I'm not really a film person, but if you're seeking an interesting rental this summer you might want to look at Arts&Faith.com's list of Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films. They explain the genesis of the list here. Arts&Faith also runs a forum that is worth dropping in on now and again.
It's interesting to me that credibility for the idea that movies merit theological discussion has been so much more easily won than for the idea that music does. Sites and books that offer Christian reflection on "secular" film have been widespread for several years; those that take music as seriously, much less so. And you hardly ever see one of those "golly-gee-whiz that pastor quoted [insert band name here]" articles about people using film, either.
6.30.2004
6.29.2004
the GATHERING and elsewhere: Celebration
The blog for the Gathering, a teen service in Wareham (this gave me pause for a second, since there is a Wareham 15 minutes from me, but this one is in England - right?) reflected earlier this month on planning to use several examples of pop culture in a worship gathering, among them Toy Story and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from the U2 Go Home Slane DVD. Bruggemann and Pete Ward come into it too, which makes for an interesting post. A later post quotes Steve Stockman's Walk On as well.
Anybody getting vertigo?
For people who are coming here looking for U2 Glastonbury information, U2 new album information, and so on, the best place to get non-alarmist but well-informed rumors, as I told a commenter recently, is @U2. For example, they are this smart. U2Log is also quite au courant.
6.28.2004
More reports from the far corners of the web...
The Fred Bock Institute for Worship and Music at Fuller Theological Seminary has a nice epigram for their site, don't they?
6.25.2004
University of Pennsylvania commencement address
The traffic from people looking for transcripts of Bono's Penn speech has died down... but in case you'd still like to hear the actual delivery, I'm told it will be aired on C-Span on Saturday June 26 at 10 PM Eastern. The C-Span website appears to verify this.
6.23.2004
HIV/AIDS and Hope: Artists United For Africa
For anyone who's going to Cornerstone July 1-4, some of the DATA artists will be part of a seminar with World Vision called HIV/AIDS and Hope: Artists United For Africa.
6.21.2004
Desmond Tutu and U2 in South Africa
A new interview from the magazine Dazed and Confused (a special edition about African issues) is worth reading, and not only for this great story from Bono:
We visited the headquarters of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and we met with Desmond Tutu. So we all walked into the room, just completely honoured to meet him. We were exchanging pleasantries and then he just turned around and said, "Can we bow our heads now please?" We all had to bow our heads and he made this prayer, which just changed the molecular structure of the room and everyone in it, and suddenly we weren't tourists any more; suddenly he was reminding us of what was really going on here. I asked him a rather stupid question afterwards. I said, "Do you get time with all this work for prayer and meditation yourself?" And he just looked at me, threw a scowl at me, a real rebuke. He just stopped in his tracks and said, "How do you think we would do this if we didn't take time out for prayer?" I was scolded by the great man! And of course he's all laughs normally.
Yeah. For anyone reading this who has never been around for a prayer that "changed the molecular structure of the room and everyone in it," I wish for you that you will experience this soon.
We visited the headquarters of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and we met with Desmond Tutu. So we all walked into the room, just completely honoured to meet him. We were exchanging pleasantries and then he just turned around and said, "Can we bow our heads now please?" We all had to bow our heads and he made this prayer, which just changed the molecular structure of the room and everyone in it, and suddenly we weren't tourists any more; suddenly he was reminding us of what was really going on here. I asked him a rather stupid question afterwards. I said, "Do you get time with all this work for prayer and meditation yourself?" And he just looked at me, threw a scowl at me, a real rebuke. He just stopped in his tracks and said, "How do you think we would do this if we didn't take time out for prayer?" I was scolded by the great man! And of course he's all laughs normally.
Yeah. For anyone reading this who has never been around for a prayer that "changed the molecular structure of the room and everyone in it," I wish for you that you will experience this soon.
6.19.2004
Go ye into all nations
A contributor writes:
The daughter of the the guy who owns/runs the local Christian bookshop is a big U2 fan so he bought her a copy of the book for her birthday. She showed it to her vicar, who is leader of a large church in London. His reaction: "WOW. Where did you get this? I have GOT to get one of these!" He was leaving soon afterwards for a visit to Christians in Bahrain and plannned to take it to read and more copies to give to friends there.
The daughter of the the guy who owns/runs the local Christian bookshop is a big U2 fan so he bought her a copy of the book for her birthday. She showed it to her vicar, who is leader of a large church in London. His reaction: "WOW. Where did you get this? I have GOT to get one of these!" He was leaving soon afterwards for a visit to Christians in Bahrain and plannned to take it to read and more copies to give to friends there.
6.16.2004
e-Church.com
Tim Bednar at e-Church.com comments on a recent internet/dead tree media discussion relevant to U2 in a post called Controversy Over Social Justice and Bono's "So-Called" Christianity.
6.14.2004
6.11.2004
Faith For Life / Phantom Tollbooth article
The Northern Ireland magazine Faith For Life features a cover story on Get Up Off Your Knees in its May/June issue; this is the first I'm hearing about it, and I don't know what it says. If anyone would like to mail or email me a copy of the piece, I'd be forever in your debt and would give you a Gmail invite if you want one.
Get Up Off Your Knees contributor Steve Stockman has an article in the same issue, but it is also reprinted on The Phantom Tollbooth. The title is "Walking On - Bono since 9/11." It's a very typical piece of Stockman's writing, in which he leads the reader through a number of thoroughly-researched and specific observations of developments in U2-world, and along the way unabashedly states his convictions and voices his admiration. It is interesting to see listed in one place so many of the recent examples of the rapprochement between what Stockman calls "mainstream Christianity" and Mr. "God has some really weird kids, and I find it hard to be in their company most of the time."
I remind you that you can listen to Steve's BBC Radio Ulster radio show "Rhythm and Soul" -- in thrilling 30kbps audio ;-) -- here.
Incidentally, I quoted "God has some really weird kids" in a sermon a few weeks ago, unattributed and off the cuff, and it got one of the biggest laughs of the year.
And another "incidentally": The Faith for Life editor's name, Adam Harbinson, may be familiar to some U2 fans in connection with a book of his called They've Hijacked God for which Bono wrote an endorsement that occasioned much discussion maybe 2 years ago. (Readers noted that the brief excerpt chosen for quotes in publicity materials, taken out of context, might appear to endorse a somewhat narcissistic way of engaging with religious communities and/or to dismiss people who seriously committed to them. Short version: some people really liked that; others didn't. What else is new?) Anyway, if the site is not out of date, it seems like that book is finally going to come out - ironically, after those 2 years of rapprochement with the church Steve Stockman wrote about - so we may get to find out what the text actually says.
Get Up Off Your Knees contributor Steve Stockman has an article in the same issue, but it is also reprinted on The Phantom Tollbooth. The title is "Walking On - Bono since 9/11." It's a very typical piece of Stockman's writing, in which he leads the reader through a number of thoroughly-researched and specific observations of developments in U2-world, and along the way unabashedly states his convictions and voices his admiration. It is interesting to see listed in one place so many of the recent examples of the rapprochement between what Stockman calls "mainstream Christianity" and Mr. "God has some really weird kids, and I find it hard to be in their company most of the time."
I remind you that you can listen to Steve's BBC Radio Ulster radio show "Rhythm and Soul" -- in thrilling 30kbps audio ;-) -- here.
Incidentally, I quoted "God has some really weird kids" in a sermon a few weeks ago, unattributed and off the cuff, and it got one of the biggest laughs of the year.
And another "incidentally": The Faith for Life editor's name, Adam Harbinson, may be familiar to some U2 fans in connection with a book of his called They've Hijacked God for which Bono wrote an endorsement that occasioned much discussion maybe 2 years ago. (Readers noted that the brief excerpt chosen for quotes in publicity materials, taken out of context, might appear to endorse a somewhat narcissistic way of engaging with religious communities and/or to dismiss people who seriously committed to them. Short version: some people really liked that; others didn't. What else is new?) Anyway, if the site is not out of date, it seems like that book is finally going to come out - ironically, after those 2 years of rapprochement with the church Steve Stockman wrote about - so we may get to find out what the text actually says.
6.10.2004
Bargain price
I have no idea why, but an alert reader tells me that for some reason new copies of Get Up Off Your Knees are showing on Amazon right now for $8.01 instead of $10.47. That's way lower than anywhere else, so I pass the information along just in case someone was hesitating on buying it.
Of course, this may be an error that is fixed by the time you click.
Of course, this may be an error that is fixed by the time you click.
6.09.2004
"M�ske er religion Guds fjende"
Welcome to everyone who has found us today from this article on U2 and faith from the Danish site religion.dk. They have a couple links to material about the book, as well as several to interviews with members of U2 about Christian matters, and one to the U2 Bible reference archive.
I put their article through a free translator, since about the only words I can figure out in Danish are "religion," "Gud," "musikalske," and "karasmatisk," and it produced some of my favorite machine translation results ever:
Words is Bonos, forsanger and frontfigur to irske U2, and are falling amid a interviews by that pious (however no-konfessionelle) online-journal, Beliefnet. The citation is a good portrait at the band and their forsanger: By their controversial ports and frequently provocative remark have they chokeret and forarget heavy parties from the handsome, established kristenhed...
U2 accumulated forth from the aggression New Wave/ item-billow at the end of 70erne. ...U2 has forever coupled a global political and social consciously by that pious. As early as to 80'erne shared they to Excommunication Aid and Cheer up Aid musikalske parties in support of Africa.
I put their article through a free translator, since about the only words I can figure out in Danish are "religion," "Gud," "musikalske," and "karasmatisk," and it produced some of my favorite machine translation results ever:
Words is Bonos, forsanger and frontfigur to irske U2, and are falling amid a interviews by that pious (however no-konfessionelle) online-journal, Beliefnet. The citation is a good portrait at the band and their forsanger: By their controversial ports and frequently provocative remark have they chokeret and forarget heavy parties from the handsome, established kristenhed...
U2 accumulated forth from the aggression New Wave/ item-billow at the end of 70erne. ...U2 has forever coupled a global political and social consciously by that pious. As early as to 80'erne shared they to Excommunication Aid and Cheer up Aid musikalske parties in support of Africa.
6.08.2004
When I heard it, it felt like Gospel
Not only does Sam at Mile High Musings love The Joshua Tree to distraction, but he also read our book. OK, perhaps his post on the album is a bit fannish, but it has a cute Galatians 6:11 joke, plus one of the more no-nonsense summaries of the theme of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" I've ever heard ("He's struggling with seeing God working miracles and loving the world, but there still being so much hurt and crap.") Well, yeah.
6.07.2004
Home
In this post, liquidthinking gets the upcoming film Garden State, with Zach Braff, talking to U2's song "Walk On."
6.05.2004
Just let something appear in print once...
A new profile of Brennan Manning includes U2 on a list of "shapers of evangelical consciousness" who recommend his works. I posted some links to the story about U2's meeting with Manning when it first ran. How little it takes for something like that to enter the canon.
6.04.2004
Talk of the Nation
I discovered this morning via Only Wonder Understands that yesterday on Talk of the Nation, NPR's Neal Conan focused on CCM. (Scroll down to listen.) Jim Bryson, the keyboardist for Mercy Me, appeared, but his main guest was Jay Howard, co-author of Apostles of Rock: The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music, who ran down an interesting "socio-cultural mapping" of three possible theories of the relationship between music and culture for Christian musicians. Sort of a Christ and Culture thing: separational, integrational, transformational.
Jay Swartzendruber, managing editor of CCM magazine, was also on. His quite thoughtful explanation of what "Christian music," as opposed to "CCM," is, included a few remarks about U2 -- to which Neal Conan replied, "Hmph."
Jay Swartzendruber, managing editor of CCM magazine, was also on. His quite thoughtful explanation of what "Christian music," as opposed to "CCM," is, included a few remarks about U2 -- to which Neal Conan replied, "Hmph."
6.03.2004
Link check
So now and again I look to see who's linking to U2 Sermons. I found a link today from a blog called This Guy Falls Down. "This guy" says some nice things about us. Then I read a little, and find out "this guy" is also the guitar player (I've now corrected this information; it was wrong before) for Third Day. Honest. Hey, hope we get to meet at Soulfest.
6.01.2004
Live Aid II
Not surprisingly, the rumor of a Live Aid II "to ease third world debt" which was flying around the net this weekend has now been denied by Bono, with a statement that includes the remarks, "For me it's not really about charity at this point, it's about justice," and "Right now we're after billions (of dollars) not millions." The amount raised by the first Live Aid was $220 million; Africa alone still owes rich countries almost $300 billion. The amount Live Aid raised is what they pay in interest in a week on their old debts.
It's telling, I think, that people criticize Bono's spending time on justice work that results in billions of dollars going to the problem and actually makes a difference, but hurry to cheer a rumor that he might be spending time on charity work that would have almost no meaningful impact.
Another nice quote from the article, about the countries that have failed to keep the pledge of giving 0.7% of their GNP to development (which is all of us but Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands): "This is renegotiating your deal with God downwards."
It's telling, I think, that people criticize Bono's spending time on justice work that results in billions of dollars going to the problem and actually makes a difference, but hurry to cheer a rumor that he might be spending time on charity work that would have almost no meaningful impact.
Another nice quote from the article, about the countries that have failed to keep the pledge of giving 0.7% of their GNP to development (which is all of us but Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands): "This is renegotiating your deal with God downwards."
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