Religious music for less than devout

@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.

I wanted to mention a source I greatly enjoy. There is a church named “Church of Christ” that has as one of it’s teachings that liturgical music must be A Cappella. Then they can play a musical instrument later on in the day, just not at church.

 

Sometime in the early 1980’s a group from that church started a group named “Acappella” and I like their stuff very much, I think own 59 of their CDs which should amount to almost their entire catalogue.

 In the early days of the group Acappella was a performer named Keith Lancaster who at some point slightly more serious, less popular and more liturgical vision.

 I had eight Keith Lancaster Acappella CDs, all praise and worship which I delight in. The most recent was four years old so I ordered about another eight this week. I can not find them used on Amazon, I have to pay retail. It is not as bad as it may sound because every CD is filled to the brim with high quality praise and worship music.

 RE Monty Python et al.

 For most of the first 35 years of my life I kept Jesus safely at an arm’s length. A divorce was painful enough for me to reconsider. Folks who knew me well assumed my conversion would never last. I remember some of the things I said in those days. It causes me pain and shame.

 Unlike Muslims I don’t feel the need to violently defend Jesus against infidels. I am confident at a God who can speak the Word in to Darkness and create everything can take care of himself. I also imagine a Supreme Being; the embodiment and perfection of all divine attributes would have the ultimate sense of humor. I would point out that a jest from a friend is not the same as the same thing, be the words identical, as an expression intended with malice and contempt.

 Be careful with blasphemy; one day you may need Him.

I remember a home room teacher in high school. Late 1970s. He was also the baseball coach. Great guy. All of us kids liked him. He was always goofing with us and always pushing the limits. He used to ask us if we thought God had a sense of humor. Just asking that question made me uncomfortable, which was what he was after. For whatever reason I thought the question was too irreverent to consider.

Years later I thought about that and thought about how silly I was. If you believe in Christian doctrine then you believe that all good things come from God. Humor is clearly good. Just like everything else it can be used in ways that are not good. But sure, if we are made in his image and humor is good, the I’d say surely God has a sense of humor.

This teacher was one who always told us The Band was the best band of all time. I was into Zeppelin, BTO, Sweet, Alice Cooper, The Who then and had no time or interest in The Band. But again, years later I came to appreciate the genius of The Band.

If God created camels He has a sense of humor. Perhaps camels also say that about us.

If God exemplifies the perfection of all virtues, and a healthy sense of humor is a virtue, then ...
Among any groups of monastics or religious I would say look for the always happy and chipper. If the group is always glum run the other way. In my Irish tribe those not picked on (in a nice way) are considered neglected. It is how one develops a sense of humor and humility.

I had a youngish teacher in mid school, she assumed in the mid to late 60’s we listened to folk music like she did. When I told her about Carlos Santana, Cream, Jefferson Airplane and Grateful dead she was horrified.

I did learn to like folk music, only much later in life, the pre-electric Bob Dylan. Odetta, Richie Havens, Harry Belafonte, Carolyn Hester, Barbara Dane, the Big Three, Joan Baez all sport some musical chops and are well represented in my musical library. And many of them had religious music in their act. Speaking of which Cat Stevens "Morning has Broken" is recommended.

@n80 Thank you for jumping in, I had wondered if I had murdered the thread.

"Poor Imitation of God" John Hiatt