Religious music for less than devout

n80, as far as the lyrics of Walking in Memphis go, I am not sure we will know. It is said that the song is autobiographical of Mark Cohen. The previous verse before the one you quoted talked about gospel being in the air, and that Reverend Greene would pray for you if you haven’t got a prayer. The guy in the song, autobiographical or not, was fairly depressed when he touched down in Memphis. My take would be that he became caught up in the gospel music being played,  in the atmosphere of the club, and in being asked to perform. It was for him a great night.  Mark Cohen is from a Jewish family in the mid-west (as per Wikipedia), and only he would know if the experience was transformative or not. Great song, though.
John

@ghosthouse Wow, really? The topic of the thread is music for less than devout. My reference was intended was a humorous take on the thread topic. If you are offended then that is on you. If you are that sensitive then perhaps you should have avoided the thread entirely. I feel no obligation to attempt to to oblige the myriad of religious beliefs of humanity.

@falconquest  That particular movie, at least when it came out, was very offensive to Christians. It has pretty much faded from the Christian and public consciousness. As a Monty Python fan and a Christian, I found that the movie was irreverent and moderately offensive....and not one of their better efforts. I still love Monty Python.

I agree with you that how someone responds to something in regard to being offended is on them. We can't control what other people say. We can only control how we respond to it.

However, I think we have to be careful about having a double standard. It is currently very much okay and PC to offend Christians and Jews. Nothing is off the table. On the other hand, there are other popular religions that no one is willing to mock or offend in even the slightest way. That is a double standard that is not logically consistent or fair. Further, there are other groups and belief structures that are totally off the table when it comes to humor or irreverence with a strict PC code dictating what is okay and what is not to say or discuss.

All I ask from a society of political correctness is consistency. What is okay for one group or belief should be okay for all. If it is incumbent on Judeo-Christians to buck up and deal with irreverence and insults then that should apply to others as well.

Personally I think we all need to be a little more thick skinned. Humor, when not vicious, is great for all of us. But it should be okay for _ALL_ of us. Not just certain ones.

@n80 I appreciate your comments and am more then happy to have a dialog regarding the subject. I had no intention as I stated to offend anyone and if someone is offended then to me that is simply irrelevant. It is the person who is offended that has created that feeling within their own mind.

I cannot possibly go through my day and understand what actions I take may offend one religious believer or another whether they be christian, jew, muslim, bhuddist.....etc. etc. The movie clip just popped into my mind when I read the OP. I agree, people have to be less sensitive and not hold undue standards for others to bear while in their particular presence.

@falconquest : "I cannot possibly go through my day and understand what actions I take may offend one religious believer or another"

Sure, tact, decorum and manners require an effort.  And just because there are easily offended people out there doesn't mean (to me) that I can abandon thoughtfulness, even though I am often very guilty of doing so.

@falconquest : "It is the person who is offended that has created that feeling within their own mind. "

Well, there are plenty of things that are by their nature offensive. And there are plenty of things that are intended to be offensive and hurtful. It is a two way street. Or a double edged sword, if you will. It is not simply a matter of overly sensitive people.

And part of my point is that it is not simply the religious who are easily offended. In fact, there are a few precious societal groups who enjoy full PC protection from ever hearing anything that disagrees with them. Just wondering if, in your mind, it is incumbent on those groups to be thick skinned as well?

Anyway, speaking of potentially offensive religious themed songs:

Steely Dan's Godwhacker. According to Wikipedia:

Godwhacker" developed from a blasphemous lyric Fagen wrote a few days after his mother died of Alzheimer's. "It's about an elite squad of assassins whose sole assignment is to find a way into heaven and take out God", he later explained. "If the Deity actually existed, what sane person wouldn't consider this to be justifiable homicide?"


As it turns out it isn't a very good song.