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GOD. LIFE. PROGRESSIVE CULTURE. RELEVANT magazine March/ April 2006, Issue 19 Check out daily news and features at RELEVANTmagazine.com Cameron Strang Editor and Publisher cameron@relevantmediagroup.com
EDITORIAL Cara Davis Editorial Director cara@relevantmediagroup.com
Corene Israel Associate Editor corene@relevantmediagroup.com
Tyler Clark Managing Editor tyler@relevantmediagroup.com
Jesse Carey Web Editor jesse@relevantmediagroup.com
Tia Stauffer Senior Associate Editor tia@relevantmediagroup.com
Kate Goodell Editorial Assistant kate@relevantmediagroup.com
Editorial Interns: Omote Ekwotafia, Cassie Serianni Contributing Writers: Andy Argyrakis, Rose Berger, Jason Boyett, Jon Brandon, Winn Collier, Cameron Conant, Kent Curry, Benjamin Esposito, John Fischer, Greg Garrett, Dan Haseltine, Jeremy Hunt, Matt Ingle, Maryann Koopman, Aaron Maurer, David McCorkle, Brett McCracken, Monica Monzingo, Michael Morrell, Dave Ramsey, Ben Reed, Brian A. Smith, Chris Troutman, Kory Westerhold, Carla J. Whitley, Jeffrey Worthen, Ed Young
SALES & MARKETING Kyle Chowning Sales and Marketing Director kyle@relevantmediagroup.com Suzanne Ford Marketing Coordinator, magazines suzanne@relevantmediagroup.com Susan Soelberg-Simcox Marketing & Publicity Manager, books susan@relevantmediagroup.com Betsy Keller Marketing Coordinator, books betsy@relevantmediagroup.com Flynn Atkins Music Manager/Producer flynn@relevantmediagroup.com
IMAGINE IF . . . the Apostle Paul were alive to defend the truth of Jesus’s resurrection—only to be countered by none other than the prophet Muhammad himself. Get in on the debate between two religious heavy-weights.
Jason Boyett Outside Thinking jason@relevantmediagroup.com
DESIGN
Shawn Romano Broadcast Designer shawn@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Photographers: Jeremy Cowart, Justin Cox, Matt Jones, Azuree Norman, Kory Westerhold Design Intern: Aaron Maurer
ADVERTISING Dale Wilstermann Advertising Account Executive dale@relevantmediagroup.com (615) 941-5213 Lori Beckman Web Advertising Account Executive lori@relevantmediagroup.com Azuree Norman Ad Traffic Coordinator azuree@relevantmediagroup.com
ADMINISTRATION
Jeremy Kennedy Art Director jeremy@relevantmediagroup.com
Maya Strang Operations Manager maya@relevantmediagroup.com
Anna Melcon Art Director anna@relevantmediagroup.com
Nick Becerra Project Manager nick@relevantmediagroup.com
Kory Westerhold Art Director kory@relevantmediagroup.com
Wesley Smalls Fulfillment Coordinator wesley@relevantmediagroup.com
Ryan James Senior Web Designer ryan@relevantmediagroup.com
Kaley Crebs Operations Assistant kaley@relevantmediagroup.com
Pablo Alejo Web Programmer pablo@relevantmediagroup.com
Chandler Strang Production Assistant and Janitor chandler@relevantmediagroup.com
WRITERS’ GUIDELINES: www.RELEVANTmagazine.com/editorial REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS: www.RELEVANTmagazine.com/editorial RELEVANT JOB OPENINGS: www.RELEVANTmagazine.com/jobs
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SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Web: www.RELEVANTmagazine.com/subservices Phone: (Toll free) 866-512-1108 U.S. and Canada 386-246-3412 International
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RELEVANT Issue 19 March/April 2006 (ISSN: 63696) is published bimonthly for $12 per year by RELEVANT Media Group, Inc., 100 South Lake Destiny Drive, Suite 200, Orlando, FL 32810. Periodicals postage pending at Orlando, FL, and additional mailing offices.
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Send address changes to RELEVANT magazine, 11 Commerce Blvd., Palm Coast, FL 32164-7961.
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or * perfect f group study
MARCH/APRIL 2006
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FIRST WORD LETTERS SLICES REVOLUTION: COMMUNITY SERVICE DEEPER WALK: JESUS’ PEACE COMMUNITY
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SPRING MUSIC PREVIEW
Get your kicks in 2006. Find out how with our music picks. Trends, bands and scenesters galore: it’s what you’ll find at your record store.
WAR AND PEACE DEPRESSION SHANE & SHANE ANNE RICE LITTLE BROTHER
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REDEFINING SUCCESS SOUNDS FROM THE UNDERGROUND Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Molly Jenson, The Cinematic Underground, Josh Garrels
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SPOTLIGHTS Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Imogen Heap, The Fray, Belle & Sebastian
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MUSIC REVIEWS: YELLOWCARD Anthony Hamilton, Teddy Thompson, The Strokes, Chris Tomlin
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SIXTEEN ALBUMS YOU SHOULD KNOW
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BOOK REVIEWS LAST WORD
COVER STORY
LEIGH NASH There she goes. There she goes again. From Sixpence None the Richer to stepping into the spotlight on her own, our exclusive interview will have you counting the days until her solo debut.
LEIGH NASH: Kiss her, beneath the milky twilight
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
NOT ONE OF THOSE CHRISTIANS BY CAMERON STRANG
I need to talk about contemporary Christianity. There’s something that concerns me. We’ve seen so much abuse of the term “Christian” lately that many of us are now hesitant to be associated with it. We may serve God and be followers of Jesus, but we don’t want to be associated with the bigoted right-wing extremists who are known only for their judgmental statements and boycotts. We believe Christians should be known by their love. (I think John 13:35 says something along those lines.) We cringe every time we see Pat Robertson on the news. So, we do everything we can to not be identified as one of those Christians. We try to get outside of the Christian bubble, love others, be open minded and live in freedom. So we drink—but just in moderation, of course. We cuss, but just for humor or effect. We watch movies that our pastor wouldn’t, but it’s because we’re a lot more in touch than he is. We criticize TBN, cheesy Christian music and everything else about the Christian subculture. We hang out at bars and clubs, originally to be “light in the darkness,” but now really just for a good time. And here we are, without even realizing it, living exactly like the world. Please hear me, I’m not advocating closedminded, hate-filled Christianity, and I do believe we have freedom in Christ. Moderation is a God-given right. But truly following Jesus is not found in either extreme. After all, Romans 12:2 does say, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world” (TNIV). So where does this leave us? It’s not an issue that can be resolved in this column’s 600 words, but it’s one that all of us must personally and deliberately answer, because without clarity on how we need to live our lives and impact the world around us, at best we will be inconsequential and at worst, harmful to those around us. Stewardship is something I’ve grappled with lately. (Go read Matthew 25.) God has entrusted all of us with gifts, material things, a calling and a realm of influence. The question is, what are we doing with what has been given to us? Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples. How well are we following that challenge in our lives on a daily basis?
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Are we making the most of the time and opportunities given to us? Or are we worrying more about this debate or that opinion, when there’s a world dying around us? We look to one side and see Christianity being mocked in the media because of stupid public statements by leaders who make us all look like idiots. But so what? We look to the other side and see a free-will, all-paths-lead-to-heaven kind of Christianity that renders our faith completely ineffective out of fear that we might offend someone who doesn’t agree with us. But, again, so what? Neither of those need to define us. What other people do is of zero consequence to how we have to live our lives. The decisions we make and the love we show to others are completely up to us. No one else will account for your life but you. So how are you using it? Like most of us, I’m tired of being clumped in with stereotypical, suburban, materialistic Christianity. But we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. I believe that God wants us to think for ourselves and follow the Spirit. If it’s scriptural, we’ve got to deal with it. But if a man came up with it, I give it a healthy dose of skepticism. It’s called discernment. We need to not only embrace grace and freedom, but remember that we’re called apart, that what we have in our spirits separates us from the world. We are supposed to be in the world, but not of it. We have a hope and a freedom and a faith that the world is looking for, and they need to see that difference in us. Otherwise, what’s the point? I want to be known for passion, love and a heart that follows God. I want people to see that about me, first thing. There’s something different about my life, and it will also change theirs. I don’t want to blend in. Our generation is looking for something to fill the void in their lives. We have what they’re looking for. We just need to bring the truth with grace and love. But we do need to bring it. We each have a sphere of influence. Now what are you going to do with it? F CAMERON STRANG, 29, is the president and founder of RELEVANT Media Group.
RELEVANT TURNS 3 This issue marks the three-year anniversary of RELEVANT magazine. Thanks to you, a lot has changed since our first issue. Here are some of the highlights: Circulation: Issue 1: 20,000
(but only
3,000 paid)
Today: 80,000 Newsstand Circulation: Issue 1: 0 Today: 35,000 Total Number of Articles Published: 543 Number of Albums Reviewed: 540 Monthly RELEVANTmagazine.com Visitors: Issue 1: 95,000 (the site launched a year before the print magazine)
Today: 300,000+ Number of Articles Posted: 3,120
RADIANT LAUNCHES As you’ve heard in this space a few times now, this spring we’re rolling out our brandnew sister magazine, Radiant. (And to clarify, no, that does not mean that RELEVANT is turning into a guy’s magazine. We will always remain gender-neutral.) We’re very excited about Radiant and feel it will fill a void like no other magazine. Our editor, Cara Davis, has poured her heart and soul into the publication, and the results are amazing. I hate to say it, but it’s almost better than RELEVANT! (Almost.) If you haven’t yet, definitely stop by Radiantmag.com and check it out.
FIRST WORD
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MARCH/APRIL 2006
COMMENTS. CONCERNS. SMART REMARKS. Send your love and hate mail to feedback@relevantmagazine.com.
I have to admit that I was one of those people who lumped you into the liberal theology camp and the hipster camp for a while. Because you often look like Christians who run at the mouth about how we can be relativistic and liberal in our theology and rarely try to distinguish yourselves from such Christians, you can get lumped in easily. You get judged by our ADD culture that won’t take the time to fully investigate everything. I am very glad to know that I was wrong about the leadership of RELEVANT at least and probably a lot of its readers, too. —MATTHEW LOFTUS
years developing. If we look to man rather than God for the solution, we will not look in the right places.
—KEITH GREENWOOD I have just read “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” (Jan./Feb. 2006) by Winn Collier. Thank you! It is so rare for any Christian to have the guts to actually talk about oral sex, let alone in a wide publication such as yours.
—TYLER S. Your article about an honest look at oral sex in your Jan./Feb. issue crossed the line of Scripture. Implying that it’s not wrong if you do it for the right reasons and not for your own pleasure is good, but you were talking out of marriage. That’s immoral. Do you guys understand that you’re influencing many to think that’s in the Bible?
—DAVID O. We said what? Take another look at the second half of the article (hint: the sentence beginning with “The most evocative sexual expressions ...”), and hopefully you’ll see things differently. Regarding Radiant magazine’s ad (Jan./Feb. 2006), “It’s Our Turn Now”: It implies that this whole time was the “guys’ turn.” Good grief. Why do girls always want to have the spotlight? RELEVANT needs a men’s magazine soon. Can’t let them think about themselves too long.
—JAMES ALLEN You don’t have a girlfriend, do you, James? If one looks at the core values of the environmental organizations cited as resources in “Caring for God’s Creation” (Jan./Feb. 2006), one will not find caring for God’s creation as one of them. Most of these organizations are founded out of a fear of man having the ability to destroy “mother earth” that evolution has spent millions of
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I work in an office that’s notorious for hiring only beautiful girls. You can imagine what the office dynamics are like. Interesting, at best. Thank you for offering music and a podcast to block out most of the whining and fighting that take place during my typical day.
When I read Mark Steele’s “The Almighty Quarter” (Jan./Feb. 2006), I was moved to tears. Since I was saved in 1995, my spiritual life has been prospering while my material life has been in a downward spiral. Mark’s article hit me hard. Grace is always undeserved, and thinking in terms of punishment and reward is causing me to doubt God, when in reality, He’s never let me down.
—LORI CARABELLO
—SHANELLE WEAVER
I just wanted to let you know that I love your magazine. It’s my favorite read every month.
I think the approach you’ve taken to subjects like Bono and other controversial subjects, and how our faith is lived out in life, has been a very good one. Searching for that place where we hold onto truth while showing grace is something that is missing far too often in Christian circles. I’m always wary of Christian culture because of the high cheddar factor, and I think too many Christians get caught up in arguments about silly things, but I’ve been very encouraged by the way all of you approach these things.
—ANGELA H. SCALF Every month? Do you know something we don’t? What are your thoughts on the TNIV Bible? Why are you selling it in your store? I stand for biblical truth with no compromise in the original text of the manuscript.
—ELOY So you only read Greek and Hebrew?
—BEN I put RELEVANT magazine in my bathroom, and my housemates have reportedly enjoyed them very much.
—JANET MUI Like we always say, RELEVANT and toilets go together like peanut butter and jelly. I stumbled on a past issue with Moby on the cover (May/June 2005)—I adore Moby—and I was really surprised as I thumbed through the issue. I was pleasantly surprised. I lapped up every article like a thirsty old dog on a hot Texas day.
—MELINDA KAY METZ Like we always say, RELEVANT and thirsty old dogs go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Thanks for introducing your readers to a different perspective on consumption that actually gives us as buyers a better way to support those who genuinely need the money (“Fair Trade,” Jan./Feb. 2006). After being awakened to the world of Fair Trade over the summer of 2005, I began to understand how Christians in America can help to improve life for many of the areas in the world that suffer under conditions of poverty.
—BRAD WATERS I read in your Jan./Feb. 2006 issue a letter to the editor about the lack of females on your cover. I would very much like to request India.Arie. She’s awesome! I would love to see her on your cover!
—TIFFANY COMBS You know who else would be great on the cover? Leigh Nash.
LETTERS
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WHAT HAPPENED TO MASE?
Mase and his new boss, 50 Cent.
THE REBIRTH OF MURDER MASE EVERYONE KNOWS THE STORY. In 1999, Mase left the height of hip-hop success to follow God and become a pastor in Atlanta. In 2004, he had a change of heart and returned to rap with a new (and more wholesome) image, and a vow to be “an ambassador to the Gentiles.” He told RELEVANT all about his spiritual and music rebirth in our Nov./Dec. 2004 cover story. When his comeback album on Bad Boy Records disappointed both critically and commercially, Mase decided to take another path. In fall 2005, he signed with 50 Cent’s (notoriously un-wholesome) G-Unit Records. Now rapping under his former hip-hop moniker, Murder Mase is making songs that include many of the elements—namely sexual, sexist, derogatory and violent lyrics—that Minister Mase had sworn off. He’s even taking shots at his former boss, Diddy. 50 Cent claims to be down with Mase’s Christianity, although he thinks that Mase was misguided when he left the music scene. “I had a conversation with him,” 50 told MTV. “I said, ‘Mase, you was selling 4 million records at that time. If you felt that way [about changing your message] and made an album at the time about the way you felt— wouldn’t you have reached more people than Farrakhan reached with the Million Man March, if you got 4 million people buying your CD?’” Despite his recent changes, Mase insists that this is all just part of his plan. “When people saw the squeaky-clean album, they didn’t get it because it was too far-fetched from the Mase they had previously known,” he says. “Right now, what I’m working on is an album that’ll show you how I got from point A to point B. So what people are hearing now is not me switching; it’s actually taking it back to the beginning of where Mase went from, to where he’s going.” We’ll see.
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SLICES
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MISC. Kids need indie rock, too. That’s why Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene, Rosie Thomas and others have contributed songs to See You on the Moon! , a new children’s album due March 21. Now even 5-year-olds will be cooler than us ... According to a haunting new study, college grads are more likely to believe in ghosts and paranormal activity than non-grads ... After years of smash hits and global success (cough, cough), UPN and The WB will be closing shop this fall. They will re-emerge as a single network, The CW, which will mostly target young and minority viewers ...
Sadly, better than our debut issue.
THE ORIGINAL RELEVANT The issue of RELEVANT you’re currently reading may be our three-year anniversary issue, but we were about 30 years late calling dibs on our name. We recently discovered that way back in 1972 there was another RELEVANT magazine—yes, all caps and everything—although its content focus was a little different than ours. That RELEVANT focused on positivity and education within the black community. Our crack research team tells us that RELEVANT only lasted one issue. Thankfully, history doesn’t always repeat itself.
MXPX Not Just Trailblazers, OK? Even though MxPx’s latest album, Panic, released on Side One Dummy recently, frontman Mike Herrera knows the band is still defined by what they did a decade ago—namely, being the first credible band to successfully cross over from Christian rock to mainstream. Without MxPx paving the way, bands like Relient K and Switchfoot would have had a harder time gaining mainstream acceptance. “We took a lot of bullets for the troops behind us,” Herrera says. It was 1996 when MxPx released Life in General, the album that got them signed to a major label, A&M Records. The move, though, meant the band would leave Tooth & Nail Records—which brought heat from Christians who felt that the band was forsaking their faith and going “secular.” When MxPx started playing large mainstream gigs and festivals, they were the only Christians on the bill. “Now half of the Tooth & Nail lineup is on the Vans Warped Tour,” Herrera says.
THOU SHALT WATCH ABC Just months after NBC ticked off Christians with The Book of Daniel (which mercifully went away only weeks later), ABC is leading its viewers to the Promised Land with its upcoming The Ten Commandments. The two-part, four-hour miniseries was shot in Morocco and will air the week before Easter. It stars Scottish actor Dougray Scott as Moses and Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid on Lost, as Moses’ stepbrother, Menerith. No, Menerith is not in the Bible, so put your concordance down.
SLICES
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JESUS ROCKS • OLD-SCHOOL BOARD GAMES
MISC.
Apparently, rock ’n’ roll is painful.
DOES JESUS REALLY ROCK? Larry Norman, one of the world’s first Christian rock stars, asked it first: “Why should the devil have all the good music?” Now two filmmakers are asking it again. In their new documentary, Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?, Heather Whinna and Vickie Hunter explore the world of Christian indie rock from an outsider’s perspective. “I grew up at rock shows and had no idea this existed,” Whinna says of Christian music. “The idea of ‘Christian’ rock— writing about just one topic—seemed absurd to me. I didn’t understand it.” Knowing very little of the scene or the people in it, Whinna and Hunter— both women are atheists—went to the Cornerstone music festival in 2001. They began talking with fans and bands about faith, life and rock music. What they found was not what they had expected. “The biggest misconception for me had to do with motivation,” Whinna says. “People play music because
they want to play music. I went in thinking it was all a worship or conversion thing.” They noticed that many people they interviewed had shared experiences—things like burning their secular music only to repurchase it a few years later. Their film includes interviews with artists like Pedro the Lion, Steve Taylor, the Detholz!, Cool Hand Luke, Danielson Famile and the man himself, Larry Norman. Whinna says she believes that the film is “truly fair and balanced.” The documentary neither glorifies nor condemns the independent Christian rock scene, and the filmmakers say they didn’t want to take a stand on it. Although they met people who wanted to share lurid details of Christian rock debauchery, the women weren’t interested in talking to people with an ax to grind. Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? is being screened nationally and can be found at www. rightrightright.com.
Nettwerk Music Group, a Canadian record label and management company, is fighting the Recording Industry Association of America. The company is paying all legal costs for a man being sued by the RIAA for illegally downloading music. “Suing music fans is not the solution, it’s the problem,” says Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride ...
Donald Trump is suing the author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald for defamation. If Trump is truly upset with people who make him look bad in public, how is his hairdresser still in business? ...
RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM
WE ASK STUPID QUESTIONS, YOU TAKE THE TIME TO ANSWER
I COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT ...
BEST OLD-SCHOOL BOARD GAME? Monopoly Risk Battleship Scrabble Stratego Total votes: 463
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30% 23% 20% 16% 11%
Food and water My car My cell phone My television MySpace.com Total votes: 1,297
HOW MANY HOURS A WEEK DO YOU WATCH TV? 51% 19% 17% 7% 6%
1-3 4-7 More than 8 TV’s overrated Total votes: 1,031
29% 26% 22% 23%
/ Ê/ Ê / Ê/ Ê "/Ê "/Ê 7 / "1/Ê , 7 / "1/Ê , Ê Ê / Ê / Ê ° ° 3IX MONTHS &IVE GRAND ! BEAUTIFUL CHURCH WEDDING 3IX MONTHS &IVE GRAND ! BEAUTIFUL CHURCH WEDDING 3OUND IMPOSSIBLE )T S NOT (ERE S THE DElNITIVE GUIDE 3OUND IMPOSSIBLE )T S NOT (ERE S THE DElNITIVE GUIDE TO PULLING IT OFF TO PULLING IT OFF
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MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE • WEDDING TIPS • BLACK JESUS
MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE Every summer thousands of music lovers pack up their cars, put on some sunblock and get ready to rock. While summer is still a few months away, it’s not too early to start planning your summer music festival schedule. Here’s some help:
COACHELLA April 29-30 Indio, CA www.coachella.com
CORNERSTONE FLORIDA May 12-13 Orlando, FL www.cornerstoneflorida.com
ICHTHUS June 15-18 Wilmore, KY www.ichthusfestival.org
BONNAROO June 16-18 Manchester, TN www.bonnaroo.com
ALIVE June 21-24 Canal Fulton, OH www.alive.org
CORNERSTONE ILLINOIS July 5-8 Bushnell, IL www.cornerstonefestival.com
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WAYS TO STRETCH YOUR WEDDING MONEY Planning your big day? Here are some ways to make your cash go a little further ... • PICK A SLOWER TIME OF YEAR, like January, February or November. • GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY. The more you’re willing to do, the less you’ll end up paying. Get your friends and family to help address envelopes, fold programs, create favors and make a headpiece or veil. • LIMIT THE GUEST LIST. Most caterers charge per person, so the difference between 100 guests and 150 is significant. • SHOP ANYWHERE BUT a traditional bridal salon for your gown. Think eBay, off the rack or have one made by a local seamstress. • CONSIDER “DROP-OFF CATERING.” The caterer delivers and sets up already-prepared food. Or, have family or friends cater the reception for you. • ASK FRIENDS TO TAKE PHOTOS at your bridal showers, rehearsal dinner, pre-ceremony and reception. Hire a professional only for the formal portraits and ceremony shots. • CONSIDER A BUFFET instead of a sitdown meal; or host a high tea, brunch or luncheon instead of a multi-course meal. A BRIDE WORRIES ABOUT • Exceeding budget – 66% • Forgetting a crucial detail – 50% • Reception not being fun – 40% • Guests not showing up – 25% *Brides could answer more than one way.
Adapted from Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot: How to Plan a Church Wedding for Less Than $5,000 by Cara Davis, available from RELEVANT Books.
THE SOULFEST Aug. 2-6 Gilford, NH www.thesoulfest.com
PURPLE DOOR Aug. 18-19 Lewisberry, PA www.purpledoor.com
BUMBERSHOOT Sept. 1-4 Seattle, WA www.bumbershoot.com
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Check out other money-saving tips from Cara Davis at www.cheapwaysto.com.
BLACK JESUS Jesus wasn’t white. No news there. However, a film portraying Jesus as a modern political revolutionary in South Africa is aiming to drive the nail into White Jesus’ coffin. Son of Man, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, shows Jesus Christ as more of a political and social figure than a deity. “We wanted to look at the Gospels as if they were written by spin doctors and to strip that away and look at the truth,” director Mark Dornford-May says. “The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn’t very acceptable.”
SOME GET LOST. SHE GOT FOUND.
Follow a recent grad as she moves to a new city and finds herself searching for faith and meaning. Along the way, maybe you’ll find them too.
R RUISCH
BY JENNIFE
W
e’re called to pursue more than just our fascinations, appetites, and desires. Look past your disillusionment and boredom with religion and fix your eyes on the one thing that matters:God.
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HIP-HOP PREACHER
Q&A WITH RAPPER AND PASTOR URBAN D WHAT KIND OF SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE DOES HIP-HOP HAVE ON CULTURE? Honestly, most of the spiritual impact is negative. A lot of the mainstream music is so repetitive, as it glorifies materialism, sex and pretty much everything that is opposite of how a Christ follower should roll. As people constantly absorb that, it affects them and shapes their worldview. On the flip side, I’ve been able to see hip-hop positively influence people spiritually in big ways. Lately even the mainstream side of things has brought up God quite a bit in a positive light. This got the masses more open to it, but those spitting the messages bring some confusion with the contradiction in their other songs and their lifestyles.
WHAT IS THE FLA.VOR ALLIANCE? Fla.vor Alliance is a group of hip-hop artists based out of Crossover Church in Tampa, Fla. It started with some MCs who wanted to build more accountability and fellowship as they also worked on music together. The Alliance has collectively put out more than 20 CDs and traveled extensively. We recently inked a distribution deal and will be nationally releasing five new albums in 2006.
IS CROSSOVER THE ONLY HIP-HOP CHURCH OUT THERE? Crossover is known to be the first authentic church that is fully geared toward impacting hiphop culture. Fortunately, there are now several other similar churches popping up all over the country: The House in Chicago, Generations Church in Atlanta, The Sanctuary in Minneapolis and several more. There are constantly people contacting us, letting us know what they are sparking off in their cities. A real movement is starting.
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Twelve leading global activists take on twelve of the world’s most pressing social issues, including AIDS, poverty, hunger, fair trade, and more.
JOIN A GENERATION RISING UP TO TAKE SERIOUSLY JESUS’ COMMAND TO LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS.
GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED ADVICE, ONLY FUNNIER (AND NOT OLD-FASHIONED)
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WHEN CHRISTIANS GO
UNDERGROUND BY JOHN FISCHER
ALL CHRISTIANS ARE not thick-skulled, narrowminded people. If you’re a Christian, you know that, and I know that, but the rest of Western culture doesn’t. It’s a general caricature that has come at the price of a relatively brief fling in the spotlight of fame and political power. Anything that becomes popular has to simplify, narrow its agenda, lose ambiguity and be reduced to a slogan. In order to gain popular momentum, it can’t be any more complicated than what you can get on a bumper sticker. The result is a widespread awareness of Christians and what they want culturally, but no depth. Christianity has been spread around the country by the media, but it has been spread thin. We get coverage now, but it’s mostly one-dimensional. If people had the time to look deeper into issues than the evening news or the front page of USA Today, they might be more aware of the nuances of true Christian belief ... but few do. It’s sad that people are so shallow. It’s sad that so few Christians have risen above this shallowness. This is about to change. What needs to happen now is for Christians to be doctors, lawyers, clerks, teachers, artists—in short, splendid human beings—first, and Christians second. I never thought I’d say that, but it’s true. We need to live in such a way as to enforce the idea: “Well, if she’s a Christian, I guess I may have to reinvestigate the Christian faith.” It will only happen when individuals excel at things other than being Christians so they can be in a position to break out of the stereotype. This will mean, among other things, that Christians will be found in all walks of life holding all sorts of differing views
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politically and socially. In short, we will disagree, and it will be a good thing. Christians will be found in debate with one another during the week and sitting next to each other at church on Sunday (or whenever they meet), and this will not be hypocritical. It will show a unity of belief and a diversity of opinion. This will raise
WE WILL DISAGREE, AND IT WILL BE A GOOD THING. the interest of the world much more than if Christians all lined up on the same side of the fence. Jesus did not come to establish a polarized Christian culture. He came to send His followers into whatever culture in which they find themselves. The influence is from the inside, and it has nothing to do with numbers or political power and everything to do with the Holy Spirit. When Christians go underground, Christ and the Gospel can come to the surface untangled from agendas and preconceptions. This might mean a sports critic will clash with a popular athlete, but they will both agree on Jesus. Or it might mean that a Democratic president will meet regularly for prayer with a Republican Speaker of the House. These kinds of healthy disagreements over matters other than faith would help elevate the Gospel above our petty platforms and personal preferences. Christianity needs to go underground and resurface through those with expertise in all areas so that we find out who a person is and what he has accomplished before we find out he is a Christian. It’s time not to lead with Christianity, but to lead with expertise,
personhood, virtue and art. What needs to happen is not going to happen in the Christian field through Christian ministries sponsored by Christian organizations. It’s going to happen when Christians excel in what they incorrectly still call the “secular” world. I have a short list of people who have succeeded at this and are known for things other than their Christian beliefs, and yet their faith speaks into what they do without using it as leverage for their publicity or point of view. People like Bono, The Edge, Peter Drucker, Mark Hatfield, C.S. Lewis and Jimmy Carter come to mind. I’m sure you can add to the list, but it would be even better if one day you add to the list by being on it yourself! It might even be bigger than a call to the ministry. What am I saying? It would, by any real definition, be the ministry! 0
JOHN FISCHER is an author, speaker and singer/ songwriter who lives in Southern California. He writes a daily devotional for Purpose Driven Life. Sign up at purposedrivenlife.com to receive a free devotional five times a week.
TAC K L E T H E DA I LY G R I N D THAT CAUSES YOU TO LOSE SIGHT OF GOD’S INTENTION FOR YOUR LIFE
IN THIS CHAOTIC, STRESSFUL, NON-STOP WORLD, BALANCE IS DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN. THE LIFE @ WORK GROUPZINE ™ EXAMINES THE BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF BALANCE AND TEACHES HOW WORK AND AMBITION FIT IN WITH GOD , FAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND SELF. VISIT US ONLINE AT WWW. LIFEATWORK . COM
www.nelsonimpact.com
IGNORANCE
WITHOUT
BLI$$
BY DAVE RAMSEY
FOR SEVERAL months I’ve been exposing the major obstacles that often keep us from becoming financially fit: Denial, Debt Myths and Money Myths. But there are a few more hurdles to achieving stability and staying power in your financial future that need to be explored. One of our biggest financial hurdles is ignorance. In a culture that worships knowledge, to say ignorance about money is an issue makes some people defensive. Don’t be defensive. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence; it is lack of know-how. I have never seen a baby that was born ready to be wealthy. Never do friends and relatives gather around the window of the nursery and exclaim, “Oh, look! She is a born financial genius!” No one is born with the knowledge of how to drive a car. We are taught the skill. Likewise, no one is born with the knowledge of how to handle money—but we aren’t taught that! We go to school to learn to earn; we earn, and then have no idea what to do with the money. According to the Census Bureau, the average family in America last year made
$40,816. Even if they never get a raise, the average family will make more than $2 million in a working lifetime! And most high schools and colleges teach NOTHING about how to manage this money. We graduate from school and go out into the world and get a financial master’s degree in D.U.M.B. Do we make a mess of our finances because we aren’t intelligent? No. If someone who has never driven a car, has never seen a car and can’t spell car gets in the driver’s seat of a brand-new car, the wreck will come before he leaves the driveway. Backing up and gaining more speed will only lead to another wreck. “Trying harder” isn’t the answer, because the next wreck will not only total the car but also hurt other people. This is ludicrous! Overcoming ignorance is easy. First, admit that you are not a financial expert because you were never taught. Second, learn more about money. You don’t need to get a Harvard MBA with a specialization in finance, but you do need to read something about money at least once a year and occasionally attend a seminar about money. Your actions should show that you care about money by learning something about it. My wife and I have a great marriage—not
IGNORANCE IS NOT LACK OF INTELLIGENCE; IT IS LACK OF KNOW-HOW.
perfect, but great. Why? We read about marriage, we go to marriage retreat weekends, we date weekly, we sometimes take a Sunday school class on marriage, and we even meet once in a while with a friend who is a Christian marriage counselor. Do we do all these things because our marriage is weak? No, we do all these things to make our marriage great. We have a great marriage because we work at it, make it a priority and seek knowledge on marriage. Great marriages don’t just happen. Wealth doesn’t just happen. You will spend some time and effort on getting rid of ignorance. Again, you don’t need to become a financial geek; you just need to spend more time on your 401(k) options and your budget than you do picking out this year’s vacation. Ignorance is not OK. “What you don’t know won’t hurt you” is a really stupid statement. What you don’t know will kill you. What you don’t know about money will make you broke and keep you broke. 0
DAVE RAMSEY is host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show The Dave Ramsey Show and best-selling author of Financial Peace, More Than Enough and The Total Money Makeover. You can visit him at www. daveramsey.com.
LOOKING TO LOSE YOUR FINANCIAL IGNORANCE? The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke Suze Orman (Riverhead) The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s Sarah Young Fisher and Susan Shelly (Alpha)
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The Everything Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s Book: Erase Your Debt, Personalize Your Budget and Plan Now to Secure Your Future Debby Fowles (Adams Media)
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Personal Finance Kenneth M. Morris and Virginia B. Morris (Fireside)
ONLINE:
Five-Star Living on a Two-Star Budget: Living Big on Only a Little Margaret Feinberg and Natalie Nichols Gillespie (Harvest House)
SpendingWisely.com
Financial Peace University program Dave Ramsey (DaveRamsey.com)
CheapWaysTo.com Fool.com WallStreetJournal.com
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ALWAYS ON HIS MIND - ARDENT INTERCESSION FLOWING STRAIGHT FROM
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2 AUDIO CD’S PLUS A DVD. OPEN UP THE EARTH IS A SERIES OF HOLY SPIRIT-LED MESSAGES AND PRAYERS PUT INTO SONG AND CAUGHT ON TAPE DURING TIMES OF LIVE WORSHIP.
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HYBRIDS • JESUS IN THE NEWS • RELEVANT GURU
MISC.
HYBRIDS NOT HOLDING THEIR OWN Until last year, when Congress nicely asked, the EPA hadn’t revised its methods of testing fuel economy for 20 years. Not surprisingly, what they found is that people today drive very differently than they did back in 1985. We drive a lot faster. We have more traffic. We stop and go more. So starting in 2008, information about gas mileage on the sticker of new cars will more accurately reflect current driving conditions. That means 10 to 20 percent less mileage in city driving and 5 to 15 percent less in highway use. No big deal, since hybrids are the wave of the future, right? Maybe not. The new ratings fare even worse for them, with ratings for city driving decreasing an average of 20 to 30 percent from current claims. Some other reasons why the hybrid frenzy may come to a screeching halt: The tax credit offered for buying a new hybrid this year expires once a manufacturer sells 6,000 of them. This is estimated to happen in April.
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New studies have shown that the cost of owning a hybrid for five years is actually more expensive than owning a gaspowered car. Ouch! The resale value of hybrids isn’t clear yet, meaning when you’re ready to get rid of yours, no one may want to buy it.
JESUS IN THE NEWS JESUS ON TRIAL An Italian priest is being sued for writing in a church bulletin that Jesus Christ did in fact exist. The lawsuit comes from an atheist who claims that the priest violated an Italian law against deceiving people. In order to win the case, the priest must actually prove the existence of Jesus.
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Many books on marriage encourage newlyweds not to have a TV for the first year of marriage. A new survey gives the reason why. Couples with a TV in the bedroom make love only half as often as other couples. Well, you’ve sold us on the matter ... After The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe grossed more than $580 million, Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media announced plans to make The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ...
The Office is taking an early vacation this season so that star Steve Carell can film Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty in which Carell’s character is told by God to build an ark ...
ANOTHER AUTHOR CONFESSES FAITH Naomi Wolf, one of the United States’ foremost feminists, claims to have recently had a “mystic encounter” with Jesus. Best known for her book The Beauty Myth, Wolf claims that a combination of a midlife crisis and writer’s block led to her spiritual revelation.
THE JUDAS REVIVAL Judas Iscariot, Jesus’ disciple best known for betraying his Savior, is getting a second chance. The Vatican is leading a campaign to take another look at Judas. “He was doing God’s business and so might just as easily be deemed a saint as an ultimate sinner,” says Peter Stanford of the Catholic Herald.
THE RELEVANT GURU Dear RELEVANT Guru, I seem to be having problems with my roommate “Joe.” He doesn’t drink, do drugs or trash our apartment. In fact, he is respectful of me, washes the dishes and even does my laundry. By most accounts, he would be considered an amazing roommate. Despite all that, I cannot stand the guy simply because he is obsessed with Ryan Cabrera. There are posters everywhere, he is constantly singing his songs, and he even has a tattoo of Ryan covering his entire back. You can see Ryan’s pointy hair peeking out above the collar of Joe’s T-shirts. What am I supposed to do? Joe is a great friend, and I need the rent money. But I swear to everything holy, if I hear “On the Way Down” one more time, I’m going to explode. —Nick in Cincinnati Dear Nick, I had a similar problem. My college roommate was obsessed with Whitney Houston. Have you ever seen a 6-foot-5-inch Dutch man sing the entire soundtrack of The Bodyguard while he’s doing household chores? But I digress. Your roommate is obviously an addict. Many experts would advise you to help him overcome his addictive behavior. That is too difficult. For the sake of convenience, I suggest merely switching his obsession from someone annoying like Ryan Cabrera to a better band. You could try infusing his musical diet with classic rock groups like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and The Who. Unfortunately, I bet if he loves Ryan Cabrera, his musical discernment is stuck at an elementary level. The best you could hope for would be Fall Out Boy or Avril Lavigne. On second thought, your situation seems more desperate than I originally thought. The only course of action left is to become an even bigger Ryan Cabrera fan than Joe. I know it seems disturbing and twisted, but once he sees how trendy Ryan Cabrera is, he’ll drop the habit. So memorize Ryan factoids, buy paparazzi photos of him, learn all his songs and sing them in public. You can even one-up your roommate by getting a giant tattoo of Ryan Cabrera on your chest. It will take months of work, but eventually you will break your roommate. Good Luck,
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LISA LOEB • CHANGING YOUR CHANGE • DOT COM
KEEP THE CHANGE
LISA LOOKS FOR LOVE Lisa Loeb only hears what she wants to ... or so they say. Despite the extreme excess of reality shows flooding the airwaves, Loeb threw her horn-rimmed glasses into the ring with her own show, No. 1 Single, on E! in January. But the ’90s pop singer best known for her No. 1 single “Stay (I Missed You)” from the film Reality Bites isn’t concerned with reality-show fatigue. “I enjoy watching reality shows, but this is very different from the other shows that you see on TV,” she tells RELEVANT. “It’s almost perfect for E! Television, because all the other shows seem to be celebrity-driven and over the top. And this one is not.” No. 1 Single is an eight-week series that follows Loeb as she moves to New York and tries to find Mr. Right. Single for the first time in 12 years, she finds the experience a bit overwhelming. While the concept sounds a bit stale—call it The American Idol Bachlorette—it’s surprisingly fresh. Loeb is smart, witty, thoughtful and wholly unlike most reality-TV bimbos. “It sort of represents a group of people that haven’t been represented in reality TV yet,” she says. “Maybe it’s because we’re all too cynical for that.” As are we, Lisa. As are we. No. 1 Single debuted on Jan. 22. New episodes air Sundays at 10 p.m. on E! Television.
Like those change-counting machines but hate paying the fee? Opt for a gift card instead of cash. When you cash in your coins, you pay 8.9 cents for every dollar counted, but through their new program, you can instead choose gift cards and e-certificates from: • Starbucks • Amazon.com • Pier 1 Imports
• Hollywood Video • Linens ’n Things • Borders
That’s the way to stick it to the man!
*Find more tips at CheapWaysTo.com
RELEVANT.tv
is continuing to grow, and we’ve got big plans for the future of our broadband music channel. We have new videos rolling out every week, exclusive band interviews and an hourlong TV show in works. Be on the lookout for Flavor of the Week, with spots from RELEVANT personalities, news and, of course, your favorite videos.
RTV SPOTLIGHT VIDEOS
David Gray “The One I Love”
Regina Spektor “Us”
Death Cab for Cutie “Soul Meets Body”
OK Go “A Million Ways”
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THE RELEVANT PODCAST
VIEWER
TOP TEN
1. Chasing Victory “The Night Your Guardian Angel Fell Asleep” 2. Of Montreal “Slim’s Return” 3. David Gray “The One I Love” 4. OK Go “A Million Ways” 5. Danger Doom “A.T.H.F.”
David Gray
6. Kids in the Way “Phoenix with a Heartache” 7. Beck “Girl” 8. Regina Spektor “Us” 9. The Streets “Dry Your Eyes” 10. Johnny Cash “Hurt”
Since the RELEVANT Podcast launched last fall, we’ve gained some serious momentum. More than 8,000 people tune in each time to hear the crew talk about new releases in music and movies, discuss poignant news and issues, and read your feedback. The gang hits on hot-button topics like the recent debates on intelligent design, controversial movies and even the idolization of Bono. The Podcast also features music clips from songs recently added to RELEVANT.tv, and lets you know what’s going on behind the scenes at RELEVANT. You can download the latest edition of the RELEVANT Podcast on iTunes or just go to RELEVANTmagazine. com and stream it.
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RELEVANT’S LOOK AT WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD
Sixth Street
WHERE TO HANG OUT Chris Troutman is a writer and music lover who stands firmly behind the claim that Austin, Texas, is “the Live Music Capital of the World.” He gave us an overview of what everyone—music fans and nonmusic fans alike—should know about his hometown.
TIPS FOR TRAVELERS
If you don’t mind the ever-present construction and traffic on I-35, you will fi nd that when the folks from this oasis city in central Texas call their home “the Live Music Capital of the World,” they aren’t kidding. Austin is seat to the world-renowned South by Southwest (SXSW) music and fi lm festival every March, when the entire city becomes a stage as bands from across the globe jockey to play on any unoccupied flat surface. And if you can make your way down south in mid-September, you can experience the Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival.
WHERE TO WORSHIP This art-meets-intellect city is ripe breeding ground for spiritual seeking and searching. Home to one of the nation’s highest student populations, Austin boasts a variety of churches and communities. Downtown you will find Mosaic (www.mosaicaustin.org), a post-traditional community that focuses on the arts and social justice. Hope in the City (www.hopeinthecity.org) is a church with a strong emphasis on missions, church planting and homeless ministry. The Austin Stone (www.austinstone.org) is a younger church that has had quite an impact since its inception in 2002.
Emo’s
Mosaic
WHAT’S HAPPENING
The Real World didn’t do Austin’s eclectic nightlife entertainment justice. With big-name music acts, fi lm screenings, art shows and festivals going on every night of the week, it is easy to become overwhelmed and miss out on a lot the city has to offer. Austin’s weekly paper, The Chronicle, and the daily Austin American-Statesman’s (Austin360.com) are good places to fi nd out what’s happening.
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Austin is crawling with places to go. To experience some of the Live Music Capital’s offerings, visit the Sixth Street and Red River clubs Emo’s, Stubb’s BBQ and The Parish downtown. The Drag on Guadalupe borders the University of Texas and is home to some of the hippest and most bizarre shops in town. The large, two-story BookPeople plays host to several touring authors. Anyone willing to brave rush-hour traffic to make it downtown to the Congress Street Bridge can witness Austin’s large bat population emerging every sunset. Zilker Park and the Greenbelt provide an outdoor landscape for hiking, rock climbing, biking, disc golf and leash-free dog trails. Kerbey Lane Café
WHERE THE LOCALS ARE Austin is home to so many independent eateries and shops it would take years to discover all the hidden treasures. The 24hour breakfast café Kerbey Lane, Thai noodle house Madam Mam’s and Waterloo Ice House all serve tasty fare. Other favorites are the lakefront coffeehouse Mozart’s, Waterloo Records, coffee joint Spider House and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, where you can get dinner, music and more. Have a city you’d like to nominate for THE SCENE? Hit up editorial@RELEVANTmagazine.com.
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YOUR WHOLE SELF BY DAN HASELTINE
I STEPPED OUT OF THE PUB AFTER sharing a pint and some jovial conversation with some men that I have grown to love and respect. Every Monday night, I sit in a room with guys who are trying to figure it out. It is a group of guys deeply engaged in a dialogue born out of weakness. We are a group of sinners, addicts, haters, drinkers, smokers, liars and thieves. We are also followers of Christ. Every week, we come together to share openly the struggles and depravities of our lives. It is the language of brokenness, of commitments severed, confidences lost, relationships destroyed and, mostly, the language of restoration and recovery. It is the gathering of men to witness the resetting of mis-set bones in slow motion and in real time. After our meetings, we move to the Irish pub and let our souls and stomachs grow warm. This night I decided to walk across the street and step into a movie theater. The air was crisp, and I could see my breath. It was silent. The streets were deep in hibernation. No cars. No sound. I walked slowly across the street, and my eye caught the posters for Walk the Line and The Chronicles of Narnia. I walked in and purchased my ticket. I chose Narnia. Having just stepped out of a pub and a conversation that was still spinning in my head about the Gospel story and how we tell it—the kind of conversation I love having over a pint—I thought that this movie would have some bearing on that dialogue. The lights dimmed, and I felt my expectant heart rise. There is a scene in Walk the Line—I saw it on another night—that has given me permission to think differently about art, music and the Gospel. After listening to Johnny Cash sing a gospel standard, Sam Phillips sets the tone for Cash. “If you were about to die, lying in the gutter and you had one song to sing, one chance to tell God and man what you thought about being on this earth and being alive ... Is that the song you would sing?” Is that the way you would communicate the story of humanity, the way you would describe the world? To Sam Phillips, Cash’s trite old gospel song was not believable. That same gospel song is still not believable. There is a weight to the Gospel. There is a mass connected to the story of redemption. It is in the dark places—the addictions to pornography, alcohol, drugs, power and control. It is in our propensity to blame and abuse each other, our greed and our depravity. It is the substance of these things that gives us a place to speak about the slow road to recovery. When we find the Gospel to be true and start to wrestle with the implications, it eventually brings us to a place where we must confront our humanity and know ourselves as both the walking wounded and the perpetually healed. In our church culture, there are behavioral codes set in place to give the appearance of victory. There are things that church people cannot talk about. There are activities that church people do not
engage in. There are places we do not hang out, girls we do not call, hotel rooms where things do not happen, computers that do not show destructive images, relationships that are not failing, abuses that are not stealing joy. There is not a darkness or a shadow to speak of. But these things are, in some fashion, part of every church person’s life. Because we have chosen to speak only about the victory from these things, we are left to promote a gospel that is feeble and moveable at best, rather than one made of stone—one strong enough to withstand the weight of the world and the depravity that is balanced upon its surface. Our gospel is unbelievable because it is only half of a gospel. It is the resurrection without any signs of the crucifixion. I believe there are profound reasons why Jesus still carried the scars from the nails on His hands when He appeared to His friends. He was bringing the entire Gospel to His disciples. The inability to think deeply about our true character found its way into Narnia. It was a good movie, but I was disappointed because I did not know any of the characters the way I wanted to know them. With Edmund, I did not get the sense that something had crept into his life and become such an obsession that he would risk family, friends and dignity to get it. I wasn’t given a glimpse into what a world that is only winter and never Christmas would do to a character. Without that kind of weight, Aslan was not worthy of fear or high respect, and he failed to capture the fullness of character necessary to make the coming spring plausible ... even in Narnia. Within the language of recovery is a phrase, a challenge, a mandate: “Bring the full weight of who you are into your relationships.” It means that we are free to bring all of who we are—every part of our story—into our decision-making process. It can be part of the ways we talk, act and love others. It gives people the chance to know us, and it gives people the permission to be known. All individuals have things in their lives that make them unique. Most often this part of their story is connected to abuse, addiction, fear or pain. I have come to believe that the things that make us unique are the ways joy enters into our secrets, the ways light exposes our darkness. This is why we choose not to open these parts of our story up to others. Ultimately, it is our redemption that looks unique—it is the way healing comes, how long it takes, who is involved that makes us different. What I see in the Christian music community and in church culture at large is that we have not been given permission to be ourselves completely. We are not allowed to bring the full weight of who we are into our music conversations, our movies, our pulpits or our church halls. And as I see our church culture striving to take the weight off, I have decided that perhaps it is best to keep the weight on. 0
THE THINGS THAT MAKE US UNIQUE ARE THE WAYS LIGHT EXPOSES OUR DARKNESS.
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DAN HASELTINE is the lead singer of the multiplatinum and Grammy-winning band Jars of Clay. The band has also been recognized for its global humanitarian efforts. www.jarsofclay.com
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TAKE ACTION AND DO SOMETHING
ORGANIZATIONS YOU CAN HELP UNITED WAY www.unitedway.org Each of the 1,400 communitybased United Way organizations is independent and governed by local volunteers. The mission of United Way is to improve people’s lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities.
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES www.rmhc.org RMHC creates and supports programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children and their families. They have chapters around the United States and the world.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
THE SALVATION ARMY www.salvationarmyusa.org You’ve donated/bought clothes from The Salvation Army, but they are also in need of volunteers to work in their disaster relief programs and at their retail locations.
BY MONICA MONZINGO
CHARITY NAVIGATOR
Geraldine’s house was in such disrepair that the county was threatening to tear it down. Her garden had become a tangled jungle of unidentifiable foliage, and last season’s hurricanes had caused trees to collapse onto her home. She was in need of some serious help, so she contacted Hands On Orlando, an organization that coordinates volunteers for community service projects around central Florida. Forty men and women armed with shovels and chainsaws transformed Geraldine’s property in just one day. The willing workers made her house a home again and impacted her entire community in the process. Similar scenarios occur all over the country, and with a little bit of time and some elbow grease, hundreds of thousands of lives can be touched in just one Saturday afternoon. Most churches have a weekend-warrior type of program, whether it be a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, and if your city doesn’t have a program like that, it’s easy enough to start one. All you need to do is organize a few able-bodied friends to clean up a park or playground, or visit a nursing home or hospital. If you’re really handy (and even if you’re not), Habitat for Humanity has home-building projects all over the world that are a cinch to get involved with. Its website (www.habitat.org) organizes projects by zip code, which quickly directs you to the chapter nearest you. And if you’re more of the indoor type, Habitat also needs volunteers to organize and plan jobs, fundraise and work in their offices. Giving isn’t always about monetary donations. Charities will gladly take your paycheck off your hands and put it toward a worthy cause, but oftentimes they would appreciate a few hours of your willing labor just as much as your money.
www.charitynavigator.org This site provides information about the myriad of charities out there so you can make intelligent giving decisions. If you’ve got extra money, they’ll help you put it into deserving hands.
LIVES CAN BE TOUCHED IN JUST ONE SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, check out www.RELEVANTmagazine.com/therevolution and The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World (RELEVANT Books).
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SLICES REVOLUTION SLICES:
DIG DEEPER Matthew 25:31-46 Mark 10:17-22 Luke 14:12-14
WORDS TO LIVE BY
“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
CONTEMPLATIONS FOR THE SOUL
JESUS’ PEACE BY WINN COLLIER
It was dark. The moon was dark. The mood was dark. Jesus had risen, but the Light hadn’t flooded in ... yet. John and Peter had seen an empty tomb and in it, empty, scattered grave clothes. But the only one who actually claimed to have seen Jesus was Mary Magdalene—and most must have wondered if the tears and the grief and the early-morning shadows hadn’t played a few tricks on Mary’s mind. So the disciples were huddled together behind locked doors. Afraid. And why shouldn’t they have been fearful? Faint-hearted? Spooked? The revolution had died. The religious leaders had exacted revenge, and the Romans had dropped the iron fist. The disciples’ cause had crumbled in their hands. Their world was broken, their hopes dismantled. All they knew now was fear ... and waiting ... and more fear. Then Jesus appeared, standing in the middle of this timorous band. We are not told how Jesus entered. He simply did. He was not there, and then He was. And His words were direct: “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19, TNIV). Peace. It would be a mistake to hear this as a mere greeting, spoken with an off-cuff, cheery humor. Jesus was not blithely coaxing them to see things from His perspective or wringing His hands, hoping against hope that they would just calm down and have a little peace, for goodness’ sake. Jesus was standing in their midst, courage ablaze, speaking a reality—peace—into existence. For Jesus, peace was not an emotive
posture. It was not a subjective, ethereal sentiment that would allow one to keep naïvely sane while the harsh realities invoking panic and dread (what the true world is really like) swirled around them. Peace was the atmosphere surging in the kingdom of God, and God’s kingdom was what He was standing and declaring. Peace. John tells us Jesus’ next move was to pull back His robe and offer the fresh wounds to the disciples’ plain view, showing them His pierced hands and ripped-open side. Is this a strange scene, connected to a declaration of peace? Jesus’ peace, we find, is not naïve. It is not a way of avoiding what is most heinous or what is most disturbing. The peace Jesus offers is no stranger to violence or abandonment or dread. Quite the opposite, it was won on a brutal cross. And Jesus stands now, in the EXODUS 3 midst of your nightmarish MATTHEW 5 JOHN 14-17 terror, fully alive, pierced JOHN 21 hands outstretched, naming your reality. Peace.
FOR JESUS, PEACE WAS NOT AN EMOTIVE POSTURE.
RESOURCES THE CONTEMPORARY QUEST FOR JESUS N.T. WRIGHT [FORTRESS PRESS] In this small, introductory volume, Wright digs into the prevailing questions that are all the rage in the discussion of the historical Jesus. Wright offers insightful, orthodox answers to modern questions.
JESUS: A NOVEL WALTER WANGERIN JR. [ZONDERVAN] Wangerin sought to capture the “voice and the heart” of Jesus in a fresh, compelling way. With the skill of an artistic writer and the passion of a pastor, Wangerin deserves a hearing.
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DIG DEEPER
WINN COLLIER is the author of Restless Faith (NavPress). www.winncollier.com
ONLINE BONUS: Dig deeper into peace with discussion questions and book recommendations.
CHRIST: LIFE AND CENTER BY STEPHANIE GEHRING
Martin Luther mentored a young theologian named Philip Melanchthon, who made such obsessive confessions that Luther declared, “Philip, don’t come back until you’ve committed real sin.” Sometimes I wonder whether grace would seem more real if I had committed jailworthy crimes. Didn’t Jesus say to Simon the Pharisee that the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair loved much because she had been forgiven much? And yet I know better: It was only Simon who thought his debt was small. My problem is not that there is so little for God to forgive; my problem is blindness. I compare myself with others, and if I find something bad they’ve done that I haven’t, I feel holy. But holiness is not a tally of bad things I’ve avoided. Holiness is about God’s stooping to close the gap between Himself and us. If we make sin the ultimate center of things, the closest we will ever get to holiness is a choked legalism. The most important
question we can ask is “Who am I?” because if we ask it honestly, it will lead us to ask, “Who is God?” and we will come to see that the two questions are all bound up together. It’s easier to think that I need Jesus only when I’ve done something wrong. But there is more to grace than forgiveness. Holiness is not a wobbly balance between making mistakes and trying to follow the rules. It is a movement in a different direction entirely. Living truly requires changing the most basic level of my self-understanding: I am not an independent unit. I am a person whose identity can unfold only in relationship with Jesus. I am not myself alone; I am only myself in Jesus. The shift starts not with doing but with seeing. And the day is coming when we will see life so completely that abandoned dependence is all we ever want again. STEPHANIE GEHRING is a portrait artist and freelance writer who lives in Portland, Oregon.
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PLUGGING IN WHY COMMUNITY IS HARD TO DEFINE AND EVEN HARDER TO FIND BY CAMERON CONANT
HILLARY CLINTON ONCE SAID that it “takes a village” to raise a child. Conservatives were furious, arguing that as a liberal, Clinton was incorrectly emphasizing the importance of community over the importance of families. But in my life, I’ve seen the importance of both families and “villages”—not only in the development of children, but in the development of adults as well. When my wife filed for divorce, my parents were steadfast in their support; they called, visited, encouraged and listened. But I needed more than that. I needed the people who attended my church, my wedding. I needed a village. Where were these friends and neighbors who witnessed my wedding vows? In a world where people change jobs and cities routinely, these people were scattered around the country. Meanwhile, I sat in my half-empty apartment, staring at white walls, mourning the death of my marriage—a death with no tombstone, a death that would never see a stream of mourners carrying cards or casseroles.
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PLUGGING IN
Community is tough to find in our mobile, throwaway society—a world where shopping at Wal-Mart and using Instant Messenger often become substitutes for long-term, more authentic community. Once upon a time, community was more than an emotional or spiritual need; it was a matter of survival. Many hands were needed to plant the crops and harvest them, as well as feed the animals and prepare the food. In an era when calls to 911 or trips to the grocery store were unimaginable, neighbors were the first and last line of defense against life’s inevitable problems. Community was almost unavoidable. In our high-tech, free-market society we may have gained convenience, but have we lost something in the process? And what does community look like in a world where everything is only a mouse click away? I wanted to find out. As I started to write, I had several thoughts: 1) I don’t like the word community—it’s overused, and I’m not even sure what it means anymore. 2) I can’t think of another word for community. 3) I need to talk to someone smarter than me. The first person I thought of was Ben Irwin, a 29-year-old editor and seminary graduate who attends Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich.—one of America’s most progressive evangelical churches. Ben resembles his church—full of interesting thoughts on theology and life—and as an editorial director for a publishing company, his circle of contacts includes many provocative writers and pastors. “What is community?” I asked Ben. The question was ironic; when my wife left more than a year and a half ago, Ben became a close confidant, a crucial part of my support system. “My mind first goes to what it’s not,” Ben said. “I think we’ve thought that community is getting a bunch of strangers together in a small group to share their deepest, darkest secrets rather than a group of people who are on some level experiencing life together.” “People who are collectively experiencing life together.” I liked his definition and thought that it provided a solid definition for the article. “It’s funny. I’m pretty outgoing and yet I fear community,” I said. “For example, the people at my church are wonderful, but I still have trouble entering into their lives and letting them into mine.” “I think it’s hard because it’s so foreign to everything we know,” Ben said. “Our whole worldview is oriented around awareness to self ... but there was a time when self wasn’t the starting point. It wasn’t the reality.” It was a brilliant point—the difference between Western and Eastern thought; the fact that our Western culture, with its emphasis on self—and in American thought, on “rugged individualism”—is very different than the Eastern way of thinking, the sort of thinking that we see time and time again in the Bible. “There once wasn’t a sense of an individual apart from the community,” Ben said. “Look at Paul’s description of the Church as a body—not each person as a body, but each person as a part of the body. When one part rejoices, the whole body rejoices; when one part suffers, the whole body suffers. We don’t know what that’s like. It’s not second nature for us, and it takes more than signing up for a small group to make it second nature.” I have joined small groups in the past, usually to see them fizzle out or to see my interest—along with my attendance—wane. I’ve
started attending a mainline, liturgical church. There, I’ve joined a “Supper Club.” The gatherings involve a dozen people eating dinner in someone’s home. There is no book to work through, no Scripture reading required, nothing. People just talk and eat. It’s as low pressure as you can get, yet I’ve still missed the dinners several times. I’m still hesitant to commit, hesitant to get to know people and include them in my life. I am the rugged American individualist. My problem is that I want all the advantages of community and none of the obligations. Community is hard work. To enter into it, I must give up my time and resources. Jesus talked about this, about losing ourselves in order to find ourselves. Some of that happens when we enter into community and begin “doing life” with those around us— whether it’s friends from church, people from other faiths, co-workers or next-door neighbors. When we do this, we are often forced to check our independence at the door, yet the paradox is that we somehow find it as soon as we rid ourselves of it. Community is also difficult because we have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives—to think of our “spiritual life” as different from our “regular life,” to think of our “church community” as different from our “neighborhood community.” And when we begin compartmentalizing, we miss the point entirely. We begin thinking that community has an on and off switch, something we choose rather than something to which we are inextricably connected. “Community is not a ‘value-additive’ to faith,” says Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis and the author of Reimagining Spiritual Formation (Zondervan). “We are always in community; the question is what kind.” He notes that asking him about the theology of community (which I did) is like asking him about his theology of air. “It is just what we breathe and what we need to live.” Pagitt emphasizes the value in long-term engagement built on vulnerable relationships. That’s foreign to those of us used to getting things instantly. Is there a book you want to read? Hop online and have it delivered tomorrow. Want to watch a movie? Try “On Demand” video and watch it this minute. But community is a slow marinade of experiences and personalities that refuses to be cooked on high for two minutes. Relationships take time. My best friend is not someone I met yesterday. But as Pagitt points out, relationships are not the same as community. Oftentimes, small groups have a tendency to create a sense of “smallness” rather than a sense of “communalness,” a sort of “I know you, you know me, now we are both known,” Pagitt says. We have a tendency to confuse relationships with community, but while they are similar, they aren’t the same. Relationships are certainly a part of community, but community is something much bigger than we are. Maybe Hillary Clinton was right. Maybe it does take a village. I’m realizing that community is worth another try. Maybe I’ll try to make it to the next Supper Club. It isn’t the answer, but it might just be a step in the right direction. 0
COMMUNITY IS SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER THAN WE ARE.
CAMERON CONANT is the author of With or Without You: A Spiritual Journey Through Love and Divorce (RELEVANT Books). He feels strongly that Will Ferrell should have won an Oscar for his portrayal of Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman.
PLUGGING IN
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MOVING ON FROM DEPRESSION BY GREG GARRETT
50
OUT OF THE DARK
FIVE YEARS AGO, on a hot afternoon near the end of summer, I stood on a median in a busy Santa Fe street, looking anxiously left and right. Although I was the father of two children I loved and husband to a beautiful wife, I wasn’t looking for happiness to come streaking down the street. No, I was hoping for a lumber truck to hit the lights just right and come hurtling down the street so I could step in front of it. If I had walked in front of a bus or a truck back in 2000, it would have surprised a lot of people. Although a few knew that I suffered from a major depressive disorder—what some people call clinical depression—a whole lot of people thought I had everything going for me, and on the surface I did. Deep down, however, I felt utterly alone, and on more than one occasion life felt so painful that I really didn’t want to be alive anymore. Although not everyone who suffers from serious depression tries to commit suicide, about 15 percent do, and suicide is now the third-highest cause of death among people 15 to 24 years old. While the stats may be higher among teenagers and twentysomethings, depression is an epidemic among all age groups. Almost 10 percent of Americans 18 and older are affected by depression every year, and according to a 2003 study by the National Institute of Health, at some point in their lives, 35 million Americans will suffer from depression so serious it requires treatment. It is one of the leading causes of absenteeism from work, costing employers billions of dollars a year, and, of course, it causes the millions of depressed people and those who love them incredible pain and suffering. Major depression is a whole lot more than simple sadness; it’s an illness that can affect every aspect of your life. My depression robbed me of energy and joy, stole my ability to sleep and made me irritable and nearly impossible to live with. I was fatigued all the time. Depression made it difficult to concentrate and interfered with my work. I had no goals for the future, no excitement in my life, no hope. I lost my appetite (and eventually 20 pounds, although some depressed people go to the opposite extreme with food). And I found myself thinking way too often about easing the pain by ending my own life. If this sounds at all like you or someone you love, then depression is probably to blame. Chronic depression is often genetic, so if other members of your family have suffered from it, that’s an early warning sign. Depression is often activated by a strain or shock—physical, emotional or sexual abuse; a death or divorce in the family; the loss of a job—the sort of thing that often leads to normal sadness and anxiety. But chronic depression may not go away after days or weeks, as sadness typically does. Since depression is an illness, it can settle in for a long stay—lifelong even, unless the sufferer gets help and pursues a healthy lifestyle intended to heal body and soul. But if you or someone you know is in the throes of depression, there is hope; I’m living proof. The first thing to know is that there is no shame in being depressed, and certainly no shame in seeking physical and spiritual help. Chronic depression is not caused by unworthiness, weakness or an inability to deal with life. It’s not caused by a lack of faith or a failure of prayer, either; many religious people struggle with depression. Believe me, during the last few years of my depression I was a faith-filled Christian praying hard for healing, but God’s timing
is not our timing, and thankfully God has given us the wisdom to know how to take care of ourselves. Clinical depression is a medical problem like diabetes or anemia, and it has medical solutions. Although different treatments may work for different people, there are steps that anyone can take to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Mental health professionals often suggest medication, and although I was reluctant at first to rely on it instead of my own strength or my faith in God, I would be dead now if I had refused to take it when I was at my lowest. It may take time for your doctor to find the right medication and the right dosage for you. But if you need medication—and there was a stretch when I certainly did—then you should take it. Cognitive therapy or traditional talk therapy is also a help to many sufferers, often in tandem with medication. I worked with a Christian counselor trained in cognitive therapy, and the questions he asked helped show me new ways of looking at myself and at the events of my life. Although I never had a lifechanging revelation in a counseling session—I had a pretty good idea what was wrong with me when I started our conversations—I found that his questions sparked ongoing revelations for me, even long after we stopped meeting. In addition to traditional medical approaches, you can combat depression with lifestyle changes. Exercise helps to regulate the levels of brain chemicals. A diet heavy on fresh foods, perhaps including supplements of omega fatty acids, B vitamins and zinc, can also help bring brain chemicals back into healthy balance. Health supplements like St. John’s wort, kava kava and 5-HTP also have a therapeutic effect on some people; I felt a real improvement in my mood after adding flaxseed oil (high in essential fatty acids) and 5-HTP to my daily regimen. In addition to nutrition, supplement your life with fun. As strange as it sounds, depressed people need to give themselves permission to do things that make them feel better. So make a list of things you love—listening to good music, skiing, watching the sun set—and do those things. When I spent time playing my guitar, riding my bike, calling an old friend and going to the movies, it reminded me that I could actually enjoy life. Finding a community—virtual or actual—is another important part of facing depression, since the disease often makes us feel alone and isolated. Just knowing that someone out there cares about you can keep you alive; even a couple of good friends you can reach on email or in person when you need them can give you the strength to keep going. Finally, faith turned out to be an important part of my healing— maybe the most important part. To be a person of faith is to believe that our lives are part of a larger good, that the God who made us and loves us will not abandon us. Without hope, it’s almost impossible to struggle on; with it, even when life is hard, we can believe a better day is coming, that suffering can lead to joy, brokenness to wholeness. Five years ago when I looked up the street, it wasn’t happiness I saw speeding toward me. It was God. And that has made all the difference. 0
DEPRESSION IS NOT CAUSED BY A LACK OF FAITH OR A FAILURE OF PRAYER.
GREG GARRETT is a professor of English at Baylor University and the author of the novel Free Bird (Kensington), the book Holy Superheroes! (Piñon Press) and a forthcoming spiritual autobiography on depression and faith, Crooked Lines (Piñon Press).
OUT OF THE DARK
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BY ROSE MARIE BERGER
FIVE VALUES OF NONVIOLENT LIVING IN MONTY PYTHON’S CLASSIC send-up of the life of Jesus (The Life of Brian, 1979), the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 are presented with great authenticity and sincerity. The comedy begins when members of the crowd mishear Jesus’ statement, “Blessed are the peacemakers ...” “I think He said, ‘Blessed are the cheese makers,’” someone clarifies. “What’s so special about the cheese makers?” a woman asks. “Well, obviously, this is not meant to be taken literally,” her husband responds. “It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.” This contemporary spoof isn’t too far off from the Church’s history on issues of war and peace. Too often religion has added fuel to an already-enflamed debate and intensified already-polarized arguments between extremes. Churches allow the language of “warmongers” and “hawks” or “peaceniks” and “doves” to divide us down the middle, instead of allowing the Gospel to open a path for us in times of crisis. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9, TNIV), what did He mean? Or “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well” (Matthew 5:39-40, TNIV)? Or “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44, TNIV)? These texts and others, plus the living memory of how Jesus and the disciples acted, caused early generations of Christians to refuse to participate in war. Why? Largely because of idolatry. Military service forced them to put the gods of nationalism ahead of the God
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of Jesus Christ. Military service also fostered hatred for an enemy, an attitude viewed as antithetical to Christ’s teachings. Until the time of Constantine, no Christian writing allowed for Christians to participate in war. Military valor was not a virtue. True victory was won through love. By the very nature of Christ’s call on our lives, Christians like myself prioritize peace with justice and reject violence in all its forms. We are the experimenters of a new paradigm. As Roland Bainton, Reformation scholar and professor of church history, wrote in Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace, “Christianity brings to social problems, not a detailed code of ethics or a new political theory, but a new scale of values.” Christians, then, are those who examine inevitable human conflict through the lens of a “new scale of values.” We are called to be courageous innovators who defend the “least of these”—without the benefit of the world’s weapons. So what are those values?
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES The first is love. Jesus’ instruction to “love your enemies” is one of the unique aspects of our life in Christ. Other religions care for the poor and promote justice. Few prioritize love of enemies. In some ways, that was why Jesus said, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7, TNIV). It’s not just to reveal the hypocrisy of the judgers or to show mercy to the accused; it’s also to enable the accusers to love the accused. The apostle Paul constantly reminded us of our sinfulness and our salvation as sinners,
not because he wanted us to feel bad about ourselves, but because recognition of our own sinfulness creates in us the capacity to see beyond the sins of others.
TAKING THE INITIATIVE Another key value is opening up space for dialogue through independent initiatives. In 1997, Catholics in the community of San Jose de Apartado, Colombia, were increasingly threatened by violence from the Colombian military, paramilitaries, drug cartels and insurgents. Sixteen thousand people had been displaced, whole villages abandoned, community leaders assassinated. Finally, the citizens of San Jose de Apartado asked for a meeting with their local Catholic bishop. They proposed to designate an area around their towns as a “neutral zone” in which civilians would be respected and protected. The bishop brought the proposal to the Intercongregational Commission for Justice and Peace, which agreed to lead workshops through local churches to shape the idea and to train people in nonviolence. In March 1997 the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado was established. Soon other religious peace groups began sending observers to the project. Their presence brought international attention and protection to the peace-community experiment. This type of independent initiative can reduce violence and promote justice. A “third way” was opened that can break stalemates and create new space for dialogue.
ROOT OF THE PROBLEM A third value is addressing the roots of a conflict, not just the symptoms. Brendan McAllister, director of The Mediation Network in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has spent years trying to get Protestants and Catholics to stop killing each other. In his conversations with those on both sides, he quickly learned that most of the killing was motivated by revenge. But it went even deeper than retaliation. “They often feel that the only way to honor the dead is by taking another’s life,” McAllister says. In response to this insight, members of The Mediation Network worked with local churches to establish public candlelight vigils whenever someone was killed. By developing rituals to address the deeper issue of grief and honor the memory of loved ones, they were able to reduce “revenge killings.” Addressing the roots of a conflict requires wisdom, historical perspective, political action and a pastoral gaze to recognize underlying wounds that may contribute to conflict.
TRUE VICTORY WAS WON THROUGH LOVE.
NONVIOLENT PROTESTS A fourth value is supporting nonviolent direct action. In the early 1960s, Geraldine—a working-class white woman from the Northwest— was stationed at Fort McClellan, Ala., home of the Women’s Army Corps. Geraldine’s best friend in the corps was an enlisted black woman called “Westy.” The two women decided to pursue their own strategy for promoting integration. They’d walk in the front door of restaurants throughout Alabama—a black woman and a white
woman in full military uniform—and order lunch. They’d sit there until someone kicked them out. “We were in uniform because at that time we were not allowed civilian clothing while in basic training,” Geraldine recalls. “But it really shook them up to see us in uniform. It took them a little longer to ask us to leave.” A few years later, in the spring of 1965, Geraldine and Westy were among the 25,000 who marched triumphantly into Montgomery on March 25, 1965.
VIOLENCE-REDUCING STRATEGIES A fifth value: When a nonviolent strategy is not available, support strategies will produce measurable and immediate violence reduction, which can then create space for nonviolent initiatives. Sometimes violence-reduction strategies are the only option available, and they may be found in unlikely places. David Christie was a young Scottish soldier in the British peacekeeping forces in Yemen in the late 1960s. “The situation was similar to Iraq, with people being killed every day,” Christie wrote in the South African magazine Today. “Not only were we tough, but we had the power to destroy the whole town.” But he had a commander who understood that their duty was to promote and build peace, and he trained his men to do something unusual: not to react when attacked. “During our tour of duty we had 102 grenades thrown at us, and in response the battalion fired the grand total of two shots, killing one grenade-thrower,” Christie wrote. “The cost to us was over 100 of our own men wounded, and surely by the grace of God only one killed. Slowly, very slowly, the local people began to trust us and made it clear to the local terrorists that they were PRACTICES not welcome in their area.”
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The world longs to see the kind of peace we can make. We want to be about the business of disarming ourselves from that which divides and dominates—handguns, war, nuclear weapons, suicide bombs, mace, security systems, private defense contractors, private armies, bloated defense budgets. Instead, let’s experiment with putting on the whole armor of God, as it says in Ephesians 6. Wrap truth around our waist and put on right action as our Kevlar vest. Lace up boots that prepare us to do the work of peace. Carry the defense system of our faith to protect ourselves from the incoming missiles of sin. Put on the hardhat of God’s wisdom and carry no weapon but the Word of God. Above all else, pray, pray, pray. 0 Adapted from The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World (RELEVANT Books). ROSE MARIE BERGER, an associate editor of Sojourners (www.sojo.net), is a Catholic peace activist and poet.
OF ‘JUST PEACEMAKING’
1. Support nonviolent direct action. 2. Take independent initiatives to reduce threat. 3. Use cooperative conflict resolution. 4. Acknowledge responsibility for conflict and injustice, and seek repentance and forgiveness. 5. Advance democracy, human rights and religious liberty. 6. Foster just and sustainable economic development. 7. Work with emerging cooperative forces in the international system. 8. Strengthen the United Nations and international efforts for cooperation and human rights. 9. Reduce offensive weapons and weapons trade. 10. Encourage grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations. From Just Peacemaking, edited by Glen Stassen.
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SHANE EVERETT IS
a selfproclaimed “doer.” Never ones to sit idle, Everett and fellow singer/songwriter Shane Barnard are the kind of guys that seem more comfortable when they have a million things going on at once. They have been on tour more or less since the middle of the Clinton administration, but somehow have managed to find time to record several albums. In the midst of all the music, they started Waiting Room Ministries, which focuses on accountability and fellowship, and are building their own recording studio. If that weren’t enough to make mere mortals feel ridiculously lazy, they also started Media Juice, a brand-new company that, among
everything and pretty much headed it up. He had nothing to do with the interactive world, but had the idea to get the properties into that market. They took DragonBall Z, which was on the Cartoon Network and a really big deal with retail outlets (toys, home video, etc.), made some contacts and ended up signing DragonBall Z with Atari, and they made their first game on the Game Boy Advance. It sold like 3 million copies, which is just insane! It ended up going full-on, into every platform, and now it’s one of the best-selling video games of all time. And Jeremy executiveproduced all those games. Anyway, we were at dinner one night, at a hibachi grill, and Jeremy was telling us how he was really being stifled creatively for what he wanted to do. Shane and I had
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other things, helps develop video games. Shane and Shane are among the first (and first) names in the worship music scene, and now find themselves in a new stage of life, where the business world, the music industry, their band and their passion for Jesus all intertwine.
this idea of investing into people and the kingdom, people who do great work, and in that, Jeremy was a perfect fit. We already had a studio built here in Dallas called Spaceway Studios where we make our records, and Jeremy wanted to leave his job, and we said, “Well, what if we paid your salary and you worked in our conference room?” By the time it was all said and done, we had built another 4,000 square feet, and here we go!
HOW DID MEDIA JUICE GET ITS START? SE: A friend of ours named Jeremy
SO WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH SPACEWAY STUDIOS? WHAT IS ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH MEDIA JUICE?
Snead, who actually runs the multimedia part of the company for us, has worked in the interactive world for years. Jeremy was part of the volunteer staff at the youth group in Lubbock years ago, when Shane B. was leading worship there. He moved up to Dallas and got a job with FUNimation Interactive, a company that licensed DragonBall Z, Pokemon and some other properties. Jeremy was the executive producer of
Spaceway Studios is where Shane & Shane records their albums. We’ve also done Ryan Cabrera’s acoustic record, Shawn MacDonald, Ginny Owens, Don Chaffer of Waterdeep and a bunch of other bands that no one has probably ever heard of, but are just phenomenal. We’ve also done all of the original sound design for most of the “sizzle” videos for Atari, and we’re working on the new Matrix game, Path of Neo.
HOW HARD IS IT TO BE A CHRISTIAN RUNNING A FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS IN
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SUCH A CUTTHROAT INDUSTRY? Sure there are struggles, but I’ll tell you what. In the business world, we’ve gotten nothing but such great feedback from everyone we’ve worked with, whether it’s MMB, Atari, Warner Brothers, whomever. Hasbro was a company we just got done working on a project with, and their compliment was, “Thank you for being honest, thanks for being on time, thanks for making our ideas come to life and thanks for being so nice about it!” The whole first year has been like that, just amazing, and we love the stuff that we’re doing. It’s all about building relationships and doing things with integrity. You know, when we say we’re going to do something, we do it, and we don’t charge more money even if it takes us twice as long. We meet
Shane Everett
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR SHANE & SHANE AS A BAND?
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camera crew to shoot in HD because we were going to do a TV pilot (we have a bunch of other things in the works), but we did it, and I’m pleased with the way it sounds. I wish we would have done a full concert, with everything in it, because a lot of what we do is in between the songs, and maybe people don’t like that. We did do a lot of bonus features, including a studio tour and guitar lessons with Shane B. I think it’s a really fun DVD and a good representation of what we do. On the video side, I would change a lot of things. Overall we’re happy, but as an artist, you can’t ever really say, “Yeah, dude, that’s awesome!” Or maybe that’s what I’m supposed to say ...
As a band, I feel like Shane & Shane
GETTING IN THE GAME
deadlines, and as our business grows, we’re saying, “You know what, believers can be in the business world and still make an impact, and not just by doing church videos!”
HOW DO YOU DIVIDE YOUR TIME BETWEEN RUNNING A COMPANY AND BEING IN A BAND? It’s really not as hard as you’d think because Media Juice has such good people who are basically self-sufficient. I am in on the decisions, but if I’m not around, nothing slows down. Plus, I can work on the road. I’m on the phone a lot, but these guys are great at what they do.
YOU AND SHANE RECENTLY RELEASED A LIVE DVD TITLED AN EVENING WITH SHANE & SHANE. HOW PLEASED ARE YOU WITH IT? Well, hindsight is 20/20, and this is the first time we’d ever done anything like that. We learned a lot about the process of doing a video because we did everything ourselves, which was probably a mistake! We hired a
BY JEFFREY WORTHEN
is still in its infancy. We’re still growing a lot, we’re doing a new record in June and July, and we’re going to spend a lot of time on it, which we’ve never done before. January and February we’re taking off specifically to write. I mean, it’s been kind of a perpetual tour since, what, 1997! We’ve been on the road so long, and I think now, for the first time, we can take some time to regroup and ask ourselves, “What do we want to write, what do we want to say, where have we been, where do we want to go?” We want to search our hearts, search the Scriptures and just say, “OK, Lord, we’re fixing to go on the road for another 200 days next year; what do You want us to say?” Basically we’re taking the time to reconnect with the Source, and His name is Jesus. We’re wanting more than anything else to be satisfied in Him. It’s so easy to get distracted with everything from the business to the future of the band to decisions about the new record. For example, we want to make a great record, so do we go out and get some hotshot producer, which we’ve never done before? You know, let’s just seek the Lord. I mean, it seems so elementary, but it really is hard to do sometimes. I want to get out and do it all, but we know that sometimes it’s best to rest for a while and focus on the Lord, family and church. All the while still working eight hours a day! So as far as the band is concerned, we are going to keep playing, keep sharing, and Shane B. and I love to speak about what the Lord has done. That is our call, like it is every believer’s call—we are to proclaim the Gospel of Christ in everything we do, whether it’s music or business. Or working on video games for DragonBall Z! 0 Shane Barnard JEFFREY WORTHEN lives in Richmond, Va. He is a photographer and freelance writer.
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BY MIKE MORRELL
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IT BEGAN LIKE A BAD JOKE. A priest, a rabbi, a Baptist preacher—and Anne Rice—walk into a church in Birmingham, Ala. But here’s the punch line: It really happened. It’s all part of the energetic new direction of the former queen of gothic horror: drawing shadows and shedding light around the greatest outsider of them all. Anne Rice is the 136 million-copy author of more than two decades’ worth of macabre novels, circling around the world of witches, vampires and others on the fringe. She is perhaps best known for the 1994 film adaptation Interview with a Vampire, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Rice quietly became a Christian in the late 1990s, returning to the Catholic church of her childhood. In 2002, she began work on an ambitious historical fiction series exploring Jesus and His earliest followers, to the shock of many long-time readers and fans, and she’s drawing curious friends from across denominational and cultural divides. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt was released in November 2005 and is the first novel of the series.
became absolutely the only thing I wanted to write—the life of Christ.” A seemingly far journey from vampires, I thought. What did she think of her old books? “The truth is, I’ve found what those characters were looking for,” she confessed happily to the audience of 400 in the sanctuary that evening. “I can’t continue those stories because they don’t work for me anymore. The vampires are not metaphors for the outsider for me, because I don’t feel like an outsider anymore. I feel like I’m included in a great big wonderful family.”
context for themselves through which they could be redeemed.” Though she says she never actually engaged in occult practices or even believed in them, she saw her dark creations as “true” in a metaphorical sense. “I took the vampire as a total reality, and asked: ‘What’s it like to live this life of darkness, to feel cut off from God, to be so close to humans that when you embrace them, you take their life?’”
LEAVING HOME
When I acquired Christ the Lord, one of the first things I did was flip to the back, where Rice has written an extensive afterword detailing her research process for the series. I was impressed; she had read enough biblical and historical scholarship to give a seminary student an inferiority complex. This fastidious attention to detail presented me with a very different picture of Rice than the one of my fanciful earlier imaginings. If séances were allegedly her stock in trade before, couldn’t her faith in Jesus have arrived in some Paul-on-the-Damascus-road
Rice was raised in a Catholic home in the 1940s and 1950s. She explains that in her large Irish family, everything they did was colored by their faith. For young Rice, living in that atmosphere helped give life a sense of meaning, purpose and blessing. When she turned 18, Rice began to leave that world. When she started college, she lost her faith for various reasons. “I don’t know if that could have been any different now; what I was conscious of is I
CALL OF ANCIENT STORIES
“I CAN’T CONTINUE VAMPIRE STORIES BECAUSE THEY DON’T WORK FOR ME ANYMORE. I DON’T FEEL LIKE AN OUTSIDER ANYMORE.” Rice and I spoke before the main event that night in Birmingham. When we sat down in the pastor’s study, Rice was flanked by a hastily assembled entourage: her publicist, assistants, a Franciscan monk named Beckett and a trio of local friends. It wasn’t difficult to lose my surroundings. Rice is petite but with a strong sense of presence. She was radiant, quietly articulating her new literary direction to me. Contrary to some erroneous reports, Rice did not return to faith in Christ because of personal health complications or because of the death of her husband, Stan, in 2002. Her nudges toward spiritual awakening occurred before these incidents and remained the guiding light in her writing. “It became a total obsession,” Rice says. “It
wanted to know the modern world,” she says. “I wanted to read existential philosophers. I wanted to learn the grammar of the modern world.” Her upbringing began to feel limited and parochial compared to the new relationships she was forming. Rice believed that growing up meant she had to face the reality that there was no God and no meaning to the universe, but she was left with a consuming grief for the faith of her childhood. This loss of a sense of God, combined with personal tragedy, propelled her to write. “I never stopped a search for meaning,” she says. “And when I began to write books, they were dark books because they were about heroes and heroines who were searching for something of value in life, some kind of
experience? So as I sat across from her, I had to ask: What drew her to faith? Was she a mystic or a historian? She looked me in the eye. “Well, it certainly has to be personal experience, but I did read myself back into faith. It was history, reading the story of the Jews in time and realizing that there was no rational explanation for the survival of the Jewish people. It was the biggest mystery history ever offered me—how did these people survive? That was the beginning. And then the second big mystery was this: How in the world did Christianity spread the way it did, to become an international religion by A.D. 110? How did that happen? In trying to answer those two questions, I read myself back into belief. And then belief came.”
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MIDRASH AS ART
“WE NEED TO STOP BEING SO AFRAID THAT THE DEVIL IS WINNING.”
At the meeting in Birmingham, a Jewish rabbi said that Christ the Lord was merely a piece of what his people call Midrash. “Midrash is the playfulness—and I say this in a loving way—with which the rabbis embraced biblical texts, filled in some of the blanks and missing pieces, and tried to seek God through the stories they told. The Bible itself is a very sparse account, and it needs us to be able to read it and make it come alive for us—it requires an imagination. I think what you’ve done with the Christian Scripture is something Jewish; you’ve filled in the pieces with Midrash. I didn’t know that Christians were allowed to do that,” he said as the audience laughed. What is art, and how can people of faith go about creating art that honors every aspect of who they are? Rice has no problem making her expression of faith in art overt, as her latest offering readily attests. “I think good Christian art has always tried to bring people closer to God,” she says. Father Ray Dunmyer told Rice that he thinks that plunging oneself into God is a
catalyst for authentic creativity. “In terms of writing your novel, it must have been a wonderful religious experience for you— putting yourself into the shoes of Jesus, walking with Christ and having that sense of being one with Him, which I think is the call of every Christian.” “It certainly made me ask a lot of questions about my faith,” Rice chimed in. “I originally thought, when I started to write this, that I wouldn’t have to take a stand on any matter of faith. Then I realized that I couldn’t write half a page without taking a stand on everything! It forced me to a very great conclusion, spiritually. All Christian art does this in a way; you draw really close to your subject matter—you have to. Otherwise, you’re not going to have Christian art.” She continued, stating plainly that her writing was indeed a spiritual experience for her. “I didn’t know what I was getting into. When you start a book, I think you should leave room to be surprised by a lot of things that are going to happen along the way. As I got deeper and deeper into it, I was united in a way I have never been as a person.
e R a t e N Z X K -nt :ecapZ[XK ZNe SysteX_ Storyteller Steven James unleashes the power of God’s story—and yours—through imagery and narrative. Gritty and provocative, Story will wake you up spiritually, reinspire your faith journey, and jolt you into action.
wonder, ÒCome along for a journey full of aled tears, joy, despair and hope, reve yteller.Ó stor a of t through the eyes and hear
—Publishers Weekly starred review
View the webcast at www.experiencestory.com Free discussion guide available for personal or group use
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Religiously, creatively, spiritually, materially ... every way. I’m in awe of this feeling of unity, of this lack of any kind of conflict. And it is a great, great adventure.”
A NEW KIND OF CHRISTIAN? Many readers of all faiths are surprised by how faithful her book is to biblical accounts of Jesus. It would be easy to assume, based on this, that she’s a thoroughly conservative Christian. But here is where an element of paradox enters. “I want to love all the children of God,” she said in a recent interview with her publisher. “Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist— everyone. I want to love gay Christians and straight Christians.” Because of these twin confessions, Rice has gained the reputation of being both historically rooted and generously inclusive in her Christian faith. When we had a moment alone—just Rice and the entourage—I had to ask her: “Do you feel like there is any tension between following the Jesus revealed in the Bible and embracing people from many
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religions and lifestyles?” “I don’t think there’s any tension here,” she replies without hesitation. “I think that’s what Christ told us to do—to love everybody. Jesus said, ‘Go teach all nations’; He didn’t say, ‘Go teach certain people.’ He put out His arms to the whole world.” Ever since the 2004 elections, many have observed the phenomenon of Christians who are difficult to pigeonhole, people who are committed to Christ but color outside the lines. So where does Rice fall? Are there any boxes that she would place herself in? “I’m a Democrat and a liberal. But a very conservative Catholic. But a liberal Catholic too ... a radical Catholic.” How perfectly Ricean. “When you look at Christianity as it’s believed and practiced in America today,” I ask her, “is there anything that concerns you?” “Oh, you must be kidding,” she shoots back. This breaks the entourage’s code of silence, as they can’t help but laugh. “Well, I think the thing that concerns me more than anything else is that so many people
associate us with hatred and intolerance. They don’t think of us as people who know how to love, and that is tragic. We need to do something to change their opinion.” She continues, building her hope into a crescendo. At this moment, Anne Rice strikes me as a walking anachronism, a Victorian-lace preacher forged in the twin fi res of the fi rst and the 21st centuries. She generates more light than heat, and her enthusiasm is contagious: “We need to stop being so afraid that the devil is winning. The devil’s not winning— we are winning. Jesus is winning. God is winning. We have the strength and the time to open our arms to absolutely everyone. Rushing to judgment, condemning whole classes and groups of people—that is not in the spirit of Christ that I see in the Gospel. I can’t fi nd that spirit. I see the spirit of love, taking the message to absolutely everyone.” 0 MIKE MORRELL is an editor for TheOoze.com and a freelance writer from Atlanta, Ga. He just married the love of his life, Jasmin.
1/25/06 11:54:53 AM
SOUL BROTHERS
ONE MAN DOWN: (L-R) Big Pooh and 9th Wonder without MC’s Phonte
HIP-HOP’S LITTLE BROTHER GETS PERSONAL BY JESSE CAREY
LOCALS CALL IT “THE TOBACCO ROAD.” It’s a stretch of North Carolina interstate that connects some the country’s most well-known universities. Every year, thousands of young people from all over the world are found on college campuses in central North Carolina, and the Deep South is transformed into a melting pot of different cultures, social interests and musical mindsets. Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and NC State all line the historic stretch of freeway that 60
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is known for heated basketball rivalries and for attracting a broad mix of students. It was on the campus of North Carolina Central in 2001 that members of the hip-hop collective Little Brother brought their eclectic mix of influences together and discovered a chemistry that has bred one of the most buzz-worthy groups in hip-hop. “I like to call it one big gumbo pot of musical influence,” Big
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Pooh, one-third of Little Brother, explains as he describes the musical landscape of North Carolina. “Any kind of thing that you are looking for, as far as hip-hop is concerned, you can get it right here. We’ve got people from all over. People from the West Coast bring their kind of music over, people from Houston and Atlanta coming up here bring that type of music, people from New York bring that type of music down. You have all the different influences here, so whatever your flavor, you can get it right here in North Carolina.” It was there that Big Pooh met his future production partner, 9th Wonder, and the two quickly got plugged into the campus music scene. The pair began experimenting with a variety of musicians and quickly found chemistry with the third member of their group, MC’s Phonte. Soon the three began to collaborate and share in each other’s love for different kinds of music; the unique mix of influences created a fresh sound, and the Little Brother “gumbo” flavor was born. “We just turned each other on to other types of music,” Big Pooh says. “Like 9th Wonder is more into ’80s rock; he’s an expert in that area. Phonte’s an expert in alternative music but can pick anywhere on the musical map. I’m more into contemporary music. Just turning each other on to different types of music, that’s where the bond came from.” The trio served as the pillar for the rising Durham, N.C., hip-hop scene and helped form groups like The Organization and the Justus League. Despite a series of side projects and solo endeavors, the three friends decided to remain a group. In the summer of 2001, Little Brother was born. The group quickly created a buzz among a new breed of hip-hop purists who were starting to look beyond commercial “bling” trends in mainstream rap and find a fresh take on hip-hop music that dealt with real, more culturally conscious issues. Around the country, artists like Kanye West, Common and Mos Def were bringing hiphop back to its deeply rooted origins in other types of urban music, turning a new generation on to what Big Pooh describes as a form of soul music. “When I say that it is more soulful, I’m not just talking artists that use soul samples, because using soul samples doesn’t mean you’re
soulful,” Big Pooh says. “Music that is more soulful is music from the heart. Not just ‘I got money, ha-ha!’ and that’s that. It’s like there’s more texture in the music and more texture in the lyrics—more texture in the song, period. More soulful is more music coming from the soul.” The group has been out on the road with the Roots, a group that has influenced the soul-based sound they’ve become known for. Little Brother has created a grassroots following that’s turning the tide of mainstream hip-hop fans. Their most recent album has drawn comparisons to hip-hop heavyweights like A Tribe Called Quest and OutKast, yet The Minstrel Show stands out as the trio’s most progressive work, combining distinctive personality, down-to-earth lyrical sensibility and diverse beat arrangements. Minstrel is gaining momentum, garnering radio play and sold-out shows, making it apparent that Little Brother’s “music from the soul” is reconnecting with an urban rising of “soul music” fans. “It’s something that’s always been there,” Big Pooh says. “I mean, that’s what music is based off of. Like the blues, it was you talking about what was going on in your life—real-life situations. And that’s what music is all about. It’s supposed to evoke some kind of emotion in a person when they hear it. Whether it’s ‘Oh, I’ve been through that,’ or just music that’s having a good time, like the Earth, Wind & Fire song ‘Celebration.’ But even then, it’s real life.” Little Brother’s reality-based approach to making music extends further than eclectically layered beats and heart-felt lyrics. Big Pooh says that much of today’s hip-hop community lives with a consciousness that touches on the reason why people listen to music in the first place—to connect with others they can relate to. “We’re trying to get it back to that point—and not just us personally,” Big Pooh says. “Hopefully it can get back to that point where artists don’t have any problem revealing some aspects of their life. Not necessarily everything, but some aspects of their life to let people know ‘Yo, I’m a regular person like you. It just so happened that, by Godgiven talent, I make music. This is what I do.’ I know that’s what we as Little Brother do. We let people know that we go through situations like they go through situations. Whether it be growing up without a father and not meeting him until later on in life, or not being able to live with your kid or whatever. That’s soul music. That’s music from the heart right there. That evokes an emotion. That evokes a feeling in a person right there. I know that’s the kind of music that grabs my attention and grabs a lot of other people’s attention as well.” p
“MUSIC THAT IS MORE SOULFUL IS MUSIC FROM THE HEART.” —BIG POOH
JESSE CAREY resides in Orlando, Fla., and is the web editor for RELEVANTmagazine. com. Jack Bauer is his personal hero.
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HOW GOD FITS INTO THE AMERICAN DREAM BY ED YOUNG
THE SETTLERS OF JAMESTOWN and Plymouth believed in it. Our forefathers framed it. Donald Trump personifies it. Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day and just about every musician describes it. Thousands of people storm our borders each year to get a slice of it. The American Dream. Dreams are powerful forces. The dreams of European emigrants gave birth to a new nation. The dreams of the early settlers gave birth to a superpower. The dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. fueled acceptance and love: “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.” Dreams champion the entrepreneur who climbs out of government-assisted living with determination and a good idea. They propel the mail clerk to rise through the ranks to CEO. The formula is hard work + courage + determination = prosperity. This formula for success has fueled unprecedented ingenuity, but how does that fit with our faith? Is the American Dream in sync with God’s Dream for our lives? Specifically, since the pursuit of prosperity drives this dream, what does God have to say about our money?
SKITTLES One Friday night I took my family to a high-school football game. During the middle of the third quarter, one of my twin daughters came to me and asked for money to buy some candy. I handed her a
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$5 bill, she made her way to the concession stand and came back with a package of Skittles. As she was eating the Skittles, I asked her, “Landra, can I have a few Skittles?” She looked at her Skittles, then looked back at me and said, “No!” Landra didn’t understand several realities. Number one, she didn’t understand that if I had wanted to, I could have forcibly taken the Skittles from her and eaten every one myself. She didn’t realize the strength I have. Number two, she didn’t understand that I was the one who actually bought them for her. I paid for them with my money. Number three, she didn’t understand that if I had wanted to, I could have bought her so many packages of Skittles that she couldn’t even eat them all. The same realities apply to our lives as well. Like my daughter Landra, many of us don’t understand three things. Number one, if God wanted to, He could take all of our Skittles from us. We forget that He’s much stronger than we are. Number two, we fail to realize that God is the One who gave us the Skittles in the first place. And number three, if God wanted to, He could rain so many Skittles on our lives that we wouldn’t know what to do with them. Some of us have a big pile of stuff, others have a medium pile of stuff, and still others have tiny piles of stuff. We each have talents and opportunities to make varying amounts of the big green. The question is, how are we stewarding our stuff?
MANAGERS, NOT OWNERS We’re managers, not owners. God is the Blesser. He is our perfectly beautiful and generous parent who loves to give good gifts to His children (see Matthew 7:11 and James 1:17). He blesses us with intangible elements such as peace, health and security. But God also blesses us with material possessions. Things like that 10th-floor condo, those Diesel jeans, the iPod Nano and your 2005 Jetta. But God doesn’t want these blessings to stop with us. He wants us to be a blessing to others (1 Timothy 6:17-19). When it comes to managing our stuff God’s way, three words come to mind: bring, give and enjoy. First, God tells us to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. The storehouse is your local house of worship. Notice I didn’t say “give the tithe”; I said “bring it.” In Malachi 3:8-10, God curses the entire nation of Israel because they withheld their tithes from Him. Let me ask you a question. Do you want to bring your 10 percent to God and have Him bless the remaining 90 percent of your income, or would you rather keep your tithe and have Him curse 100 percent of your wealth? There’s only one example of God asking His children to test Him in the Bible. And it has to do with tithing (Malachi 3:10). It’s as if God is saying, “I dare you to bring it and see what I’ll do for you!” “Hey, Ed, the tithing verses are all in the Old Testament, so we aren’t obligated to tithe anymore!” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that ... It’s both interesting and humbling to note that Jesus elevates expectations in the New Testament for commands that were given in the Old Testament. He sets a higher standard. Adultery is wrong, but so is looking at a woman lustfully. Giving 10 percent is a minimum, but followers of Jesus should be giving even more! So, first and foremost, don’t neglect to bring God’s tithe to your local house of worship. The Church is the hope of the world and God’s first priority. Second, we also have the privilege to give generously to others in need. Give sacrificially to orphaned AIDS victims in Africa. Provide food for the hungry in your own community. Look for opportunities to be a Teflon person, not a Velcro person. Material possessions stick to Velcro people and never come off. With Teflon people, though, wealth slides off them and onto others. Don’t give because you feel obligated,
MONEY MAKES A LOUSY MASTER.
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but because you recognize God’s blessings on your life. The “give� component should also include giving regularly and strategically to yourself. I’m talking about saving and investing. It is a biblical concept to save for the future (Proverbs 21:20, 30:25). You can decide how much to save and invest, but I set aside a minimum of 10 percent of my income. Third, enjoy. What a concept! A pastor is telling me to enjoy money? Yes, I am. I enjoy the money that God has given me. I bring the tithe, give freely to others, save for the future and then enjoy the rest. A budget is a wonderful way to free you up so you can enjoy your money. Money is God’s gift to you, so enjoy it. I’m not ashamed to say that God has blessed me and my family. And when you bring it and give it, you too will be free to enjoy it. You might say, “But what about greed? How do we keep the money thing from spinning wildly out of control?�
ING AND THE ZONE I call greed a God-given desire gone haywire. It is not the pursuit of money that leads to greed; it is a funky perspective on money. Greedy people live in a land called “Ing.� You know what the Land of Ing is? It’s a place where people are into own-ing, earn-ing, cloth-ing, housing, bling-bling, ka-ching, ka-ching. It’s easy to live in the Land of Ing and forget that God gave us our talents, our opportunities, our health and ability to work hard, even the prosperous country we live in. Our wealth is also a gift that should be enjoyed. But money makes a lousy master. Jesus gave us an important warning in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love
A
the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Moneyâ€? (TNIV). Money can’t take us where we ultimately want to go in life, and it can’t erase our deepest desires. In his hit “All Falls Down,â€? Kanye West captures both the allure and the deception of wealth: Man, I promise, I’m so self-conscious That’s why you always see me with at least one of my watches Rollies and Pasha’s done drove me crazy I can’t even pronounce nothing, pass that Versace ... We’ll buy a lot of clothes when we don’t really need ’em Things we buy to cover up what’s inside. The Land of Ing is a place of despair and unmet expectations. On the other hand, far away from the Land of Ing is a place I call the Zone—a place in which God desperately wants us to live. The Zone is where He can shower us with Skittles in every area of our lives, including our ďŹ nances. The Zone is where we can realize the blessings of God—His tangible and intangible favor. It is where we can recognize God as the Blesser, be blessed by Him and become a blessing to others. That is God’s dream for our lives. Money is just one of the many blessings from God, and we can enjoy it by following the bring/give/enjoy principle. When we embrace the fact that our wealth is God’s wealth, we realize it’s not about the American Dream; it’s about God’s Dream. p ED YOUNG is the pastor of Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas. You can read more of his ideas on the Christian faith and the American Dream in his book, The Pursuit of Happiness (The Penguin Group), releasing this fall.
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COLLEGE EDITION 27
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LEIGH NASH
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DREAM DEFERRED LEIGH NASH RETURNS... AND THIS TIME, IT’S PERSONAL
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STORY BY CARA DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY COWART
T’S BEEN NEARLY SIX YEARS
since Sixpence None the Richer, fronted by delicately feminine and quirky Leigh Nash, sang their chart-topping single “Kiss Me” on the set of the Late Show with David Letterman. The performance symbolized their rise to the top, which began when Matt Slocum met vocalist Nash, just a teenager at the time, at a church retreat in the early 1990s. The New Braunfels, Texas, guitarist and songwriter began writing songs for Nash, and the two formed a group, naming it after a passage in C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Sixpence recorded a number of independent albums and garnered a cult following before signing with Steve Taylor’s Squint Entertainment. The startup label, praised within the industry for its creativity and talent, released the band’s selftitled album in 1997. More than a year later, the first single, a sugary-sweet pop song, “Kiss Me” (a track they almost didn’t include on the album), landed on the soundtrack to Miramax’s film She’s All That. The song quickly shot up to No. 1 on the pop charts, as it also became the most-played song in 11 countries and topped VH1’s Video Countdown. The song was nominated for a Grammy, appeared on sitcoms and soap operas and was even played at Prince Edward’s 1999 wedding. The young band, which had worked so hard for almost 10 years to get where it was, had finally made it. And Nash’s charm, which had won over countless numbers of fans, even managed to bewitch Letterman, who uncharacteristically asked Nash over to his couch for an interview after her performance in August 1999. Not only had Nash performed on Letterman, she had a divine opportunity to share with him the philosophy behind the band’s name—and faith—while politely declining his suggestive advances. Letterman was noticeably affected. You can’t buy that kind of airtime. Sixpence found themselves on top of the world. And then it all came crashing down.
DISCONNECT Over the next few months, it became apparent there was trouble around the young upstart record company, Squint Entertainment, which had gotten the band to reach new heights. Squint started to fall apart, and the band was left in limbo for several years even though they had already recorded a follow-up album. Eventually, Squint Entertainment was absorbed by Word Records. The dream-team staff was laid off as the company was swallowed up by their corporate entity. Sixpence’s follow-up record, which needed to strike while the iron was hot, was shelved, tangled up endlessly in corporate red tape. There was panic. There was heartache. And there wasn’t a single thing any one of them could do about it. “So many amazing people came into our lives through that record label,” Nash begins to explain. “It was a really nice thing for a while, and then, as so often happens with business, it just got really complicated and seemed like it happened really fast; it started going downhill. There’s a lot of water under that bridge. I guess we don’t need to go into it.” Nash pauses, but like a dam that’s been stopped up, she’s compelled to tell the story. It’s evident that the wounds, although not fresh, are still tender.
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“WE WORKED IT AS HARD AS WE COULD, AND I DON’T KNOW ... I THINK WE JUST KIND OF LOST OUR STEAM.”
“There were a lot of things that happened,” she says. “But basically the problems with Squint caused a massive delay in putting out that next record, Divine Discontent. It really popped our bubble. It was a really tough two years of waiting, and in the process of all that strife, Squint goes down. That was really emotional. It was horrible for the employees of Squint, and it was horrible for us. We realized what an amazing thing it was and what an unbelievable job they did. I think it kind of put it all in perspective.” Limping along for the next two years, the band and the new face of the record company finally came to terms, and the album was released in October 2002. There was little fanfare. There was little support. The magic was gone. Divine Discontent was lost to the thousands of new listeners their previous album garnered. Hardly anyone but their loyal fanbase was even aware it came out. “I think everybody was in shock a little bit about what happened and what it took to finally get that record to come out, and when it finally came out, we just felt like we lost our steam and inspiration,” she says. “It took two years, and two years is death when you’re coming off a record like the one before. We were trying so hard to keep ourselves standing up straight and smiling even though there were a lot of things that weren’t right. We put it out, and we were proud of it, and it just kind of was what it was. We worked it as hard as we could, and I don’t know ... I think we just kind of lost our steam.” Sixpence was devastated—Nash doesn’t try to gloss over the pain they experienced and the frustration of those around them. “It was just bad,” she says. “People were unhappy ... There was a little bit of anger—not on our part,” she emphasizes. “We were trying to hold our heads up. We were so proud of that record.” Life was going on, despite the dream deferred. Sixpence continued touring. Nash and her husband, Mark, formerly of the band PFR, became pregnant. They continued touring, but everyone was worn out and questioning what their next move should be. Then came the announcement in February 2004, in the form of a letter written by Matt Slocum, Sixpence’s co-founder and primary songwriter, and published in CCM magazine, that Sixpence was breaking up. Calling it quits. Some readers no doubt wondered where they had even been for the last three years. Nash recalls the time. “I remember we toured all that summer [before],” she says. “We toured until I was seven months pregnant, and after that we decided to disband. It was a weird day when we kind of decided that. I think we had both been secretly thinking the same thing, that maybe we don’t have the energy anymore. It kind of felt like [Matt] was ready to spread his wings a little bit, and I was about to have a baby, so I think we both felt it was the right time to do it. And strangely, it was not that hard, but then over this last year, Matt and I had conversations where we were like, ‘Are you sorry we did that?’ “‘I don’t know, are you?’ “And there’s bound to be a little—I don’t think it’s regret,” she says. “I think we miss each other. But it’s great, because we’re still in each other’s lives. There’s no law saying we can’t work together again. And maybe we will, and maybe it’ll be better next time. But we needed a break. That whole Squint thing, it sucked the wind right out of our sails. You know ... just because.” Nash pauses as if holding herself back from saying more ... again.
THERE SHE GOES Nash and her husband moved to Los Angeles for a much-needed break and to write material for a solo album. With Sixpence out of the picture, it was time to do something on her own. Mark spent the time learning new instruments and re-recording his wife’s demos, and Leigh spent the time with the new baby, Henry Bingham Nash, and writing songs on the side.
WHERE’S MATT? Sixpence’s guitarist/songwriter Matt Slocum has put together a new band, Astronaut Pushers, with band members Sam Ashworth (Charlie Peacock’s son), John Davis (formerly of Superdrag) and Lindsay Jamieson (he’s a guy; don’t let the name fool you). “It’s a really nice creative outlet,” Nash says. “It’s something he could never do with Sixpence, and it’s getting out a lot of that kind of stuff he’s been wanting to do for a long time.” Oh yeah, and he also ran a marathon a few months ago. “If you get him on the scent of something, he is going to follow it through to the very end and usually do a bang-up job of it,” Nash says. “He ends up excelling in whatever he does. He’s a highly, highly motivated guy. It’s pretty impressive.”
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“We went out there so I could work on this record and write songs,” Nash says. “Matt Slocum wrote the bulk of the songs [for Sixpence], and I loved his writing so much that I felt it wasn’t ... I just felt like maybe I wasn’t motivated to write because I knew he did such a great job and I loved what he did. But with this record I knew I needed to do that. “I wanted to put some distance between myself and Nashville because we lived [there] for so long,” she says. “I felt this enormous pressure to get out and get away from everybody that I knew and get some privacy and kind of isolate myself.” Although she did write some songs alone, she wrote mostly with other songwriters for collaborative works—35 songs in all. “I’d never done that before,” she says. “Anything I had written, I wrote alone. The collaboration was interesting.” Nash’s management company, Nettwerk, hooked her up with producer Pierre Marchand, who has produced for Sarah McLachlan. She recorded the album in Montreal, the producer’s hometown. She’s glad the memories are locked away in that location, instead of Nashville or L.A. There are just too many other memories there. Was there something about L.A. she didn’t like? “We’re back here [in Nashville], if that tells you anything.” Nash, 29, says their year in L.A. was one of the loneliest times in her 10-year marriage. “Everything went well, but it was kind of a lonely period, and I guess that’s why I went out there,” she says. “But once you get out there, you realize, wait a second, there aren’t even prospects of friends here. We missed our friends really bad, but it was good for our creativity, I guess.” The decision to come back was sudden. At the time of the interview, the Nashes had only been back in town for a week, and many of their friends still didn’t know. “It was like a month ago when we figured out we could come home, so that’s what we did because ... L.A. just didn’t work for us,” Nash says. “We’ve lived here for so long; we’re used to going places and everybody knows each other, and there’s just a lot more camaraderie here. And our friends and our family are here. When I say family, I mean friends because they’ve become family, because we’ve been here so long. There’s just no replacing Nashville for us right now. But I’m glad we went out for that year because we both got a lot done.”
“I FELT THIS ENORMOUS PRESSURE TO GET OUT AND GET AWAY FROM EVERYBODY.”
DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER Nash, with her management company, is releasing the yet-untitled record independently on One Son Records Aug. 1. Once bitten, twice shy. “It’s really wonderful to be able to put your whole self into something,” Nash says. “As a band, creating new material is really a group effort; there is a certain lack of control one has as an artist. Now, I am able to take my experiences from the band and from life to make an album that is completely me, inside and out.” Nash plans to keep her record under her fingertips. She’s had success slip through her fingers once, and isn’t about to see that happen again. Let’s hope, in the words of Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred,” that her dream doesn’t dry up like a raisin in the sun but, instead, explodes. T
ONLINE BONUS: Download a free MP3 of a song from Nash’s new album and read the full interview transcript. CARA DAVIS is the editorial director of RELEVANT Media Group and the author of Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot: How to Plan a Church Wedding for Less Than $5,000 (RELEVANT Books). Visit her blog at www.cheapwaysto.com.
WAS SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER A ONE-HIT WONDER? Not technically. In 2000, the group covered The La’s “There She Goes,” and it became their second hit single. Nash’s version of the song was picked up for Orthotricyclen-Lo (an oral contraceptive) commercials and even parodied by Saturday Night Live, which spoofed on birth control commercials and played their song in the background. Even “Kiss Me” was spoofed, when the film Not Another Teen Movie parodied She’s All That.
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SPRING MUSIC PREVIEW
1/26/06 3:31:39 PM
A
TREND IS NOT A PASSING FAD. (BUT SOME TRENDS DON’T LAST.) IT’S NOT A SHALLOW SELLOUT TO A SHALLOW CULTURE. (ALTHOUGH SOME TRENDS ARE.) A TREND IS MERELY A SIGN OF THE TIMES, A SIGNAL OF A NEW DIRECTION. OUR CURRENT MUSICAL TRENDS ARE NO EXCEPTION. FROM INDIE ARTISTS GAINING A NEW SPOTLIGHT TO A NEW MUSICAL MECCA TO GENRES EXPANDING INTO NEW TERRITORIES, IT’S CERTAINLY A GOOD TIME TO BE A MUSIC FAN. SO HOLD ON TIGHT—HERE ARE THE CLIFFSNOTES ...
OC
THE
EFFECT THE ACHINGLY HIP
Music from The OC series has become the Totally Hits for Urban Outfitters junkies. Instead of compiling a who’s who of horrendous, manufactured Top-40 acts, the OC mixes are amalgams of quality, though perhaps overly hyped, indie music. Repeatedly labeled “the most musically hip” show on television, The OC has created a curious fan base of MTVweaned teenyboppers and detached posthigh-school hipsters. The musical choices for the show play to the hipster tastes of the latter group, with the hope of snaring the interests of the susceptible-to-spoon-feeding former. And The OC is not the only show to jump on the indie-rock bandwagon. Prime-time TV has become a launching pad for little-known indie bands. Artists like Phantom Planet, Switchfoot, Death Cab for Cutie, Imogen Heap, The Perishers and Rogue Wave have emerged from obscurity and entered the consciousness of wannabe hipsters everywhere, in part because of shows like The OC, Veronica Mars and Grey’s Anatomy. It all reflects the increased marketability and accommodation of “alternative” music. Just as post-Pulp Fiction Hollywood took indie film and created a lucrative niche market, so the recording industry is increasingly marketing “indie music” to a burgeoning and wealthy force: hipsters. The phenomenon will probably not bridge the divide between the MTV (“What’s hot right now”) and the Pitchfork (“What should
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
IMOGEN HEAP
be hot right now ... but don’t tell anyone!”) crowds in 2006, but at least in the pocketbooks of the market profiteers, the distinctions will be blurred. Surprisngly, this has yet to bring to exposure to the original OC band—the OC Supertones.
THE PERISHERS
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THE ALBUM LEAF
THE FIERY FURNACES
THE RESURGENCE OF psychedelic and post-rock sound experimentation continues in 2006, and will likely remain strong for a while. But one noticeable genre characteristic of late has been the shift toward more innocent, playful, childlike sounds. Psychedelic music was formerly defined by its imagery of drugs, sex, death, etc.—check everything from Sgt. Pepper’s to Dark Side of the Moon to OK Computer—but lately it has taken on a more cartoonish, fantasy-heavy color. Whether it’s The Flaming Lips singing about robots, The White Stripes rocking on about ghosts or Sufjan Stevens crooning about birds and insects, there is a definite vibe of wonder, awe and whimsy in the musical air. You can hear it in the mystical marches of Sigur Rós, the “Your Hand in Mine” passion of Explosions in the Sky, the theatrics of
DANGERDOOM
Danielson Famile or the dreamy whispers of M83’s electronica. There seems to be a cultural move away from the coldness of hipster irony and detachment, toward a more childlike earnestness. In a way, music is following movies in this trend (fantasies like Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have never been more popular—not just among kids, either). We all want to believe in things, to be awed and inspired. Musical artists are beginning to realize that childlike resilience, innocence and love in the face of real-world tragedy make for musical catharsis—bands like Arcade Fire, Múm, The Shins, The Fiery Furnaces and Grandaddy. It is hopeful, fun, bittersweet, nostalgic, frenetic, vast and good.
GORILLAZ
IN A TIME WHEN many rock acts are pulling from sounds of the past, a lot of hip-hop acts are looking to the future. While some of the new movements qualify as merely “experimental,” others are just plain weird. One of the most visible examples recently was by love-himor-hate-him rapper Kanye West. Although the lines between rock and hip-hop have been blurred since Run DMC popped up on Aerosmith’s
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“Walk This Way,” West found a whole new way to blur the genres on Late Registration when he brought in a very unexpected co-producer, Jon Brion, who was best known for his work with Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann. Brion’s lush, sprawling rock vibe brought new life to West’s hip-hop rhymes. While the collaboration was certainly experimental, it didn’t touch the eccentricity of other hiphop experiments. Producer Danger
SPRING MUSIC PREVIEW
1/26/06 3:33:36 PM
THANKS, COLDPLAY, for blowing London’s cloudy skies over the entire European music scene. When Chris Martin and Co. became superstars a few years back, a new British Invasion was launched. Well, it was actually a European Invasion. While Brit-pop has always been known for its attitude (see The Kinks) and self-indulgence (see Oasis), this new Euro-pop is more earnest, soul-searching and melancholy. However, it’s also less melodramatic and more songwriter-driven than ’80s Britpop like The Smiths. It’s incorrect to say that Coldplay was doing something entirely unique when they broke big with Parachutes in 2000. The truth is that many U.K. bands were playing a similar style. In a postColdplay society, their once-peers are now seen as mere followers. After a few years of success in Europe, bands like Embrace, Athlete and Snow Patrol are finding a fan base in the States. In recent years, the world has also seen the rise
COLDPLAY
Mouse—having previously blown our collective mind with his Beatles/ Jay-Z smash-up The Grey Album— paired up with rapper MF Doom to become DangerDoom. While that partnership isn’t odd, the fact that they then partnered with Adult Swim cartoon characters on their album The Mouse and the Mask certainly is. While Gorillaz were already rapping as cartoon characters, no one thought about rapping with cartoon
AQUALUNG
characters—not since Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract,” that is. Another musical oddity is Miri Ben-Ari, a hip-hop violinist. Yes, you read that correctly. In fact, her latest album is simply titled The Hip-Hop Violinist, and it features the likes of Kanye West, Anthony Hamilton and John Legend. While he’s certainly more reggae than rap, Matisyahu is perhaps the first Hassidic Jew to make waves
of new sweeping and weeping U.K. bands like Keane and Doves, who epitomize the new Euro Invasion sound with their ability to make monumental choruses feel humble and intimate. Songwriters like James Blunt and Aqualung (aka Matt Hales) are also making new waves—representing the “everyman” with a sound that is simultaneously otherworldly and down-to-earth, both flashy and shy and at the same time neither. Even North American acts like Mat Kearney and Sleeping at Last are putting a new spin on the new Euro sound. While the British Invasion of the ’60s was inspired by American blues music, it ended up being rowdy rockers that make you jump and shout. While maintaining a spirit of hope, the new Euro Invasion has a little more soul and a lot more sorrow. Perhaps the British finally found the blues.
SNOW PATROL
in hip-hop—or any popular music. Other artists like Pigeon John, SA-RA Creative Partners and Ahmad Jones (of 4th Avenue Jones) are continuing to show just how expansive hip-hop can be.
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WOLF PARADE
THE UNITED STATES’ upstairs neighbor is making a racket again, but this time it’s not Nickelback, Avril Lavigne or the Barenaked Ladies. Like a strong Northern cold front, the sovereign country of Canada has been invading our record stores, college radio stations and outdoor festivals like we’re the ones with free health care. With a slew of new releases in the past two years, artists Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Death from Above 1979, The Unicorns, Tegan and Sara, Stars, the
New Pornographers, Feist, the High Dials, The Trews and The Dears have learned to pass the cold winters and dull television programming with rock ’n’ roll. For the most part, Canada isn’t currently breaking any new ground in the mainstream rock world (sorry, Our Lady Peace), but its indie rock scene is as vibrant as any. This signature off-beat “Mountie” sound (think The Red Green Show meets the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds) is so infectious that even non-Canuck bands Of Montreal (from Scotland) and Boards of Canada (from Athens, Ga.) are attempting to ride the indie train up north as well. Perhaps Canada is to 2006 what Seattle was to 1991, but we’re still holding out for the emergence of Alaskan rock.
MAYLENE
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
EVERY TIME I DIE
NORMA JEAN
THE SOUTH HAS RISEN AGAIN. Bands from across the Bible Belt and beyond are returning to their roots and giving Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Charlie Daniels some overdue tributes. Hardcore is getting a much-needed shot to the arm and a kick in the pants from a good ol’ Southern revival. Groups like Birmingham’s Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Atlanta’s Norma Jean and even Buffalo’s Every Time I Die are making it OK again to simply rock out and have fun while doing it. Whether it’s the Skynyrd-tinged sound of Maylene or the “BBQ” lip tattoos of Norma
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Jean, there is something invigorating about the latest trend in hardcore. It’s catchy, community-minded and all about the rock. No video on RELEVANT.tv has been more loved (and hated) than Maylene’s debut music video, “Tough as John Jacobs.” From the hay bales stacked in a barn as makeshift venue seats to the overalls, trucks and dogs, it’s an ode to the simple joys of Southern living. Look out, hip-hop: Your reign over the Dirrrty South has some competition. Southern thunder is about more than just a musical style. It’s an entire movement within the hardcore scene. It’s about barbecue, pickup trucks, overalls and—let’s
not forget—face-melting metal. Only time will tell if this new twist is here to stay or will fade fast like a hot summer thunderstorm. But while it’s here, it’s a blast. So pull up a lawn chair or a lawn mower, pour yourself some sweet tea and get ready to rock out to sounds of the greatest place in the nation. g
CONTRIBUTORS: Tyler Clark, Jeremy Hunt, Maryann Koopman, Brett McCracken and Chris Troutman
SPRING MUSIC PREVIEW
1/26/06 3:36:04 PM
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INDEPENDENT ARTISTS DIDN’T STAND A CHANCE. THE ABILITY TO THRIVE IN MUSIC WAS A PRIVILEGE AVAILABLE ONLY TO ARTISTS WHO WERE ABLE TO GET A MAJOR LABEL DEAL. BUT THE TIDES ARE TURNING. AS THE INTERNET MAKES THE WORLD A SMALLER PLACE, MUSICIANS HAVE A CHANCE TO MAKE IT ALL ON THEIR OWN.
WWW.CLAPYOURHANDSSAYYEAH.COM
HOW CAN YOU TALK about independent music in 2006 without mentioning Clap Your Hands Say Yeah? With more than 40,000 copies sold and counting since their fall 2005 release, CYHSY have interpreted the term “indie music” literally, in both stylistic genre and the actual business practices. This DIY NYC band is bringing their off-kilter brand of rock ’n’ roll to the world one download at a time. Fueled by local support and Internet buzz, the band quickly became the stuff that indie lore is made of. Their self-titled album has found its way onto college radio and into retail chains nationwide.
CYHSY, drawing comparisons to the Talking Heads and Neutral Milk Hotel, boast a brash love-itor-leave-it sound that demands a well-developed aural palette. On the heels of a national tour and a recent two-month stint in Europe, they have developed a courting affair with music aficionados the world over.
WWW.THECINEMATICUNDERGROUND.COM
SAY HELLO TO ONE
of the most talented collectives on the indie scene. American expat producer and composer Nathan Johnson has assembled a multinational cast of creatives in producing The Cinematic Underground’s
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debut CD, Annasthesia. Like a film trapped in a CD, this concept-narrative album tells an arresting story of love and escape, offering a powerful look at one man’s struggle with urban ennui. The album includes a haunting 24-page graphic novella, painted by drummer
SOUNDS FROM THE UNDERGROUND
1/26/06 3:44:21 PM
MOLLY JENSON MAKES
pop music. Some people cringe when they hear the word “pop.” Some think that it means “disposable” or “shallow.” Jenson proves that such generalizations are not true. Her album, Maybe Tomorrow, is sugary and sweet, but it’s got a bite, too. With her singalong choruses and yearning melodies, Jenson falls somewhere between Mazzy Star and Leona Naess. Although the album’s opening track, “Give It Time,” could dominate the
WWW.MOLLYJENSON.COM world if ever given the chance, Jenson doesn’t make music as a means to potential stardom. “I play music because I have to,” she says. “I feel empty when I don’t have that outlet.” It’s more than just her love of music that makes music a necessity for Jenson. “I believe that God gives us all gifts and talents that make us each unique,” she says. “What a shame and a disservice if we weren’t to use them.”
WWW.JOSHGARRELS.COM
FOLK-RAP. It sounds like a disaster. Somehow, though, Josh Garrels is able to pull it off. He’s a young Midwest preacher with a voice that sounds like nothing you’ve heard before, whether you love it or hate it. To say that Garrels sounds like a hybrid of Bob Dylan, A Tribe Called Quest and G. Love & Special Sauce will only confuse people. You just have to hear it yourself. As a teenager, he spent most of his time skating and smoking pot. Then he got saved. A preacher in downtown Indianapolis, he now sings as a man who knows exactly what he was saved from. Garrels served as singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, DJ and producer on all three of his albums, including the one
Zachary Johnson, that serves as the story’s visual companion. After garnering rave reviews in the U.K. and composing the score for the Sundance award-winning film Brick, The Cinematic Underground are bringing their show to
he’s releasing this spring. Musically, he does things that shouldn’t work—like rapping over a sample of Nick Drake’s “Which Will”—and always gets it right. Garrels recently decided to start a small label of his own. “This will become a banner to hold a family of musicians and artists beneath,” he says, “moving forward with common values and conviction both in aesthetics and belief.”
America with a tour this spring. A carnival trapped on a stage full of projected visuals, bicycle wheels and costume changes, you’d be hardpressed to find a production as complex and beautiful as Annasthesia. p
CONTRIBUTORS: Tyler Clark, Benjamin Esposito, Brian A. Smith and Chris Troutman
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ARTISTS THAT ARE RELEVANT // IMOGEN HEAP • MAYLENE • BELLE & SEBASTIAN • THE FRAY
IMOGEN HEAP MORE THAN A VOICE BY MONICA MONZINGO
REMEMBER THE SONG that played at the end of Garden State? Or the one with the super-haunting vocals in last season’s finale of The OC? Well, both are the work of Essex-born multi-instrumentalist Imogen Heap. Her latest offering, Speak for Yourself, is a testament to the true DIY ethic—written, produced and everything in between by Heap herself (and don’t you forget it). “I’m a girl, and, being an artist, people assume that you’re just a singer. Creatively [women] are on a step up, but there’s that perception that we can’t do anything in engineering or mixing or producing,” Heap says. “I love singing; don’t get me wrong. It’s just annoying if that’s all you’re credited for.” Her previous project, a collaboration with producer Guy Sigsworth (Madonna, Britney Spears) called Frou Frou, bent the nation’s collective ear after their song “Let Go” appeared in Zach Braff’s indie master movie Garden State, but she says there aren’t any plans for another Frou Frou album. “For me and Guy, it was literally never more than a one-album thing. No hard feelings, we just left doing our own separate things, and we’re not ones to stick to formulas,” Heap says. “There has never been any plan in my life about what ways to go. I’ve just kind of gotten to the stage where I’ve felt like, OK, that looks good. I’ll go that way.” Heap started making electronic music when she was 12 and released her first record, I Megaphone, in 1998. Since then, her work has been
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featured on TV shows like CSI and Six Feet Under, as well as in films like Shrek 2 and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for which she was asked to write a song. Her second solo album, Speak for Yourself, with its sampling, loops and accidental sounds, is proof of her incredible talent and love for the eccentric and unexpected. “The difference with this [album] is that I had to budget it myself; that was the most difficult thing, really,” she says. “Once I got the money by re-mortgaging my flat, there was a lot of pressure that if I didn’t finish it in time, I wouldn’t have the money to carry on.” She originally used her flat as a studio, but decided to rent out a space a few blocks away where she could really focus on recording. “I just found that I kept putting it off and having another cup of tea and doing my bills and going to the shop,” Heap says. “And then it was too late to get started and the neighbors would probably complain, so I didn’t end up doing any work when I had the studio here.” Without the backing of a major label, Heap didn’t have much in the realm of creative support. But fans on her website’s message boards helped her decide on lyrics and kept her motivated. “They’re a really sweet community of people, and I really like them when I meet them,” Heap says. “They say, ‘Oh, I’m Beesnuts13 on your message board,’ and I put faces to names. When I go onstage, I feel like I’m playing in front of a bunch of friends.” F
SPOTLIGHTS
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MAYLENE
AND THE SONS OF DISASTER THE DIRTIEST SOUTH BY JEREMY HUNT
SOUTHERN-FRIED HARDCORE.
Skynyrd meets screamo. Barbecue-flavored breakdowns. Call it what you will, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster are rocking it out and hoping to be the best break for the hardcore genre since double-kick drums. The band’s frontman, Dallas Taylor, has a lot to be thankful for. He gave up being the lead singer for Underoath, a hardcore band on the verge of getting huge, and disappeared from public view. He moved from his childhood home in Florida and settled in Birmingham, Ala., where he got a job and assumed that he’d never do music ever again. “Birmingham is the perfect place to be for me,” he says. “People around here seem more down to earth, and no one even talked to me about music. I didn’t even know that some of my friends played music until four or five months after I had moved here.” However, it wasn’t long before Taylor found himself taking the lead reins of a new group, one that would hit even closer to home than Underoath. It started out with just helping other bands, and then something special happened. One of his roommate’s bands broke up, and Taylor started jamming with the remaining members. “They were just goofing off and everything clicked,” he says. “It just took off.” They didn’t have to look far for a name, either. While the inspiration for the album’s theme dates back to Taylor’s childhood in Florida,
the name “Maylene” came from Maylene, Ala., a small town 40 miles south of Birmingham. And what about the “Sons of Disaster” part? Well, that comes from the story of Ma Barker and her criminal sons, members of the 1930s Barker-Karpis gang. Taylor’s own grandfather was an eyewitness to the aftermath of the FBI’s shootout with the Barkers near Ocala, Fla., and Taylor grew up watching re-enactments of the Barker clan getting gunned down. The idea of divine retribution stuck with him, and it’s that theme which runs throughout Maylene’s debut album. “The next album is talking from the point of view of the sons, living a life of wrongdoing,” he says. “God’s wrath is coming. You’re going to reap it. The next record is going to be about each one of the sons, breaking down their lives.” It may seem like an unusually heavy theme for guys who are interested in just rocking out, but that’s exactly the point. “I’m not here to make you believe, but I am so happy about being who I am,” he says. “We really try to be servants. A lot of people are really hurting and searching for something to be a part of.” At the same time, Taylor hopes that people just kick back and enjoy their music and live shows. That balance of seriousness and fun is what he is all about. Bringing the disaster never sounded so good. F BOXED IN: (L-R) Dallas Taylor, Lee Turner, Josh Cornutt, Roman Havaland and Scott Collum
The Blue Man Group?: (L-R) Dave Welsh, Isaac Slade, Ben Wysocki and Joe King SPOTLIGHTS
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TRAGICALLY HIP: (L-R) Chris Geddes, Steve Jackson, Stuart Murdoch, Mick Cooke, Richard Colburn, Bobbie Kildiea and Sarah Martin
BELLE & SEBASTIAN
STYLE AND SUBSTANCE BY ANDY ARGYRAKIS
EVERY TIME GLASGOW’S Belle & Sebastian releases a record, it’s heralded with heaps of critical acclaim, adoring fan reactions, mounds of mysticism and material loaded with mighty hooks. But even in all the group’s carefully constructed power chords and glorious choruses, this troupe of innovators has yet to score a bona fide smash single. It’s perplexing, given the band’s ability to sell out a show anywhere in the stratosphere, along with a fervent Internet community tracking every move they make. Even without a solid hit to their name, they can still boast about a decade of stamina and their exceptional new album, The Life Pursuit. “We’ve done exactly what we’ve wanted to do at all points,” confirms the group’s singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch in his thick but warming accent. “The Smiths never got played on radio when they were around, but their legend has grown. We want fans to love [the new record], take it home, cherish it and make it a bedroom novel that can absorb them, but we’d also love on top of that to have a hit!” Although sticking to their ideals and maintaining unflinching indie credibility with the release of The Life Pursuit, Belle & Sebastian obviously made strides to crack the underground. The gang previously employed ’80s icon Trevor Horn, but for this album they teamed up with Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, Mercury Rev) and recorded in Los Angeles. The results are as varied as they are invigorating. “I’m mostly speaking for myself, but must note we all have very
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different tastes,” Murdoch says. “I’m the only one passionate about ’80s English indie groups, but I also have more schlocky taste like ABBA, Cyndi Lauper and The Bangles. Their crappy pop singles will spur me. The group certainly has many [united influences], but they’re almost so essential you don’t even have to tip your hat to them.” Aside from the infectious nature of the 13 tracks, the poetic messages riddled with metaphor are also a point of intrigue. Titles like “Act of the Apostle” (a song split in two parts) imply a certain spiritual awareness, while the record is peppered with occasional biblical nods. But it wouldn’t be a Belle & Sebastian record without paradox, which is manifested when religious references are mixed with edgy expressions some could consider objectionable. “On a personal level, I go to church a lot and even lead a youth fellowship group,” Murdoch says. “There’s a time for profanity and a time for spirituality. The youth fellowship group is not a time for profanity. Belle & Sebastian is for adults and addresses adult concerns, not for kids and not [for] a congregation.” Although the frontman may be clear on his demographic, the one remaining audience is the radio world. And if The Life Pursuit can connect like it deserves to, bands like Franz Ferdinand and Travis should watch out. Belle & Sebastian are back and finally ready to rule the charts. F
SPOTLIGHTS
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THE FRAY
GOING BANANAS
BY MONICA MONZINGO
TOWARD THE END of their 2005 summer tour with Weezer, The Fray created a delicious way to express their appreciation to the kings of geek-rock. They grabbed the nearest fruit basket and picked a ripe banana, into which they carved “Thanks!” When presented with the offering, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo said, “Oh, a ‘thanks’ banana. Thank you.” When The Fray returned to their dressing room, Cuomo had replied with a “You’re welcome” pear. “I think we’re going to start this tradition of ‘thanks’ fruit on tours,” says Fray guitarist/vocalist Joe King. The Fray got their start the grassroots way by building buzz in their hometown of Denver, Colo. A few radio stations started playing The Fray’s single “Over My Head (Cable Car),” and in just four months the song became one of the station’s 30 most-played songs of 2004. The Fray then landed a deal with Epic Records and began sharing stages with the biggest names in rock. “Last year we were sitting at home, trying to figure out how to do this band thing and wondering if it was going to work,” King says. “We’re just floored with everything that’s going on.” King formed The Fray with frontman/pianist Isaac
Slade in 2002 after they had a chance encounter at a record store. They rounded out The Fray with a couple of Slade’s former bandmates, guitarist Dave Welsh and drummer Ben Wysocki. While still in the process of completing their first album, The Fray visited a camp for troubled teens. Slade was paired up with a kid who, at 17, was struggling with alcohol, cocaine and heroin addictions. His mentoring experience inadvertently fueled what would become the title track on their debut release, How to Save a Life. “The song [“How to Save a Life”] is actually about how to not save a life, like a theoretical confrontation or intervention that doesn’t work,” Slade says. “And it’s sort of the whole concept of the record.” While the members of The Fray are Christians, they don’t want a mere label to be their sole identifier. “We want to be received well, and not on merit of knowing God, but just on merit of being a good band,” Slade says. “We know people don’t know us, and we don’t want to come out with our guns blazing with a bunch of answers. I am a lot more interested in posing some serious questions and then letting people think about it.” l
THE BLUE MAN GROUP?: (L-R) Dave Welsh, Isaac Slade, Ben Wysocki and Joe King SPOTLIGHTS
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WWW INDIEHEAVEN COM ARTIST JEFFSCOTTBAND WWW JEFFSCOTTBAND COM CONTACT INFO JEFFSCOTTBAND COM HOMETOWN #UMMINGS '! 0OWERFUL MUSIC CONVERSATIONAL LYRICS TOGETHER IN A STYLE THAT S APPEALING TO STUDENTS AND ADULTS ALIKE *EFFREY HAS BEEN LEADING WORSHIP ALL OVER THE COUNTRY FOR MANY YEARS INCLUDING SEVERAL WITH THE 0ASSION MOVEMENT AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS h4HESE GUYS ARE INCREDIBLY TALENTED 4HEY ROCK AND HAVE A TRUE HEART FOR *ESUS #3
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ANTHONY HAMILTON • TEDDY THOMPSON • THE STROKES • CHRIS TOMLIN
YELLOWCARD POP-PUNKS GROW UP GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO. YELLOWCARD—ALONG WITH EVERY other pop-punk-emo band the world has ever heard—has been singing about the troubles of teenage angst for years. On the band’s latest release, Lights and Sounds, it’s their music that shows the glory and sorrow of growing pains. It’s easy to dismiss Yellowcard. Based on their breakout sophomore album, 2003’s Ocean Avenue, the group sounds nearly identical to all of their pop-punk peers. To many listeners, they are callow and disposable. But the band is reborn on Lights and Sounds, and they force listeners to give them a second shot. The album is less whiney, more mature and experimental, and at times has something significant to say. In short, it’s a true blue rock ‘n’ roll record. From note one, Yellowcard is out to prove something to both fans and critics. The opening track, “Three Flights Up,” is instrumental, with only piano and a string section. (And, yes, it’s actually really good.) The album’s title track and first single is next. It’s an explosive rocker years beyond past singles like “Ocean Avenue” and “Only One.” Showing growth, it aligns itself more with Jimmy Eat World than Sum 41. From there, Yellowcard tries out different genres—like the countrytinged “How I Go” with the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines and the loungeflavored “Two Weeks from Twenty”—and shows general improvement in their melodies. While occasionally falling to safe terrain, they take a lot of risks. Most work; some don’t. Yellowcard was formed in Florida and has spent the last five years in
86
Southern California. Their music used to reflect their sunny weather, but they now sound tired of the “lights and sounds” of Hollywood. While they no longer write teenage lyrics that play like dialogue from Everwood, it’s a stretch to say that they’ve become good lyricists. They’re still pulling for the easy rhyme, and the song titles are more exciting than the actual lyrics (more notably “Martin Sheen or JFK”). Yellowcard isn’t the band it once was. Lead singer Ryan Key seems to have grown up. He’s entered the adult world, and he doesn’t like what he sees. While his band’s desire to show this growth is ambitious, it may have been a bigger bite than they can chew. Lights and Sounds is an album about growing up. It’s full of success and failure—which is what growing up is all about. —TYLER CLARK
YELLOWCARD LIGHTS AND SOUNDS (CAPITOL) GENRE:
ROCK :LYRICS
:MUSIC
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
MUSIC REVIEWS
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1/27/06 5:50:36 PM
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ANTHONY HAMILTON AIN’T NOBODY WORRYIN’ (ARISTA)
LYRICS:
MUSIC:
SPIRITUAL CONTENT:
GENRE:
SOUL
Thank goodness this isn’t just another “neo-soul” album. Not that artists like Erykah Badu and D’Angelo aren’t enjoyable, but their music leaves you wondering what happened to the resonant, complex emotion of the old soul. Legends like Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and even Stevie Wonder knew that radiofriendly doesn’t necessarily mean syrupy, faux-dramatic fluff. Grammy-nominated singer Anthony Hamilton brings us back to raw heart-music, true soul cut from the rich cloth of legends. He’s not afraid to tackle tough issues, as demonstrated in his song about a preacher more devoted to his flock than to his daughter. Yet he never comes off as heavy-handed or awkward. His voice is always genuine and full of passion. Socially relevant, intimate and moving, Ain’t Nobody Worryin’ is an instant classic. —BENJAMIN ESPOSITO
TEDDY THOMPSON SEPARATE WAYS (VERVE)
LYRICS:
MUSIC:
SPIRITUAL CONTENT:
GENRE:
FOLK-POP
Few offspring of rock stars successfully find their own place and voice. With his latest album, Teddy Thompson, son of British folk heroes Richard and Linda Thompson, joins the ranks. Thompson shares his father’s dark wit and blues-folk timbre, but he carves out a distinctive sound due largely to his uniquely rich voice. A native of London, Thompson bridges the gap between modern Euro-folk and clean-cut American singer/songwriters. As the name implies, Separate Ways is mostly a breakup album in which Thompson sounds both bitter and broken. Additionally, his lyrics often contain an overt (and sometimes irritating) cynicism. His bright moments of humor and poignancy, though, ring true. He may never reach his parents’ cult-legend status, but he is surely giving them a good run for their money. —TYLER CLARK
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MUSIC REVIEWS
THE STROKES
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH (RCA)
LYRICS:
MUSIC:
SPIRITUAL CONTENT:
GENRE:
ROCK
It’s not easy being The Strokes. Their first record had critics crowing about the “saving” of rock, and they adorned the cover of every major music magazine in America. Despite all the hype, they were replaced by dancier, more huggable bands like Franz Ferdinand. First Impressions of Earth is the band’s declaration that they don’t give a crap. With forays into glam-pop, lounge and metal, The Strokes’ signature sound has evolved into an entirely different animal. Julian Casablancas sneers, howls and—for the first time—actually sings cynical musings on the state of the world. Nothing new, but this time he throws in a bit of humility. Quite a change for a band famous for holding listeners at arm’s length. There are a few missteps here, but First Impressions is the record they should have made after Is This It. —BENJAMIN ESPOSITO
CHRIS TOMLIN
LIVE FROM AUSTIN MUSIC HALL (SIX STEP)
LYRICS:
MUSIC:
SPIRITUAL CONTENT:
GENRE:
WORSHIP
Offering an experience similar to the Passion Conference worship albums, Chris Tomlin allows corporate worship to enter the individual sphere. This album covers a fairly broad musical spectrum, with mellow, piano-reliant songs like “How Great Is Our God”; the southern gospel style “On Our Side,” with guest blues singer Seth Walker; and the U2 vibe on “Forever.” Tomlin invited friends David Crowder, Cary Pierce and Ed Cash to join him in his hometown, creating a feast of musical talent. Despite the big names in attendance, the focus of the evening was not forgotten. From a reverent version of classic hymn “How Great Thou Art” to an energetic, soul-shaking version of “Indescribable,” this album provides powerful worship, ushering listeners into the presence of a holy God. —TORY J. DOLAN
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MARY J. BLIGE THE BREAKTHROUGH (GEFFEN)
NEEDTOBREATHE DAYLIGHT (ATLANTIC/LAVA)
GENRE:
GENRE:
SOUL POP
POWER POP
:LYRICS
:LYRICS
:MUSIC
:MUSIC
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
No one mixes soul and hip-hop better than Queen Blige, and her eighth record is no exception. Her recent marriage has tempered her edge, turning the brash Mary of old into a more mature, positive version. And therein lies the album’s fault. Despite some great moments, including a duet with Bono, The Breakthrough doesn’t live up to its title. —BE
Every song is an anthem. With huge choruses and triumphant singalongs about love and life and loving life, South Carolina’s Needtobreathe are both fist-pumping rock and toothless pop. Produced by Andy Green (Keane), Daylight is a great album to loudly sing along to in the car but claim belongs to your little sister. —TC
WE ARE SCIENTISTS
ROBERT POLLARD
WITH LOVE AND SQUALOR (VIRGIN)
GENRE:
INDIE ROCK
INDIE ROCK
:LYRICS
:LYRICS
:MUSIC
:MUSIC
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
The single “Nobody Move ...” may paint We Are Scientists as just another Killers clone, but the rest of With Love and Squalor reveals that is not the case. These boys from Brooklyn are the latest reason for indie kids to get up and dance, with tight angular rock, catchy post-punk hooks, ‘90s alternative guitars and self-satire. —BE
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FROM A COMPOUND EYE (MERGE)
GENRE:
The difference between a Guided by Voices album and former GBV frontman Robert Pollard’s solo album is a matter of trademark. On his latest release, the indie-famous songwriter gets more vainglorious than ever. Songs are eclectic, hard to swallow, but always personal. Purposefully bad recording? Maybe. Brilliant songwriting? Always. —JB
1/25/06 12:28:14 PM
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DILATED PEOPLES 20/20 (CAPITOL)
THE APPLESEED CAST PEREGRINE (THE MILITIA GROUP)
GENRE:
GENRE:
HIP-HOP
INDIE ROCK
:LYRICS
:LYRICS
:MUSIC
:MUSIC
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
Dilated Peoples’ latest goes back to basics. No skittering, computeraided beats or mash-ups of incongruous musical styles. Just clever hardcore rhymes and old-fashioned DJ scratchin’. The Peoples are known for their live show, but the excitement is lost on this album. It’s one thing to go back to your roots, but 20/20 just sounds dated. —BE
Recorded live over three months using some experimental tracking methods, Peregrine finds The Appleseed Cast (finally) returning to their indie/post-rock throne. Full of nuance and subtle flourishes, captivating songs like “Here We Are,” “February” and “Woodland Hunter (Part 2)” are sure to satisfy old Cast fans while making plenty more. —KW
TORTOISE & BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY CHARLIE HALL THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD (OVERCOAT) FLYING INTO DAYBREAK (SIX STEP) GENRE:
GENRE:
INDIE ROCK
WORSHIP
:LYRICS
:LYRICS
:MUSIC
:MUSIC
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
The understated rock covers on The Brave and the Bold come by way of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who wrote the Johnny Cash folk gem “I See Darkness” and also goes by Will Oldham, from the now-defunct Palace Music. Dreamy rock outfit Tortoise serves as backing band, playing ham-fisted covers of Elton John and Bruce Springsteen. —JB
The latest release from Charlie Hall is a solid, if predictable, addition to the worship music canon. There is nothing lyrically groundbreaking, and the ballads are interchangeable. However, when Hall and his band move into more musically adventurous territory (such as the percussion-driven “Song of the Redeemed”), the album finds its voice. —AM
This Changes Everything Throw out everything you thought you knew about church marketing. You never knew that it could be so powerful, so strategic and so biblical. Corporate marketing expert, Richard L. Reising, unveils revolutionary in-sights in ChurchMarketing 101. “Church leaders need to read this book.” —Darren Whitehead, Next Gen Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church “This book is a must-read for anyone who is committed to reaching their community with the gospel.” —David Dykes, Pastor, Green Acres Baptist Church “Required reading for every pastor in America.” —Brad Abare, Founder, ChurchMarketingSucks.com
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RYAN ADAMS 29 (LOST HIGHWAY)
SULLIVAN
HEY, I’M A GHOST (TOOTH & NAIL)
GENRE:
GENRE:
ALT-COUNTRY
ALT-ROCK
:LYRICS
:LYRICS
:MUSIC
:MUSIC
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
Ryan Adams recalls a full decade of his life and offers more questions than answers in his quest to find meaning. The alt-country hero sings his haunting thoughts over whispering guitars and lingering piano. Adams’ profoundly somber songwriting takes the listener on a year-byyear journey through the turbulent years of a twentysomething. —JC
Never waste a measure. That’s the Sullivan mantra on Hey, I’m a Ghost, their emotive alt-rock debut. The four piece never lingers too long on a chaotic, ever-cascading riff. They channel Anberlin one second, then shift into not-quite-screamo. The highlight, “Ten Ways to Impress,” rattles with spiritual longing. —JB
MAINSTAY
SIA
WELL MEANING FICTION (BEC)
COLOUR THE SMALL ONE (ASTRALWERKS)
GENRE:
GENRE:
INDIE POP
POP ROCK
:LYRICS
:LYRICS
:MUSIC
:MUSIC
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
:SPIRITUAL CONTENT
Well Meaning Fiction offers earnest, indie-influenced pop-rock. Touching on themes of repentance and prayer, Mainstay’s songs provide strong biblically based music to challenge believers and non-believers alike. With smooth production from Aaron Sprinkle, this record is a solid effort that should earn Mainstay plenty of fans. —BE
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Originally released in the U.K. all the way back in 2004, Colour the Small One finds sometimes-Zero 7 vocalist Sia in fine form for her U.S. debut. While songs like “Sweet Potato” and “Butterflies” play out like a slightly more organic Nelly Furtado, Sia sets herself apart with her uniquely soulful voice and lush yet spacious production. —KW
1/25/06 12:32:37 PM
BEHIND THE SCREEN
HOLLYWOOD INSIDERS ON FAITH, FILM, AND CULTURE
THE SECRET MESSAGE OF JESUS
EDITORS
AUTHOR
SPENCER LEWERENZ, BARBARA NICOLOSI
BRIAN D. MCLAREN
PUBLISHER
PUBLISHER
BAKER
W PUBLISHING GROUP
RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY
THEOLOGY
AT THIS MOMENT IN HOLLYWOOD, BEING CHRISTIAN IS THE NEW gay. With the success of The Passion of the Christ and other projects, studios are aching to find that elusive sweet spot in the huge Christian viewing audience. That makes this the perfect time for a book guiding Christian creatives into the industry. Compiled by Act One, a nonprofit program designed to train what they call “artists-apostles” to change Hollywood, these 18 essays offer a realistic approach toward evaluating your chances (“So You Wanna Come to Hollywood” offers three reasons Christians are needed but five reasons not to come); embedding truth in a competitive, often antiChristian industry (in one episode of Charmed, a writer emphasized the love of family as the key to its power, then got unexpected results); and refusing substandard work, no matter its intention (one essayist wonders, “Why Do Heathens Make the Best Christian Films?”). The best essays are insightful (“In this industry, being married is a choice we have to make every day”), challenging (“See Hollywood less like Sodom and more like Ninevah”), instructive (don’t protest a movie; write a letter) and necessary (starting in a mail room is how many begin their careers—it’s not an insult to your divine calling). There are points made on storytelling, the significance of beauty as an indicator of God and the insistence that Christian maturity is a necessity, not an option, in this industry. While none of the essayists are household names, their credits and experience implore us to see Hollywood for what it is—a mission field starving for dedicated missionaries. —KENT D. CURRY
—ERIC HURTGEN
POSTSECRET
A FIELD GUIDE TO EVANGELICALS AND THEIR HABITAT
BEASTS OF NO NATION
EDITOR
AUTHOR
AUTHOR
JOEL KILPATRICK
UZODINMA IWEALA
PUBLISHER
PUBLISHER
HARPER SAN FRANCISCO
HARPERCOLLINS
SATIRE
FICTION
FRANK WARREN PUBLISHER
REGAN ART & PHOTOGRAPHY In late 2004, Frank Warren invited complete strangers to share a secret with him. The secrets could be anything: fears, confessions, humiliations, hopes or frustrations. Soon he was receiving thousands of visually appealing postcards, which he posted on a blog. This book collects the most popular cards from the site, adding a few new ones to the mix. The result is humanity at its fullest: raw, flawed, yet breathtakingly beautiful. PostSecret is visual poetry. —DK
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THE SECRET MESSAGE OF JESUS IS BRIAN MCLAREN’S broadest and most accessible book to date. Like Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy, it sets forth a new worldview, a completely different way of viewing Jesus’ Gospel apart from the well-entrenched evangelical gospel of “heaven after you die.” Like Willard, McLaren finds Jesus’ secret message encapsulated in the reality of the kingdom of heaven, the one that Jesus claimed was “at hand.“ Unlike Willard, McLaren is surprisingly direct and comparatively simple in his argument. The Secret Message of Jesus contrasts sharply with McLaren’s New Kind of Christian series, the fictional account of one pastor’s struggle with the challenge of postmodern Christian theology that often got bogged down by its narrative style and exegetical meanderings. It is a lucid and straightforward presentation of a very provocative and controversial reading of the Gospel—really the whole Bible itself. The book is laid out in three distinct parts: Excavation, Engagement and Imagination. Each section builds on the premise that “the core message of Jesus has been unintentionally misunderstood or distorted” and that the kingdom of heaven and its availability is the “hidden message.” McLaren looks at many aspects of human culture in light of Jesus’ teaching of God’s empire: politics, religion, war, ethics and the future. McLaren offers a perspective of the world afresh in light of the kingdom message—a call to take part in God’s dreams. In the end, The Secret Message of Jesus colors the whole story of Jesus in an entirely new and refreshing light.
With his satirical “Christian news” website LarkNews.com, Joel Kilpatrick has been making Christians laugh and cry for years. His latest book will continue to do just that. He rarely criticizes Christian faith, but takes stinging yet hilarious jabs at evangelical church culture. From pointing out where evangelicals spend their time (Wal-Mart) to identifying safe topics of conversation (football, Ronald Reagan, homeschooling, Michael W. Smith), A Field Guide to Evangelicals—despite its disappointing cover art—has a satirical bite that will offend, amuse and occasionally cross the line. —TC
Agu, the narrator of Uzodinma Iweala’s first novel, is a West African boy whose happy childhood is lost when war breaks out in his country. His understanding of God and himself is forever damaged after he is kidnapped by guerrilla soldiers and forced to experience and perpetrate brutality in a seemingly meaningless conflict. Iweala, a recent Harvard graduate, has Agu speak in a childlike dialect to convey graphic details of killing, rape and destruction, making the story heartbreaking and compelling. —CG
BOOK REVIEWS
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1/25/06 12:33:24 PM
Alliance Theological Seminary enhances your academic experience so you can impact the world. Are you willing to be discipled and to build a relevant faith? Then ATS offers you an educational, life-changing experience. ATS is looking for believers who are ready to become fully equipped men and women of God. It's what the world needs. It's what ATS is all about: challenging the mind, maturing the soul, developing a relevant faith. ATS offers a culturally diverse, academically challenging, and practical learning atmosphere that prepares you for ministry. Visit the campus in Nyack, NY, or the campus in New York City to see what our locations offer. Master of Divinity Chinese Studies Christian Education and Discipleship Church Ministry Korean Studies Missions Pastoral Counseling Theological Studies Urban Church Planting Urban Studies Youth Ministry Master of Arts Old Testament New Testament Intercultural Studies Master of Arts in Counseling Master of Professional Studies Christian Ministry Urban Ministry
A book-by-book exploration in an easy-to-use format.
Call 800-541-6891Nyack campus or 877-626-2236 NYC campus Or apply online: www.alliance.edu
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I
n a down-to-earth style, The Baker Pocket Guide to the Bible gives readers a greater understanding
of the context, history, and meaning of Scripture. Because of its convenient size, it is perfect for use in small groups, or as a quick reference guide.
Find it at your local bookstore.
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96
LAST WORD
LAST WORD_19.indd 096
1/25/06 12:35:01 PM
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