about setting slaves free. But it's origins are even worse than that. It is based on a poem by an atheist French poet, to the tune by a German, and arranged by a Unitarian minister. I can't read that commie French language but here is a translation of that liberal verse. The Rede...

Seeing my kids perform in theater is such a wonderful escape for me. Tonight, my youngest performed in a cabaret show. I don't know much Broadway. I didn't even like show tunes before my kids starting performing. Sometimes, even most of the time, I don't even hear the words, not because of poor diction, but I simply enjoy the voices as musical instruments. Kids creating music. Kids making art. Kids making beauty. "Beauty will save the world" is the title of a book I will someday read. The sentence expresses so much hope and redirects my eyes from the ugly to the good. I'm grateful for beauty.

I play in a church band. We play once a month and practice once a week. It is fun for me. This month we are working on Christmas carols. They are older music. The melodies are more complex. The timing is different. The lyrics are often profound. They take me our of this decade. They place me in a bigger context. They enlarge my world. They focus me on Jesus.

The other morning, I did something rather unusual. I stayed in bed and read. Justin McRobert's book, CMYK , kept me in bed. I didn't want to miss out on the conversations Justin was sharing with me. This book is a series of letters written in response to the vagaries of life. McRobert's writes as a pastor, husband, son, father, friend, musician, and disciple of Jesus Christ. His words do not come from a mountaintop, but from alongside, which is very encouraging. Although these letters are not written to me, all of them speak to something in my life. I received this encouragement for someone else. "Your story is not a story of failure; it is a story of boundless mercy. It is a story about getting second chances seven times, and then seventy times that. While some would suggest your life’s process was marked by failure, I believe that it is characterized by grace." The perspective of grace changes everything. McRoberts is not only graceful, but humorously sel...

I have a friend in California who is a singer and song writer. He's been releasing new music lately and explaining the back story to his songs. All these stories touch me, and push the lyrics deeper into my soul. So this is a shout out to Justin McRoberts and his music . But you need to go to his blog to read these stories. The one that absolutely slayed me was the one about his father . I only know a tiny bit more about the back story, but even without my extra knowledge, this song, 33, is so strong. How can it not be strong when it's about his personal overcoming of the dark shadow of his own father's suicide? It gives me so much hope. Thanks Justin. I've included the song video below. 33 from Justin McRoberts on Vimeo .

Finishing this book was like eating a supreme pizza but in the personal size, oh so good, but not enough. At almost 200 pages, Rick Marschall , has introduced me to a world I'm woefully clueless about and put an intense desire in me to indulge in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach until my ears bleed. My musical upbringing consisted of pop music then heavy metal then grunge then alternative pop music and now my teenagers listen to hip hop. I find myself as the parent who seeks out the classical station on the car radio and at work as well. I have no clue what I'm listening to, or by whom, but now I know what I want to listen to and it seems that if I really wanted, I could listen to Bach for a long time before anything repeated itself. Marschall brings to the forefront an essential dimension of Bach's music, his Lutheran faith. I love this quote of Bach's, "The aim and final reason of all music should be none else but the glory of God and refreshing the soul. Wher...

This was part of our service this morning and it made me cry. It is intense. G.O.S.P.E.L. from Humble Beast Records on Vimeo .

I listen to Pandora in the lab at work regularly as I'm running my experiments. I have quite a variety of artists in my playlists, but I made a new one based on Dave Brubeck , and I love it so much that I haven't listened to anything else. I like Pandora, but I love what they offer in the Dave Brubeck genre. They play plenty of Brubeck, but also other great stuff. Music I can leave on in the office and the lab all day that no one gets sick of, yet. After I finished last night's book report, I dove into the next one by Bradley Wright , a sociologist at my alma mater, UConn . His book is Christians are Hate-filled Hypocrites...and other lies you've been told . I hated statistics when I took at UConn, but I use them at work now, and I love a book full of statistics, like this one. In pharmaceutical trials, my company has to recruit thousands of volunteers in the 3rd phase of drug development, to prove to the FDA and other regulatory bodies around the world that the effec...

I'm not talking about that band from the 80's. But I was close friends with someone who had those feelings. Image via Wikipedia You come to me with your scars on your wrist You tell me this will be the last night feeling like this I just came to say goodbye I didn't want you to see me cry, I'm fine But i know it's a lie This is the last night you'll spend alone Look me in the eyes so I know you know I'm everwhere you want me to be The last night you'll spend alone I'll wrap you in my arms and I won't let go I'm everything you need me to be I lost many nights of sleep to take phone calls from that friend who was a depressed insomniac who would call me from a pay phone, before cell phones (BCPh), at the beach where he sat with a razor blade in his hand. He didn't have Jesus. But we became friends in Latin class in high school. I was a melancholy kid myself, but I had Jesus. Somehow, in his eyes, I had something transcendent . Your parents ...

If you keep your radio station and MP3 collection to just "positive, family" music you might not know that many songs compare love to chemically induced states. Lately, on our long drives to and from grandma's my family listens to the "scan" station. We experience a wide diversity of music, We introduce the kids to songs we know from the 70's and 80's and they tell us what they like from their world. Tonight I heard for the first time Kesha 's, " Your love is my drug ." Since I wrote last week about our common pursuit for the transcendent , some choose drugs, some choose love, some choose religion, some get Jesus, I was interested in her version. Her lyrics mention things like, Because your love, your love, your love, is my drug Your love your love your love I said your love, your love, your love, is my drug Your love your love your love I don't care what people say The rush is worth the price I pay I get so high when you're with m...

A friend of mine likes to share on Facebook videos of the Christian hair metal we used to listen to 20 years ago. I think all hair metal videos are embarrassing these days but the more egregious part is how much they emulated/imitated/ripped off the sound of secular bands. He posted one video of Iron Maiden 's and that of another Christian band that sounded just like them, showing the obvious rip-off. I responded that I wanted the Maiden sound without the devil worshiping of the other guys. It turns out, they didn't do any devil worshiping. But I didn't find this out for years. I just believed the information fed to me by traveling church authorities who wrote books and gave lectures and played albums backwards to convince kids like me, and our parents, that the rock and roll industry was conspiring with Satan to bring us to hell. Certainly, many bands do sing mostly about the pleasures of the carnal life, but that's not the same as advocating devil worship. And I'...

Periodically, like this morning on the bike ride, I sing Steve Taylor tunes. Who is Steve Taylor, a Image by smallritual via Flickr Christian musician from the 1980's with the ministry of a prophet. He wasn't the kind of prophet who predicted anything, other than 1990 , but the kind who held a mirror up to the American evangelical church and asked, "What's wrong with this picture, we do not resemble Jesus at all." This morning I was singing the song I Just Wanna Know from the album pictured here, On the Fritz , released in 1985! I love the end of the song Search me, Father, and know my heart Try me and know my mind And if there be any wicked way in me Pull me to the rock that is higher than I I just wanna know Am I pulling people closer? I just wanna be pulling them to you I just wanna stay angry at the evil I just wanna be hungry for the true I want my kids to listen to orthodox, prophetic music. As a bonus, I'd like them to hear original music, that does...

My friend Justin McRoberts came over once and ate peanut butter and jelly at my house with my family. We are tight. We disagree alot over political things, but he is my brother in Jesus and tells great stories and sings great songs. He has a great story on his blog about sitting next to an autistic guy on a flight to Chicago and what that guy taught him about community. I have another friend who is also a musician. Justin has an acoustical folk sound but Ryan AKA Serious Griggs raps for Jesus . He partnered with a great brass rock band and added his talents which has a great video. Joe's Jottings has a great post on the difference between religion and gospel.

Before I tell about a new favorite of mine I need to do my PSA duty for our church's station which can be heard at WCSE.org . Sometimes I only want to hear loud and aggressive music written and performed by believers for God and the family which TheBlast.Fm currently serves quite nicely.

the website plays the songs from his last album which has many nods to God

I think you should listen to Anthony Chapman's band, Little Johnny Hugo . There's a few songs you can download here.