Issue22_SepOct06-web

FALL TV PREVIEW JURASSIC 5 MEWITHOUTYOU LEELAND OHMEGA WATTS GENOCIDE IN DARFUR | JOHNNY CASH’S FAREWELL | COLLEGE DRINKING | THE WORLD’S BIGGEST JESUS?

GOD. LIFE. PROGRESSIVE CULTURE.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

9

PEOPLE

OUT TO CHANGE THE WORLD

SUFJAN STEVENS THE STORY BEHIND A RELUCTANT INDIE ICON

CAN MEDS

THE FRAY

GET YOU CLOSER TO GOD?

A PAINTBRUSH AND A PUB THE NEW LOOK OF CHURCH WORSHIP

PLUS: THOM YORKE THE PRICE OF FAITH THE SCENE: DENVER ISSUE 22 | SEPT_OCT 2006

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GOD. LIFE. PROGRESSIVE CULTURE. RELEVANT magazine September/October 2006, Issue 22 Check out daily news, podcasts, music videos and features at RELEVANTmagazine.com CAMERON STRANG Editor and Publisher cameron@relevantmediagroup.com

EDITORIAL Cara Davis Editorial Director cara@relevantmediagroup.com

Jesse Carey Web Content Producer jesse@relevantmediagroup.com

Adam Smith Managing Editor adam@relevantmediagroup.com

Editorial Interns: Josh Orendorf, Priscilla Santos, Lauren Smith, Eric Sullivan

Tia Stauffer Senior Associate Editor tia@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Writers: John Brandon, Fred Burrows, Tyler Clark, Winn Collier, David Crowder, Kent D. Curry, Ned Erickson, Benjamin Esposito, Elizabeth Grattan, Dan Haseltine, Aly Hawkins, Micha Boyett Hohorst, Jeremy Hunt, Jennifer Johnson, Kelsey Kreider, Kelly Kullberg, Cameron Lawrence, Aaron Maurer, Rebecca Mayer, Brett McCracken, Mark Sandberg, Brian A. Smith, Lindsey Smith, Josh Spilker, Mark Steele, Chris Troutman, Matthew Paul Turner, Alissa Wilkinson, Jeffrey Worthen, Ed Young

MARKETING Derek Roth Marketing Director derek@relevantmediagroup.com Betsy Keller Marketing Manager betsy@relevantmediagroup.com Flynn Atkins Music Manager flynn@relevantmediagroup.com Marketing Interns: John Barringer, Kim Malac, Erin Watson, Matt Wong

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006

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FIRST WORD LETTERS SLICES THE SCENE: DENVER REVOLUTION: GENOCIDE

THE RELEVANT NATION MEWITHOUTYOU WHAT IS TRUTH? A COSTLY FAITH MUSIC REVIEWS: KEANE Pigeon John, Muse Thom Yorke, Jars of Clay

DEEPER WALK RICK WARREN DAN HASELTINE MARK STEELE

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16 ALBUMS YOU SHOULD KNOW

94 96

BOOK REVIEWS LAST WORD

UPSIDE OF ANGER JURASSIC 5 BINGING ON CAMPUS WONDER DRUG RETHINKING WORSHIP

COVER STORY

50 COVER STORY

THE FRAY Signed by a major label before they ever toured, radio darlings The Fray have drawn fire from indie critics. See how they’re working to build their credibility.

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SUFJAN STEVENS Being famous can be a pain in the neck.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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things and pruning the tree in some areas. Honestly, I don’t know how it’ll all turn out, but we know God is in this. And this time next year, things will look completely different.

Here are a few of the lessons we’re learning:

CAMERON

STRANG CHANGE IS GOOD

IT’S NOT AN EARTH-SHATTERING concept that change can be hard. I guess that’s why it’s so weird that this year, which has seen a lot of “course-shifting” in my life (I’m really good at coining positive-spin terms, by the way), I’ve been more at peace than ever before. And I don’t really know why.

I’ve just been learning firsthand that even when everything about a situation says it should be hard, it doesn’t have to be. Change doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s all about your perspective.

Take the little, everyday stuff. Literally days before we were going to press on this issue, the original cover story fell through. We adapted, decided to run with The Fray, and everything fell into place. One door closing was simply an opportunity to open another.

Sure, it would have been nice if it hadn’t been three days before we were going to press, but hey, that’s life.

But it doesn’t have to be only negative changes that throw life into chaos; sometimes unexpected opportunities can add just as much stress to our delicate little existences.

I think it’s just the fact that it’s unknown and we aren’t able to plan for it.

In those moments, the ones you don’t see coming, the one thing you can determine is how you’re going to respond. Are you going to seek God, trust that He has a plan (even if it’s one you didn’t know about) and follow Him? Or are you going to keep your head down and try to keep life how it is, completely missing something He might’ve been trying to talk to you about?

I’m a firm believer that God guides and directs our paths, but it’s up to us to choose whether or not to take the steps.

For the last six months God has been speaking to me very clearly about what He’s calling RELEVANT to do in this next season. He has been opening my eyes about who we are and where we’re going. It’s been challenging, humbling and exciting. We’re shifting some priorities, launching some new

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1. WE ARE NEVER TO STAY STILL. This magazine is called to be revolutionary, fresh and something that stands out in both the Christian and non-Christian worlds. The second RELEVANT stops pursuing what God is saying and doing in our generation, we’re missing the mark. But if we start playing it safe or get sucked into any sort of subculture bubble mindset, we’re off course. Is it possible to be Christ-centered, relevant and revolutionary?

Absolutely. And honestly, at times in the last year I’ve felt like we’ve played it too safe. No more. A lot of changes are in store for the magazine that will refocus it, including a complete design overhaul— and yes, a renewed, sharper, fresher editorial focus.

2. WE ARE TO IMPACT CULTURE. We want to redefine what a “Christian” is to the world we live in.

We feel Christians should be known more for what they’re for rather than what they’re against. The world is looking for the hope we’ve found in Christ (whether they know it or not), and up to this point the separatist mentality of many Christians simply hasn’t always done the best job of reaching out. That needs to change, and this magazine needs to play a part in making a difference.

I’m an optimist and a realist, so in a practical sense how does a lowly magazine with 80,000 circulation have true national impact?

How do we reach millions? Online. RELEVANTmagazine.com currently reaches several hundred thousand visitors each month—a great start—but our goal is to one day see that be a million-plus. To do that, some incredible new things are in motion. We’re adding massive member-driven aspects to the site this fall. There will be blogs, more multimedia, more newsletters, more hourly and daily content. We’re even taking RELEVANT.tv to the next level (more on that later).

Basically, we want RELEVANT and RELEVANTmagazine.com to stay on the front edge of technology and have an unprecedented, massive national platform to reach our generation—and then use it to impact culture. We’re dreaming big.

3. WE CAN’T DO IT ALL. This one might be the most important thing I’ve been learning this year. To accomplish what God has next for us, we need to be unwavering in our focus. That means being good stewards of the time and resources we have and using them to do what’s most important— the things that will yield the greatest impact. If God is calling us in this next season to refocus and relaunch the magazine and website— no small tasks, mind you—then we’re probably going to have to reshift our plans in other areas. So that’s what we’re doing, and in the coming year you will see a fairly major strategic shift with RELEVANT Books.

(Can’t get into too many details here, only because we’re not entirely sure what it will look like.) But we’re taking bold steps to follow God, whatever it takes. We don’t honestly know how everything will turn out, but that’s part of the challenge, risk and fun that comes from following God in seasons of change.

When obstacles or opportunities unexpectedly present themselves, we can try to keep continuing on our same path, or we can say, “God, are You trying to get my attention about something?”

In my experience, He usually is. 0

CAMERON STRANG is the president and founder of RELEVANT Media Group, and is incredibly happy it’s college football time again. Go Gators.

FIRST WORD

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006

COMMENTS. CONCERNS. SMART REMARKS. Send your love and hate mail to feedback@relevantmagazine.com.

I was really impressed to read your article “Pouring Out Hope” (July/August 2006). I live in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. According to recent studies, Gualey is the fifth poorest barrio in Santo Domingo. The situation is slowly changing because the government has installed a security plan called Barrio Seguro (Safe Neighborhood), but Dominican Republic is a country which needs much help. Here in the church I attend, El Círculo (The Circle), we have a missions department that works with impoverished communities around the country. —NATANAEL DISLA

I just read First Word (“The Most Perfect Generation,” July/August 2006) and will be the first to admit that my motives and opinions are not always pure. Thank you for reminding me to speak less and listen more.

Thank you for speaking truth even when it is not comfortable. Thank you for the challenge.

—CHRISTY BOGGS

I wish you guys would cover more metal/ hardcore bands. I loved that you guys did an interview with Norma Jean (“Standing Strong After the Storm,” May/June 2005), and I would hope to see more. I would recommend an article on As I Lay Dying, a band that is not ashamed of their Christian beliefs and is one of the biggest names in the metal scene today. —RYAN RIDDLE Does The Fray count? We don’t really listen to this “hardcore” you speak of.

Let me applaud Pat Robertson (“One of the Strongest Men Alive?,” July/August 2006) for being in good shape for a man of his age. That being said, though, for him and his publicity team to claim a 2,000-pound leg press is laughable.

After more than 11 years of lifting weights (focusing mainly in power-lifting), I know what he and his people claim as “a leg press” is far from being a true leg press. I commend Robertson for his commitment to healthy living, but how about stopping the attempts to fool the public into thinking that he’s some sort of Geriatric Superman? —K.W. Geriatric Superman. Now that would be a sweet name for a hardcore metal band. We’d cover them.

In Slices (“Wii vs. PS3,” July/August 2006) it

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said that the $500/$600 versions of the PS3 had 20/60 gigabytes of memory. “Memory,” however, is the incorrect term. Memory is used to refer to the RAM of a computer, or a computer entertainment system in this case.

The correct term is “storage,” for the amount of hard drive space. —JOHN BARTZ Nerd (nûrd) n.

1. A foolish, inept or unattractive person.

2. One who writes in to magazines explaining the differences between memory and hard drive space.

Does RELEVANT have a MySpace page?

—JEFF CORNETT

Indeed we do! Hit up http://www.myspace. com/relevantmagazine and be our friend.

I love the podcast, and I’m a huge fan of the magazine. I also have an RSS feed straight from your website. Thanks for everything you do, RELEVANT ... it’s a good thing for me.

—AMANDA MAGLISH

The podcast loves you, too. You obviously duel like a real man, Amanda.

The article “Missing the Point?” (July/August 2006) was long overdue, and it was good to hear from such a vast array of leaders within the movement. But I felt that it’s important to clarify one statement made by Tony Jones, the National Coordinator of Emergent, who says, “Statements of faith are about drawing borders, which means you have to load your weapons and place soldiers at those borders.

It becomes an obsession to guard the borders.

This is simply not the ministry of Jesus.”

Essential Christian doctrine seems pretty important to Jesus and the apostles; who are we to denigrate it? Methodologies and worship preferences should remain flexible.

Essential Christian doctrine, however, is nonnegotiable. Jones is right, we’re all bound

together by hope, but not at the expense of our core beliefs. —BOBBY BREWER After reading the RELEVANT Guru column (July/August 2006) that said to “share the Gospel but not the part about sin and hell lest you be thought of as uncool,” I was left with the impression that he is the uncool one. After all, what is the Gospel without hell and sin?

Why even have a Savior if there’s nothing to be saved from? —TICEE GRAHAM It makes us sad because this isn’t the only email we got taking that Guru column seriously. Maybe from now on we should just label everything: “Warning, Satire Ahead.

Read Only with Sense of Humor Intact.”

Your magazine is always stupendous, but this issue (July/August 2006) managed to pinpoint several areas in my life that needed attention, prayer and action. From a journalist’s perspective, the writing was tight, energetic and inspiring. From a post-college, 24-yearold’s perspective, the articles “Too Literal, Too Limited,” “Get a Haircut and a Real Job,” “India.Arie” and “Every Man for Himself” were a swift kick in the pants. Thanks and keep it up! —HANNAH WIEST Hannah, you give us hope about our readers.

Could you help Ticee out?

Please tell Mark Steele that sometimes it’s not all about ambition. I found this article (“Get a Haircut and a Real Job,” July/August 2006) especially cynical, so much so that it was not even encouraging. I’m a 21-year-old, very recent college graduate who spends every waking hour trying to find a decent job that I can live off of. What would really SHOCK me right now is for someone to maybe say, “We’re proud of you for working so hard. It’ll come. We believe in you.” The bottom line is, I have a haircut, and I’m trying to get a real job. —JOEL SHOEMAKER

LETTERS

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RELEVANT’S 2006 FALL TV PREVIEW • BECAUSE, LET’S BE HONEST, YOU WATCH TV MORE THAN YOU READ BOOKS

EVERY SEPTEMBER, the “Big 4” networks (NBC, CBS, ABC and the ever-morecompetitive Fox) re-position their pilot pawns in hopes of gaining strategic footing in the ratings chess game. As usual, this fall there’s sure to be more casualties than advances, but at least it’s looking like this will be a fun season to watch.

TV ABOUT TV

FALL TV PREVIEW

On the comedy side, NBC is offering 30 Rock (Wednesdays 8:30/7:30), written, executive-produced and starring Tina Fey. The show—the perfect platform for Fey’s snarky self-reference—is basically a fictionalized version of her position as former head writer for Saturday Night Live.

Co-starring Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Rachel Dratch, 30 Rock promises to be a good bit of fun for those who want a midweek dose of SNL humor.

In the hour-long drama department, NBC is offering Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (Mondays 10/9), a promising endeavor from Aaron Sorkin (creator of The West Wing).

The show is the more serious, culturally critical older brother of 30 Rock (both are about the politics of television) and features a strong cast (Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet) who constantly toss around pop-culture references of everything from Three 6 Mafia to The 700 Club.

CRIME DRAMAS ... NOT DEAD YET There are a million crime shows on the schedule, but what’s the one thing we haven’t seen yet? Kidnapping, of course!

Never one to disappoint, Fox presents

30 Rock NBC, Wednesdays 8:30/7:30

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SLICES

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The Nine ABC, Wednesdays 10/9 Vanished (Mondays 9/8), a week-to-week unraveling of the mystery behind the disappearance of the beautiful young wife of a prominent Georgia senator. Of course, in true Fox fashion, there are conspiracies at work that go to the highest levels, and “evidence that could rock the very foundation of American society” is continuously hinted at. NBC offers something similar but with a slightly more domestic bent in Kidnapped (Wednesdays 10/9), a “rich Manhattan child is abducted” show that is basically a made-for-TV version of the ’90s Mel Gibson vehicle, Ransom.

Another new show in this vein is the hostage drama Standoff (Fox, Tuesdays 8/7), a show

Six Degrees ABC, Thursdays 10/9 with a tagline that says it all: “In life and in love, everything is a negotiation.”

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER Ensemble dramas about people bound only by circumstance is a formula that has long worked for TV (Lost or Twin Peaks, anyone?), and ABC seems to be latching onto this theme most forcefully. This fall it debuts The Nine (Wednesdays 10/9), a jittery, 24-esque ensemble drama about nine people caught in a bank robbery gone wrong.

Each episode features a flashback (sound familiar?) to the actual robbery as we piece together what happened during the 52-hour standoff and why “the nine” are inextricably

Friday Night Lights NBC, Tuesdays 8/7 linked. Also on ABC this fall is J.J. Abrams’ Six Degrees (Thursdays 10/9), which plays on the whole “everyone is connected” theme by weaving complex narratives of six NYC strangers (includes Jay Hernandez, Erika Christensen, Bridget Moynahan and Hope Davis) who cross paths more times than coincidence can account for.

CBS tries its hand in this genre with a comedy, The Class (Mondays 8/7), a “where are they now?” show about elementary school classmates grown up and messed up.

Like its forebear, Reunion on Fox last fall, The Class will probably be dismissed before the end of the first term.

RED STATE LOVE

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip NBC, Mondays 10/9

The Red States have money, and lots of it.

Hence, shows that throw a veritable bone to the prairie home. The best example of this is Friday Night Lights (NBC, Tuesdays 8/7), a television-series version of the hit high-school football film of 2004. The show, from writers/directors Peter Berg and Brian Grazer, is almost a stylistic and thematic replica of the film (complete with the famous Explosions in the Sky soundtrack), which is a good thing. The film was surprisingly acclaimed, and the show has promise to be the same—if it can break out of its copycat constraints. Elsewhere in the middleAmerica programming department is Jericho (CBS, Wednesdays 8/7), a cold-war throwback vis-à-vis Alas, Babylon—about a small Kansas town in the midst of nuclear Armageddon. The show stars an unlikely hero, Skeet Ulrich (the killer in Scream), who saves school children as a hobby.

Heroics—a “so hot right now” theme in our post-9/11 world—is also the theme of the aptly titled Heroes (NBC, Mondays 9/8).

This show blends X-Men, Superman and Unbreakable and gets served with an altrock soundtrack and some hearty existential angst. —BRETT McCRACKEN

SLICES

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TOUCHDOWN JESUS • LEELAND • WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO ...?

TOUCHDOWN JESUS SCORES FOR CHURCH It stands 62 feet tall. It weighs eight tons. It’s got a heart of steel and soul of concrete. No, it’s not King Kong—it’s the King of Kings.

And quite possibly the largest sculpture of Jesus Christ ever constructed in America.

Touchdown Jesus, as some refer to it, is a familiar site to the 3,400 congregants of Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, just south of Cincinnati, where the massive Jesus sits in front of the church’s baptismal pool, clearly visible from Interstate 75.

The statue’s body, made entirely of Styrofoam and fiberglass, was originally constructed on the beaches of Jacksonville, Fla., and then hauled in segments to Monroe. The statue cost a staggering $250,000, requiring roughly 8,000 man-hours to complete.

OTHER LARGE JESUSES: The famous Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

This 2-millionpound Jesus stands near the Great Passion Play amphitheater in Eureka Springs, Ark.

Notre Dame’s majestic mosaic at the foot of the football field is the original “Touchdown Jesus.”

“Weeping Jesus” is mounted outside the Oklahoma City National Memorial park.

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO ...

SWEATERS VS. BLAZERS: (L-R) Jake Mooring, Mike Smith, Leeland Mooring, Jake Holtz, Jeremiah Wood

LEELAND Eighteen-year-old Leeland Mooring is not a rock star. Though his band, Leeland, has garnered comparisons to Brit-pop artists Keane, Travis and Coldplay, they are adamantly not a rock band.

“Our first call is to worship,” Mooring says. “We’re called to teach our generation to worship.”

Mooring admits, though, this calling has not always been easy. “We kind of became a rock band for a few months and we stopped doing worship,” he says. “A lot of kids loved the songs, but we walked away from it. One day in practice we looked around, and I said, ‘Guys, do you feel right doing this?’ We went back to worship. Any time we try to just entertain, we fail miserably.”

This seems ironic for a band known for their energetic and intense live performances. “We don’t really care what people think about us when we start worshipping,” Mooring says. “Mainly, we want people to leave with a sense of, ‘Wow, I feel changed. I feel different.’”

When it comes to worship music, “different” is a refreshing term. With catchy melodies and spiritually thoughtful lyrics, Leeland manages to rock in spite of themselves. —ADAM SMITH

THEN In his heyday, Jaleel White sported coke-bottle glasses, hiked-up trousers and red suspenders. He was known to snort and squeak, especially when trying to impress his crush, Laura Winslow. Like we need to tell you, Jaleel White is Steve Urkel from ’90s sitcom Family Matters.

NOW

JALEEL WHITE 20

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Urkel fans can breathe easy—Jaleel is alive and well.

Contrary to Internet rumors, Jaleel White did not commit suicide. Nor did he pen a melodramatic suicide note with his catchphrase, “Did I do that?” He did, however, trade his suspenders for a film degree and Laura Winslow for the NBA. Graduating from UCLA Film School in 2001, White now lives in California working as a professional sports writer and blogger for NBA.com. It’s not quite TGIF, but at least he’s still alive.

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“What Now will give you focus and resolve— it’ll change the way you get out of bed in the morning and alter the way you do things each day. Don’t put this book down until you buy it, read it and add it to your life.”

—Ted Haggard, SENIOR PASTOR, NEW LIFE CHURCH

WE’VE ALL ASKED IT. HERE’S THE FIRST STEP IN ANSWERING IT.

Life doesn’t just happen. Your talents, gifts and abilities aren’t just personality quirks. Each of us is created for a distinct, significant purpose in life. Join Marc Estes on a journey toward finding that purpose. His challenge—to live deliberately, to serve with passion and to make your life count for something—will change your perspective and challenge your faith.

AVAILABLE IN BOOKSTORES NOW or Save 20% at RELEVANTstore.com

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7/31/06 11:18:06 AM

RELEVANT GURU • JESUS IN THE NEWS • WILL HOGE

JESUS IN THE NEWS WHO’S IN THE HALL?

Stay in School.

A public high school in West Virginia is being sued by two civil liberties groups because officials refuse to remove a large picture of Jesus that has hung in the school for more than three decades. The groups say it is a violation of a “pretty clear constitutional law.”

LADY LIBERTY’S NEW LOOK A 72-foot-tall statue, called the “Statue of Liberation Through Christ,” was unveiled by a Memphis, Tenn., megachurch. The statue shows Lady Liberty holding a massive cross with the Ten Commandments under one arm and the word Jehovah on her crown. Church officials say the goal of the statue is to “let people know that God is the foundation of our nation.”

BLASPHEMOUS BILLBOARD Pranksters in Texas caused a stir when they covered up a huge billboard with a massive poster of Jesus holding a Budweiser can in between the phrases “King of Jews” and “King of Beers.” The company that owns the billboard says that the vandals somehow constructed the image at home, and then pasted it over an existing ad.

THE RELEVANT GURU Dear RELEVANT Guru, My wife and I can’t get enough 24. We both love Jack Bauer. The problem is I think my wife loves him too much.

—Corey C. Since 24’s inception, it’s become routine for us to hear the women we love saying, “Why can’t you be more like Jack?” “Jack Bauer would have had the trash taken out by now, and had time to save the world!” “Jack Bauer would never let the Olive Garden waitress talk to me that way!” I say give the fine lady what she wants.

Doesn’t she deserve it? So get out there and interrogate the neighbors, perfect the sleeper hold, confiscate a helicopter, break someone out of prison and dismantle all the bio-chemical weapons you can get your hands on. And always remember ...

WWJBD?

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MISC. Willie Nelson saved the day for a historic church in Texas. The country singer bought the Methodist church where he grew up and first learned music through hymns and gospel songs. The future of the church, which was built in 1886, was uncertain after dwindling attendance numbers forced the building to be put up for sale ...

A new report

by Bono’s aid organization DATA says that pledges made by wealthy nations to provide money to finance lifesaving AIDS drugs are not being met. Bono said that he hopes the new report will help the world’s richest countries get back on track and follow up on their promises ...

Uwe Boll, director of such horrible films as House of the Dead and BloodRayne, has challenged his critics to boxing matches that he will use in his next film. Boll specifically called out fellow filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, the writer of Pulp Fiction and Silent Hill. The fights will be broadcast live on the Internet and covered by international press ...

WILL HOGE Nashville rocker Will Hoge is living in the past. “I’m a Civil War buff, or as we call it in the South, ‘The War Between the States,’” he says. “I have a lot of history books from that time period, and am always fascinated by the letters they wrote to home during the war.”

His interest in historical wars bleeds over into interest in the current war.

“I study politics a little here and there, although I’m no expert,” says Hoge, who is avidly touring to support his latest release, The Man Who Killed Love. “I have a hard time believing that the current war has much to do with anything other than money. I fully support the soldiers and their sense of duty, but I’m still trying to figure out how this is in anyone’s best interests.

“This is why it’s good that I’m a musician,” he continues. “I get started on stuff like this, and I never know where I’m going to end up. It’s easier to try to sum up how I feel in a song rather than get into all this. I’m better off on stage and living in a van with four sweaty guys than trying to discuss world events.” —BRIAN A. SMITH

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In an honest, profound look at the connection between death, the soul, and bluegrass music—that’s right, bluegrass music—best-selling musician David Crowder comes to terms with a Savior who understands suffering and a God who grieves.

From exploring the death of the soul in mainstream culture to uncovering slave spirituals in the DNA of bluegrass, Crowder discovers that grief is one of the truest ways to follow Jesus ... and realizes that death is not the ultimate calamity.

David Crowder*Band B COLLISION or (B is for Banjo), or (B Sides), or (Bill), or perhaps more accurately (...the eschatology of Bluegrass)

WWW.DAVIDCROWDERBAND.COM WWW.EVERYBODYWANTSTOGOTOHEAVEN.COM

OHMEGA WATTS • RELEVANT TV’S TOP TEN

VIEWER

TOP TEN 1. Project 86 “My Will Be a Dead Man” 2. Arcade Fire “Rebellion (Lies)” 3. The Fray “Over My Head (Cable Car)” 4. Leeland “Sound of Melodies” 5. Thrice “Image of the Invisible”

6. Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” 7. Keane “Is It Any Wonder?”

8. Flyleaf “I’m So Sick” 9. Athlete “Wires” 10. Tenacious D “Tribute”

RECENT RELEVANT.TV

SPOTLIGHT VIDEOS

Thrice “Image of the Invisible”

The Streets “Never Went to Church”

Keane “Is It Any Wonder?”

The Procussions “The Storm”

Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Gold Lion”

Project 86 “My Will Be a Dead Man”

OHMEGA WATTS MC and producer Ohmega Watts would have never made it in the music industry if it weren’t for his father.

“Growing up in Jamaica, my dad was extremely poor,” he says. “What he’s come to achieve for my family in the United States is a big thing. I’ve learned that people need to understand that they can rise above whatever is going on around them.”

With the release of his debut album last year, The Find, Watts is doing just that. Aiming to highlight issues like poverty, relationships and current events, his message reverberates hope in a modern, organic way.

Citing musical influences like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and LL Cool J, Watts tastefully blends his reggae and calypso roots with samples of rap, jazz and funk. The result has made quite a splash in the hip-hop world.

Yet despite his success, Watts prefers to spend most of his time in his studio in Portland, Ore., recording and creating remixes or digging for records at local music shops. Whatever he’s doing, his vision remains clear.

“The end-all of my focus is to do the best with the talents I’ve been given,” he says. “I just want to put out good quality music—no frills, no strings attached. This is me; you like it or you don’t.” —JOSH ORENDORF

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Tune in to music that matters every day at www.RELEVANT.tv. New videos are added every Wednesday, so take that!

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THE LONG WINTERS • RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM POLLS

MISC. The W’s are taking over the government.

Well, sort of. W, the President, has appointed W, the artist Michael W. Smith, to be the Vice Chair of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. It appears that Smitty and President Bush are good friends, and as we all know, friends are friends forever ...

BEARDS VS. GLASSES: (L-R) Eric Carson, Nabil Ayers, John Roderick, Mike Squires

THE LONG WINTERS

A new study by two major universities has found that Americans are “lonelier than ever.” According to the research, most Americans only have two close confidants.

Researchers believe that the rise of the Internet, longer work hours and long commutes contribute to a decrease in faceto-face interaction ...

If you met John Roderick in a dark alley, you might mistake him for a canoe guide, what with his curly beard and outdoorsman aura. In reality, he fronts The Long Winters, a brainy indie band that’s also immensely pop-friendly. Their latest, Putting the Days to Bed, has lines like false prophesy doesn’t mean prophesies are true (on “Clouds”) to confront what Roderick calls “negative deduction” arguments about God. “Any attempt to say something meaningful about God is rendered instantly ridiculous by the limitations of language,” he explains. “For a human being to make any assertion about what God is or isn’t seems like the height of hubris and folly to me.”

Raised in Anchorage, Alaska, the 35-year-old ignored the Northern Exposure culture (roaming moose on city streets, lawless behavior) and focused on honing his musical sensibilities, a mixture of The Smiths and Saul Bellow. There’s an analog immediacy to the music, like Roderick is lounging on your sofa, recounting half-forgotten stories and finger-picking his way through a vaguely familiar REM song.

A “total product of Alaska,” Roderick and his band seem so unpretentious it’s almost jarring. “So much of indie-rock culture is hyperinoffensive and hyper-sensitive, which I think is mostly a boring lie,” Roderick says. “I say I’m grouchy mostly as a way of distinguishing myself from all the people who are so aggressively nice.” —JOHN BRANDON

RELEVANT MAGAZINE .COM

WE ASK STUPID QUESTIONS, YOU ACTUALLY TAKE THE TIME TO ANSWER

HOW MANY BOOKS HAVE YOU READ IN THE LAST YEAR?

WHO COULD LEG PRESS MORE?

HOW OFTEN DO YOU GO TO THE MOVIES?

1-2 More than 20 3-10 11-20 Do magazines count?

Pre-haircut Samson 40% John Jacobs (of the Power Team) 37% Pat Robertson 14% Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger 5% Bruce Banner 4%

Once a month I’d rather spend on Netflix Twice a month Once a week Several times a week

Total votes: 2,817

Total votes: 1,169

Total votes: 1,568

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27% 25% 22% 20% 6%

48% 23% 21% 7% 1%

Some scholars and critics are worried about the historical accuracies of Mel Gibson’s new movie, Apocalypto. But in an interview with Time magazine Gibson said, “After what I experienced with The Passion, I frankly don’t give a flying [expletive] about much of what those critics think.” In other news, Mel Gibson has a potty mouth ...

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Real life.

Real books.

Resources you need.

XY

PU

Available at your local bookstore. | www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

JAMIE TWORKOWSKI

JAMIE TWORKOWSKI, 26 TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS WHAT IS “TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS”?

I spent five days with a girl in great need. Her name is Renee, and when I met her, I couldn’t look away. I could not ignore her needs. “To Write Love on Her Arms” is the story of her struggle with cutting, depression and drug addiction. It’s her journey from pain to hope and healing, from addiction to sobriety. The story is basically the moments leading up to her entering rehab. That’s the micro answer. The macro answer, the bigger picture, is that a whole bunch of people have found hope in Renee’s story.

HOW DID THIS BECOME A T-SHIRT CAMPAIGN? Renee had just entered rehab. There were a lot of questions about the cost of treatment and how those bills were going to be paid. I was at a Coldplay concert, and it stirred something in me. As Bono would say, God walked through the room. I was reminded how big things can be, and it hit me that I had to keep going, had to keep dreaming. We were going to make T-shirts, the story would be screened inside, and 100 percent of the profit would go to help pay for Renee’s rehab.

WHERE IS TWLOHA HEADED? WHAT’S YOUR VISION? We’re in the process of becoming a nonprofit, and we just built a website (www.twloha.com). We are working on a compilation CD, which we’re calling We Began to Sing.

We just had our first event, Stop the Bleeding in Orlando, a unique night of awareness and hope presented through music, art, film and spoken word. All proceeds went to an organization that is meeting needs locally. Things like cutting, depression, drug addiction and sexual abuse are so often misunderstood and kept quiet, especially in the Church. We want to inspire honest conversations about these dark issues. We believe that rescue is possible, that those in great need can find rescue, and that the rest of us can live as rescuers. Personally, I am in the process of quitting my job this week [laughs], in taking steps toward working on TWLOHA full-time. The dream is to write and speak, to communicate love and hope in an honest way.

HOW CAN PEOPLE HELP? Buy a shirt, or simply support the resources on our site.

Learn what it means to love broken people. Don’t turn away from the things you don’t understand ... Don Miller writes in Blue Like Jazz that “something was broken in the world and we were supposed to hold our palms against the wound.” That’s it. We’re called to stop the bleeding.

We’re called to change the world.

ONLINE BONUS: Check out RELEVANTmagazine.com for Jamie’s article, “To Write Love on Her Arms.”

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FIGHT THE STEREOTYPE FOR YEARS THEY’VE SAID OUR GENERATION DOESN’T CARE. THEY’RE WRONG. THE RELEVANT NATION 50 ACTIVISTS, ARTISTS, AND INNOVATORS WHO ARE CHANGING THEIR WORLD THROUGH FAITH

HOW?

Share the stor y of a visionar y you know and enter for the chance to win a feature in RELEVANT m agazine and more priz es.

RELEVANTm

agazine.com/n

ation

AVAILABLE IN BOOKSTORES NOW or Save 20% at RELEVANTstore.com

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7/31/06 10:42:41 AM

RELEVANT’S LOOK AT WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD

THE MOUNTAINS

DENVER

Skiing and snowboarding dominate the winter. Vail, Copper, Keystone, Breckenridge, A Basin, Beaver Creek and Winter Park are plenty close to make a day trip.

However, with countless hikes, bikes, climbs, fishing streams and river rapids to choose from, the mountains are just as popular in the spring, summer and fall.

With its sun and endless outdoor options, Denver certainly attracts everyone from the active to the hardcore. No wonder it is known as the “thinnest” city in America with well less than half the population being overweight. It has also been called “Sports Town USA,” a claim it backs up with five well-supported big league sports teams, dozens of parks and more than 300 miles of interconnecting bike trails.

“THE WEATHER IS AWFUL. There is nothing to do. It snows all winter. And the people are mean.” That is how most Denverites describe their home, because we want to keep the secret for ourselves that none of this is true. My friends are going to hate me for writing this article.

Denver has more than 300 sunny days a year—more than San Diego and Miami. Our heralded snow mostly stays in the mountains. And there is more to do than can be done in one lifetime. It is a beautiful thing to be on a bike, in a kayak or on the side of a mountain in less than an hour from the time you leave work. And most people are.

WHERE TO WORSHIP The general spiritual “scene” in Denver was born out of a church called Cherry Hills Community (www.chcc.org). From this one church, many of the most vibrant and kingdom-minded churches in the city have come, a few of which are Colorado Community, Greenwood Community and Lookout Mountain Community to name a few. The Next Level (TNL) Church is geared mostly for college and early career types. They meet on Tuesdays and have a gathering on second and fourth Sundays. For a more emergent-style experience, Pathways Church is a sweet worship place. They have two locations and Sunday morning and evening services.

THE MUST-SEES

16th Street Mall

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If you are visiting Denver, there are a few touristy spots to place high on the list. Go downtown and walk the 16th Street Mall. Historic “LoDo” on the western side of downtown has open air cafés and live music. It’s home to the Colorado Rockies and is full of life late into the evening. Head west out of town toward Morrison, Colo., and stop at Red Rocks Amphitheater. There are trails, a museum at the top of the stairs and some of the best views of town anywhere.

Tattered Cover

LOCALS ONLY The place to be is Washington Park (“Wash” Park for locals). There is a two-and-a-half mile trail around the perimeter, and daily pickup soccer, volleyball, basketball, tennis, croquet or you-name-it matches inside. The best coffee shop for atmosphere is Stella’s on S. Pearl Street, but the best coffee is Kaladi Brothers on Evans. REI’s flagship is in Confluence Park. Much more than an outdoor store, it serves as a meeting place for the beginning, middle or end of many adventures. Another sweet spot is the Tattered Cover Bookstore (with a building in LoDo and a new location on Colfax in the old Lowenstein Theater). It has stories of books, comfy furniture and an ambience like no other. For more info, visit www. denver.mixliving.com (for nightlife) and www.inmotion365.com (for the outdoors).

NED ERICKSON worked with Young Life in Denver before moving to North Carolina this summer. He’s the author of Falling into

Love (RELEVANT Books).

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TO SUBSCRIBE: TOLL-FREE: (866) 512-1108

RELEVANTmagazine.com/subscribe

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7/31/06 10:53:58 AM

TAKE ACTION AND DO SOMETHING

AGENCY SPOTLIGHT SAVE DARFUR COALITION

GENOCIDE IN DARFUR

BY ERIC SULLIVAN

The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of more than 100 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations. Their mission is to raise public awareness and to mobilize an effective unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of 2 million people in the Darfur region. www.savedarfur.org

THE NUMBERS 3.5 million people are now hungry 2.5 million have been displaced due

THE MASS SLAUGHTER of European Jews during the Holocaust is widely accepted as

to violence

one of the most gruesome injustices ever brought against a group of people. When we hear the word genocide, many people think of this. Unfortunately, though, genocides have occurred throughout history. Oftentimes the extent of the tragedies weren’t known by other nations until it was too late. Fortunately, with modern technology the world is capable of communicating like never before. We have the ability to let the world know about the atrocities that are being perpetrated around the world while there is still time to do something about it.

It’s in this global environment that news of systematic rapes and killings in Darfur, Sudan, have come to the world’s attention. Approximately 400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes since fighting began in 2003. The violence in Darfur has become more than a civil war between the Sudanese militias and rebel forces. It is an attempt by the Sudanese government to rid the nation of non-Arab Africans. According to The New York Times, a document seized from a militia official ordered regional commanders and security officials to “change the demography of Darfur and make it void of African tribes.”

It encouraged “killing, burning villages and farms, terrorizing people, confiscating property from members of African tribes and forcing them from Darfur.” Black men who leave their homes to get food or water are regularly castrated and killed. Black women who leave their homes are regularly gangraped. Both Colin Powell and President Bush have classified the happenings in Darfur as genocide.

The international community has been working toward peace in Sudan through diplomatic efforts. African Union forces have been present and monitoring the atrocities. Unfortunately, the inability to intervene and a lack of financial support are making it increasingly difficult for them to do their job. United Nations forces have been proposed to aid in the peacekeeping process, but the Sudanese government has yet to allow them.

In addition to the financial needs of the African Union forces, the 2.5 million people who have been displaced have no way to support themselves in an economy that has been shut down by the fighting. International aid groups have been attacked and denied access to the very people who need their help the most. Some of the groups who have managed to remain in the war-torn area are running out of money needed to keep the hospitals and other services open.

Although there is debate on how the United States and other members of the international community should respond, it is clear that response is necessary.

400,000 people have died in Darfur

IT IS AN ATTEMPT TO RID THE NATION OF NON-ARAB AFRICANS.

thus far

RESOURCES www.beawitness.org www.genocideinterventionfund.org www.preventgenocide.org www.worldrelief.org www.afjn.org

DIG DEEPER Genesis 21:23 Galatians 5:1 Hebrews 2:14-15

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING “If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear, then they will—all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us.”

—George Clooney, actor “Words without deeds violates the moral and legal obligation we have under the genocide convention but, more importantly, violates our sense of right and wrong and the standards we have as human beings about looking to care for one another.”

—Jon Corzine, governor of New Jersey

FOR MORE INFORMATION, check out www.RELEVANTmagazine.com/therevolution and The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World (RELEVANT Books).

REVOLUTION

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7/31/06 4:50:46 PM

CONTEMPLATIONS FOR THE SOUL

PRAYER AND THE IMAGINATION

Prayer and Desire

BY WINN COLLIER “IT TAKES IMAGINATION to live in God’s world,” says N.T. Wright.

This must be true. The resurrection of Jesus proclaims that, even now, God’s kingdom is coming. But how can we see this potent kingdom while engulfed in images of violence, selfishness, excess and sadness, the stuff of quite another kingdom? We must learn to see a different way. We must imagine. A redeemed imagination is not code for naïve fantasy, conjuring notions of fairies or, like in the world of my two preschool sons, dinosaurs who roam upstairs. To speak of a redeemed imagination is to speak of prayer, perhaps the oldest way God’s people have sought to see what it is God is up to.

Even Ignatius has been described as one who practiced “prayer by imagination.”

James spoke of the prayer of faith to be offered for those who were ailing, insisting that the result would be the Lord raising them up (James 5:15). While human obedience, grounded in the confidence that God is fully able to mend and restore, was a prerequisite for the healing God desired to give, the crucial reality was that this was a healing God desired to give. It was the Lord who intended to raise them up. The imagery of their prayer was immersed in God-reality.

Those praying were instructed to use oil, a symbol of the Spirit, and to invoke the name of Jesus as they prayed for the sick. This prayer was not a formula or a lucky rabbit’s foot that pushed God’s buttons, prompting Him to acquiesce and slap down a begrudging healing or two. This prayer of faith was their way of seeing what was truly happening around them, what God was busy doing. The very Spirit of God was applying His power to the moment. The very Resurrected Jesus was asserting life into death. Sickness, true as it was, was not the truest sight. The truest sight was their God, strong and powerful, healing and restoring and breathing new life.

This is all the clearer when Hebrews reminds us that faith is being “certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). So, a prayer of faith is a prayer opening up the vistas of what we could not otherwise see, DIG DEEPER all the ways God is loving, healing, MATTHEW 6 rebuking and moving on our behalf. But LUKE 11 there is a counterfeit imagination, one HEBREWS 11 entirely separated from prayer, faith and JAMES 5 God, one that is useless to help us see anything bigger than ourselves. Fénelon suggested that true prayer, drenched in passionate desire for God, is necessary to guard us from “illusion,” or what we might call a false imagination. Anyone can see the obvious: the shame, the violence, the isolation. Anyone can surrender to the delusion that these tragedies are the deepest truth.

However, if we want to see God’s activity in our world, then the imaginative eyes of faithful prayer are required.

For us then, our fear or loneliness is not the truest thing. Not even our sin is the truest thing.

God—that is the truest thing. It just requires imagination, prayer, to see it.

WINN COLLIER is the author of Restless Faith (NavPress).

You may connect with him at www.winncollier.com

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TRUE PRAYER is only another name for the love of God. Its excellence does not consist in the multitude of our words; for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him. The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only for what it desires. To pray, then, is to desire—but to desire what God would have us desire. He who asks what he does not from the bottom of his heart desire is mistaken in thinking that he prays. Let him spend days in reciting prayers, in meditation or in inciting himself to pious exercises; he prays not once truly if he really desire not the things he pretends to ask.

O! How few there are who pray! For how few are they who desire what is truly good!

Crosses, external and internal humiliation, renouncement of our own wills, the death of self and the establishment of God’s throne upon the ruins of self love, these are indeed good; not to desire these is not to pray; to desire them seriously, soberly, constantly and with reference to all the details of life, this is true prayer; not to desire them, and yet to suppose we pray, is an illusion like that of the wretched who dream themselves happy. Alas! How many souls full of self, and of an imaginary desire for perfection in the midst of hosts of voluntary imperfections, have never yet uttered this true prayer of the heart! ...

On the other hand, that heart in which the true love of God and true desire exist, never ceases to pray.

FRANCOIS FÉNELON (1651-1715) was a church bishop as well as a spiritual adviser to a number of friends serving in the French court of Louis XIV. Staying faithful to Jesus in Louis’ notoriously debased atmosphere was immensely difficult, and Fénelon offered guidance to his friends via letters. From these letters and other writings, we can hear Fénelon’s instruction, just as riveting today as it must have been four centuries ago. Knowing the importance of hearing ancient Christian voices, Fénelon introduces us to this month’s deeper walk theme: prayer.

“On Prayer and the Principal Exercises of Piety” in Spiritual Progress [Francois Fénelon], accessed at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

ONLINE BONUS: Check out RELEVANTmagazine.com to dig deeper with discussion questions and see RELEVANT book recommendations.

DEEPER WALK

7/31/06 4:51:34 PM

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LE VA 6 N Ts / to re .co m

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE

CLASSIC WRITERS + TODAYʼS FRESH VOICES

ST.AUGUSTINE

, Ê V , ," Ê C.S. LEWIS

Featuring insights from classical writers and todayʼs freshest voices, Todayʼs Devotional Bible provides deep daily devotions from both a classic voice and a contemporary voice on the same topic. And with powerful weekend reflections patterned after the Lectio Divina, this Bible will help you discover and develop a spiritual rhythm in your life.

Available October 2006! For more information about the new Today’s Devotional Bible visit www.TNIV.com, or pre-order your copy now and save 33% at RELEVANTstore.com.

RICK WARREN LIVING LIFE TOGETHER IN COUNTLESS HOMES around the world this week, eight to 12 people will gather together to share their lives—their pains, successes and spiritual journeys— with one another.

In these small groups, people are truly living life together. They don’t just study the Bible. They don’t just talk theology. They are pooling their resources, talents and spiritual gifts to help others in Jesus’ name. They’re building houses for the poor. They’re starting churches at home and abroad. Together, they are being the body of Christ in the world.

And that’s exactly what God intended.

We’re told in Acts that the very first Christians met regularly in the temple courts (2:46). God meant for us to have real fellowship—the biblical word for sharing experiences. It includes unselfish loving, honest sharing, practical serving, sacrificial giving, sympathetic comforting and all the other “one another” commands found in the New Testament.

This emerging revolution seems to be different than other small group movements in the past. Other waves focused more on the felt needs of belonging; people had a need for one another. Of course, that’s true today as well. But today’s movement is not only about belonging. It’s also about becoming spiritually healthy.

You can’t fulfill God’s purposes for your life on your own. It’s impossible. Each one of God’s purposes—worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism— requires a vibrant relationship with others.

Last year a woman in our church told her small group that she was HIV-positive.

She didn’t know how they would take it.

She’d been rejected many times before when she had shared her story. But not this time.

Not only did her small group embrace her 36

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personally as a sister in Christ, but they embraced her mission to help others who are HIV-positive.

She never could have had that experience in our worship services. We have more than 23,000 people attending our church each weekend. I’m convinced that we have a loving church, but I’m certain not everyone would have embraced her confession. Real community is what happened in her small group. In essence, her small group was her church.

But there’s more. More than 140 small groups at Saddleback have participated in P.E.A.C.E. Plan trips in the past two years. These small groups have traveled together to some of the most remote and least Christian places on the planet. Together they’ve attacked the global giants of spiritual need, egocentric leadership, poverty, pandemic disease and ignorance. And they’ve done it together.

Real community doesn’t happen in living rooms. It happens when small groups take God’s message to the outside world. Don’t be left behind by this spiritual revolution. To experience genuine fellowship, Sunday school classes and small groups must abandon superficiality. Here are some tips to give your group focus.

1. DEVELOP HONEST COMMUNICATION. This is much harder than it sounds. While it is much easier to remain silent when others around us are harming themselves or others with a sinful pattern, it is not the loving thing to do. Members of revolutionary small groups must be honest with one another—even if that honesty is painful.

2. FOSTER AN ATMOSPHERE OF HUMILITY. Self-importance, smugness and pride destroy fellowship faster than anything else.

Pride builds walls between people; humility builds bridges. Humility is the oil that smoothes and soothes relationships. That’s why the Bible says, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another” (1 Peter 5:5, TNIV).

3. REMAIN COURTEOUS. No matter how small your group is, differences are inevitable. To build a revolutionary small group, you have to respect each other’s differences. The Bible says that we must bear the “burden” of being considerate of the doubts and fears of others (Romans 15:1-2). When everyone in your group is treated with respect—regardless of their differences—community will grow, because people will know your group is a place they can be honest.

4. KEEP WHAT IS SAID IN CONFIDENCE. Only in the safe environment of warm acceptance and trusted confidentiality will people open up and share their deepest hurts, needs and mistakes.

Nothing will kill the strength of your small group like gossip. The Bible says, “Gossip is spread by wicked people; they stir up trouble and break up friendships” (Proverbs 16:28, TEV).

5. GET TOGETHER OFTEN. It is essential that your group meets together regularly. Fellowship takes time. The Bible tells us, “Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another” (Hebrews 10:25, TEV).

6. SERVE TOGETHER. Revolutionary small groups don’t just discuss biblical truth and help each other through difficult times; they serve God together. Look for ways to serve at your church. Plan a missions project locally. Nothing—I mean nothing—will bond your group like serving together.

Small groups are changing the way church is done.

More importantly, they seem to be God’s chosen vessel right now for impacting the world. Are you ready to join the revolution? 0 RICK WARREN is the author of The Purpose Driven Life and the founder of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

STATEMENTS: RICK WARREN

7/31/06 5:41:28 PM

DAN

HASELTINE

THE HANGING TREE

I HELD THE TATTERED chunk of wood in my hand, surveying its texture and shape.

It was the color of blood mixed with earth and only slightly weathered by history.

There were larger pieces, but the one I chose fit nicely in my hand. I rolled it around and thought about its significance while my 5year-old son stood next to me. He marveled at the diameter of the stump left by the fall.

Just a week earlier the tree had stood majestically in front of a large plantation house in Franklin, Tenn. It was the tallest of many elder shade-givers along the street. It was not a welcoming tree, mostly because of the history that implicated this monument.

It was a tree that held court through great and bloody battles of the Civil War. Its very presence had been a symbol of the bigotry of that time, even though it had survived the intrusion of homes, neighborhoods and roads—until this week, when its back was broken by God Himself, in what I believe was a great act of justice. A bolt of lightning and a strong wind sent the tree collapsing on the front lawn and spilling out across the road. My son wondered why I stood and looked at the fallen tree for so long.

Earlier that morning we had joined a march commemorating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. that started at a church just a few blocks from our house and reached the courthouse in the center of town.

It is always unsettling to see the effects of history so clearly laid out from neighborhood to neighborhood. There was no justice. There was no equality. Apartheid as an institution in Africa has crumbled, but the lingering economic and ethnic effects are still intact.

This is definitely true in America as well.

Systemic racism has loosened its grip, but 38

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the effects of a not-so-distant history still provide the boundaries and lot markers for our own suburban and rural landscapes.

Before the march, I downloaded and listened to MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It was inspiring; it always has been. Currently, as we live under the blanket of war, it’s wise to consider the mandates of King: He instructed the passionate crowd to choose peace over violence, intellect and faith over brute strength and hatred. He urged them toward the belief that God had begun a story of redemption that would continue to march forward.

My son attends a very diverse private school, one that traverses deep into the socioeconomic melting pot and exposes racial tensions that still exist—especially in the South—and offers a context for repentance, understanding and reconciliation.

I remember learning about Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. when I was in school. The school never gave me any foothold into black culture beyond the historic civil rights struggle. It forced me to relate to black schoolmates as onedimensional victims and put the rest of the white community— myself included—on the defensive as the aggressors. And although there is some partial truth to this, it was a very paralyzing and destructive way to relate to them. Looking at my black classmates as victims caused me to approach them as the person responsible for their pain, or as the one who would help them in their pain. Both of these approaches set me up as more powerful and fostered a false social hierarchy. This was a problem for me.

Too often, the relationship between white and black culture is explosive and confusing. The multitude of complexities, opportunities for accusation and chances to shift blame make it difficult to find common ground. They require a process of boldly asking tough questions, being willing to look and sound like a fool, and being OK with all the awkwardness and frustration that pressing in stirs up before it turns into something equitable.

The tree was a landmark, a reminder of why we were there that early morning. As we passed by, I could hear the comments from people who had lived through the worst of the civil rights struggle.

I heard one frail old man say, “That tree used to be a hanging tree.” I knew I had to come back to the tree after the march was over.

My son picked up one of the small wood fragments of the tree that had been the site for lynchings during the violent civil rights era. Its roots were soaked in the blood, sweat and tears of men and women who were the exhibition of how twisted fear, pride, hatred and even religion can make a person, especially someone convinced that all men were not created equal.

I wonder sometimes if we have learned anything from our mistakes. I wonder if we will ever be able to reconcile with this history or even begin to understand the depth of our hatred and fear and what we are capable of doing to another person. I explained to my son all that the tree represented for me. It was a tree with the ability to give us knowledge of good and evil. My son and I will always remember that tree. We walked back to our house holding our little pieces of wisdom.

I guess in a strange way this experience has planted a seed inside my son, a seed of healing and understanding, one that could grow into a tree that represents something more powerful than hatred and fear. 0 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

STATEMENTS: DAN HASELTINE

7/31/06 5:42:04 PM

MARK STEELE NEVERLOST

A FEW MONTHS AGO, my business partner, Kevin, and I spent the day in Chicago, weaving our way through the highways and byways without even glancing at a street sign. How could we be so brazen to throw caution to the wind in such a booming metroplex? Simple. Our rental car was equipped with Neverlost.

At first glance, this miracle of cartography seems to be designed exclusively with me in mind. A bright red line maps out the driver’s path on a video screen as a satellite tells the device where in the world our car is currently going. A pleasant woman’s voice gently nudges the driver to make a successful decision when the time comes to take the turn. In the meantime, the driver is welcome to make a sandwich of some sort.

It’s Attention-Deficit-Disorder Heaven.

Kevin and I didn’t even take a breath in our conversation to worry about weaving the

40

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maze of unfamiliar territory in the freshly fallen snow. We laughed away our worries and left the driving up to the disembodied voice in the little box.

And then—we missed our crucial turn.

We didn’t realize we had missed our crucial turn for about 60 seconds. It took that long for the pleasant woman to reveal “You are currently driving the wrong direction. Recalculating journey.”

WHAT?! This banshee was supposed to WARN US when to turn, not INFORM US that we had, in fact, not. We stopped talking and paid closer attention.

“New route established. Prepare to turn right in 11 yards.” And then, just as quickly, “You have missed your turn. Recalculating journey.”

Panic set in. Yes, this voice was giving us the facts, but the facts were not enough. We needed the facts to be communicated with feeling. The sort of emotion of a backseat driver emphatically declaring, “You’re going to want to turn here. Here. HERE! RIIIIIGHT HERE!!!! ARE YOU BLIND?!”

But there was no warning in her voice. Just the facts.

Over the Thanksgiving break, my wife and I drove the kids from Mobile, Ala., up to Hattiesburg, Miss., to visit a lifelong friend. It was the first time we were able to witness some of the devastation from Katrina firsthand. As we traversed closer to the damaged territory, we began to discover fields of felled trees, snapped in half like toothpicks grazed by God’s hand. This was sobering on its own, but the real acclimation came on our drive back to Alabama after the sun went down, because the trees were not the only things the storm had wiped away.

There were also no road signs on the highway.

Not since Communist Europe in 1991 had either Kaysie or I attempted to navigate a highway system without signs warning of upcoming exits. We did, indeed, have a map in our laps, but that was only a two-dimensional guide. There were no immediate benchmarks to confirm our path. We did not realize we were lost until we were halfway to New Orleans. I felt like the families we scream at from our couch on The Amazing Race.

It is a frightening thought to get lost while holding a map; to lose your way while being dictated the path by Neverlost. And yet it happens. The map and truth alone are not enough to remain on the straight and narrow. This is why, in a world that debates the theology of such an issue, I need the Holy Spirit of God in my life. The Word of God paints a path, and the truth of the life of Jesus commands me how to walk in it.

But that doesn’t mean that I am not easily distracted.

I know myself too well. I know that I need the double-checks and the triple-checks to make certain I’m not diverting onto the wrong exit ramp. I need the conviction of the backseat driver illustrating not just the true choice, but the urgency of that true choice. I need God’s truth, but I need it with attachment. Because I know God does not give up on me when I take the wrong route, but the recalculation back on track can be rather painful.

I welcome the Holy Spirit in my life, because rules are too easy to break and the truth is too easy to ignore. I refuse to rely solely on my map and my Neverlost. I choose instead to embrace holy accountability so that the unchanging true path is the one on which I find myself driving. 0 MARK STEELE is the president and executive creative of Steelehouse Productions. He is the author of Flashbang:

How I Got Over Myself (RELEVANT Books).

STATEMENTS: MARK STEELE

8/1/06 5:38:20 PM

RESURRECTING JUNIA. AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST Rena Pederson investigates a hidden chapter in early Christian history— the life and times of the “lost” female apostle Junia.

Pederson’s discoveries will change your understanding of Scripture, the first Christians, and the role of women in Christianity then ... and now.

“Reading Pederson’s work is like perusing a reporter’s notebook.

In the end, she rewards her readers for sharing this spiritual, intellectual, and journalistic pursuit by reminding us that the best human searches are satisfied with a discovery that the truth we seek is actually seeking us.”

—William B. Lawrence, Dean Professor of American Church History, Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University

“Junia the apostle was one of the first victims of identity theft.

Restoring her name is a service to women everywhere.”

—Linda Ellerbee, award-winning television producer, journalist, and bestselling author

JBWiley_lostapostle_22.indd 071

“As a clergywoman, I am strengthened by Rena’s work. She has done what should have been done years ago. Junia is the role model we’ve been searching for.”

—Dr. Sheron Patterson, Senior Minister, Highland Hills United Methodist Church; newspaper columnist; and author of Sisters: A Mile in Her Shoes, Lessons from the Lives of Old Testament Women

7/20/06 9:38:33 AM

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THE UPSIDE OF

SOMETIMES IT’S GOOD TO GET TICKED OFF

BY ED YOUNG

44

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER

I LOVED PLAYING PING-PONG when I was growing up—at least when we first bought a ping-pong table and I started playing with my brother, Ben. The first four or five games, I dominated. But the more we played, the closer our games got. I thought that our small den was cramping my style, so we moved the table outside. It wasn’t long before Ben was beating me—and not just beating me, humiliating me.

I seem to recall smashing my paddle down after yet another defeat.

Isn’t there an unwritten rule that a younger brother can never beat the older? If there’s not, there should be.

One day I got so worked up that my paddles somehow “ended up” in the woods after an impressive display of explosive anger. My pathetic ping-pong record ended rather abruptly. My father had seen enough of my antics and banned me—for life. “You’ll never play again!” was his cry that went along with his classic anger stance: an imposing finger pointed at me with that one eyebrow raised.

Anger is for everyone, it seems. We live in the age of rage. We find it on the driveway and the freeway. In the boardroom and the bedroom.

We say, “I’m ticked.” Or “I’m chapped.” Or, as my uncle from Laurel, Miss., says, “I’ve got the reds.”

Maybe you’re dealing with a sibling rivalry of your own. Or perhaps it’s a rivalry with one of your co-workers. Or a rivalry with that red sports car that seems to cut you off every morning. Maybe you dream of taking a Louisville Slugger to your photocopier.

Not all of us have an anger problem, but we all have to deal with the junk and the funk that anger produces. The way we process anger has huge implications for the Christian life. Too many Christ-followers are promoting a “happy, happy, joy, joy” kind of faith, where anger and other complex emotions are conspicuously absent. That sounds nice on a pamphlet, but it’s not where I live.

The Bible has a more realistic spin on anger. “In your anger do not sin ... and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26-27, TNIV).

Apparently, we’re allowed to feel anger. And that means we have to process anger. Anger is neutral. It’s all about how we respond to it. It’s sobering to think that our anger can actually help Satan get into our lives. It’s a doorway to getting seriously jacked up. But, as I’ve learned, it’s also an opportunity to change the world.

WHAT MAKES GOD ANGRY?

ANGER, YOUR ALLY

MAKE A WHIP

Anger is an indicator that something needs to change. Show me your anger, and I’ll show you your passion. Show me your anger, and I’ll show you your purpose in life. Anger can be a good thing.

As a pastor, several things make me angry. And what angers me, motivates me. It drives me crazy to watch professional Christians come to sit in their highchairs begging to be fed week after week, and then never sharing the food with others. A life that pleases God isn’t about you. It isn’t a spectator sport.

I get angry when people turn their backs on the local church. I can’t understand why people would do that. Instead of experiencing the beauty of the body of Christ, these same people push away the church and mess up their priorities. Then they wonder why their lives are so wheels off. There’s a reason why the first Christians were committed to a local community of believers—Christianity isn’t a solo sport. I get angry about a lot of things, but those are the big ones. Thanks for letting me vent; I feel better already.

How do you process anger? How do you respond to it? Those are good questions. God wants us to leverage anger. In other words, we should get angry at the things that anger God. When we do this, we can change the world. When we get angry for our own selfish reasons, we end up leaving an ugly path of tattered lives behind us.

Predictably, we need to look back at the example of Jesus. It says in John 2:15 that He “made a whip.” We like to skip over that verse and get right to the action when Jesus morphs into Chuck Norris so He can scatter some tables and put some serious fear into the animals and leaders while they flee the temple. Don’t miss that small phrase with monster implications. Jesus made a whip. In the midst of His anger, He took the time to weave strands of leather together. You know Jesus was fuming, but He took some time so He would respond righteously.

When our trigger is set off, we need to pause and say our own microwave prayer before we lash out in inappropriate anger. Count to 10. Take a walk. And don’t send any rash, emotionally charged emails.

Trust me.

Anger is neutral. You can lash out at your roommate, extend the “you’re number one” finger on the freeway or slow down and ask yourself a tough question: Does this anger God? When we get angry at the things that make God angry and process it properly, that’s the upside of anger. And that can change the world. 0

God is a jealous God. We should get angry when His reputation is maligned. “Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:23-24, TNIV). Knowing that God expresses anger for His reputation should motivate us to defend God’s honor like David. When Goliath was trashing God’s name, King Saul should have stepped in to face the giant. But he cowered in the comfy confines of his Coleman tent. So David, a teenaged Hebrew hillbilly, stepped forward. He was angry, but his anger was constructive. David said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26, TNIV). David defended the Lord and increased God’s reputation as a result of his faith.

We should get angry when men and women construct barriers to worship God. When I think of anger in the Bible, I think of Jesus.

Remember Jesus and the moneychangers (John 2)? Jesus was worshipping in the temple, and He saw that some leaders had turned God’s house into a casino. Instead of dedicating sacred space for all believers, certain leaders had commercialized a worship space. It distracted those who had come to worship. These so-called religious leaders were running a profitable foreign currency operation on the temple grounds. They were constructing barriers that made it more expensive and more difficult for the average person to worship in a way that pleased God. This gave Jesus “the reds.” His anger drove Him to cleanse the temple. His anger was constructive.

We should get angry when there is injustice. “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless” (Exodus 22:21-24, TNIV). Anger is destructive.

And anger is constructive. When we defend God’s reputation and the things God is about, our anger can be used to change the world. But how do we do that? How can we be angry in a good way?

ED YOUNG is pastor of Fellowship Church, has a national television show and likes to go where the fish are big and wild. www.edyoung.com

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER

upsideofanger_issue22==.indd 045

45

7/31/06 12:40:55 PM

BY JESSE CAREY

GROUP HUG: (L-R) Akil, DJ Nu-Mark, Chali 2na, 2aakir, Mark 7even

46

JURASSIC 5

IT HAPPENED SIX YEARS AGO on the way to the Vans Warped Tour stop in Nashville. Jurassic 5 had recently signed with Interscope Records, and the Warped Tour was going to help propel them from indie buzz to mainstream fame. But the group never made it to the Nashville show. On the way there, the bus driver dozed off, sending the vehicle off the road into a six-foot ditch at breakneck speed.

Chali 2na, the group’s most visible member, was hospitalized after the accident. His skull fracture required a metal plate to be implanted into his head. He hesitates and takes a deep breath when asked about the accident that almost cost him his life.

“Out of all of us, I was the one who was hurt the worst,” he remembers. “It really affirmed the term carpe diem. You can inhale, and by the time the exhale comes, your life could be over.”

It reminds him of another life-altering moment. “I had a friend who was helping a girl cross the street, and he got hit by a car,” he says. “He didn’t know he was going to die that day. For me, I try to take advantage of every opportunity that’s put in front of me. I try to receive and take into consideration that these are blessings. I can either accept them or reject them; it’s up to me. I want to try to accept things I feel that God puts in front of us. Everything counts.”

Chali 2na is a devout Muslim. And since the accident in 2000, he has gained a new perspective about seizing the day and embracing his faith in turbulent times. He’s not out to convert anyone with his music; he actually says he doesn’t believe lyrics are always a proper medium for conveying religious beliefs.

“Words can be misconstrued,” he says. “It’s easier for you to lead a person through your actions and your example than it is to tell them.”

Chali 2na deals with the same balancing act that many Christian artists attempt—striving to maintain lyrical honesty yet remaining free from preconceptions about their religion’s perception in the mainstream culture. As he explains the role Islam plays in his music, Chali 2na makes a statement that transcends “religion”; he talks about faith.

“Spirituality plays a part in a person’s life, more so than the music,” Chali 2na says. “Life itself spills through your art. Art imitates life. I’m going to make spiritual references in my music, simply because I’m a spiritual guy. Being spiritual, to me, plays a humongous part in my life because it’s my rock. It’s my foundation. It’s what I turn to.”

Chali 2na explains that his “real life” outlook on the songwriting process is not only what has helped Jurassic 5 become successful; it’s also at the root of all good hip-hop.

“The birth of gangster rap was five or six individuals who came together to tell people about the inner-city workings of Los Angeles,” Chali 2na says. He references early rap pioneers who tackled social issues that were important to them. “They never wore colors. They only talked about issues in the ’hood, stuff that was happening to people on a day-to-day basis. The point is, they were telling the truth.

And that’s what got [hip-hop] famous.”

Additionally, Jurassic 5’s vocal positions on issues affecting today’s culture don’t stem from a political agenda, according to Chali 2na.

Like his religion, his political statements are rooted in personal experience.

“I won’t even say [my opinion about politics] because I’m a person of political conviction, but more just being thrust into the world and

having to deal with the problems and the ills on this planet—it makes one political,” he says. “It’s not that you choose or don’t; you can choose to be oblivious—it’s a —CHALI 2NA thing of dealing with the truth.”

That “truth” will continue to be a driving force behind Jurassic 5’s lyrical backdrop. At the forefront of the group’s new album Feedback, like every Jurassic 5 album, however, is the unspoken message of creativity that is displayed through truly unique musical collaborations.

“We’ve tried to step outside SIX DEGREES OF JURASSIC 5 of our box, away from our comfort, and try new things,” It’s all about who you know, and he says.

Jurassic 5 know quite a few people.

This time around, stepping Here’s a rundown of some of the outside of the box meant a group’s most notable collaborations. partnering with Dave Matthews 1998 on one of the album’s standout Nu-Mark + Perry Farrell tracks, “Work It Out,” and “Hot Lava,” Chef Aid Matthews isn’t the only big 1999 name that appears.

“WORDS CAN BE MISCONSTRUED. IT’S EASIER TO LEAD A PERSON THROUGH YOUR ACTIONS.”

Nu-Mark + Incubus “We always try to go for the “Battlestar Scralachtica,” Make weird collaborations,” Chali Yourself 2na says. “For this album, we didn’t go for any rap 2002 Chali 2na + Linkin Park collaborations per se. Mos Def “Frgt/10,” Reanimation is on the album, but he’s not rapping. There’s this group Chali 2na + Blackalicious called Brick and Lace, two “4000 Miles,” Blazing Arrow sisters from Jamaica, who are 2003 guests on a song called ‘Brown Chali 2na & Akil + DJ Format Girl.’ We tried to do what “We Know Something You Don’t people wouldn’t expect.”

Know,” Music for the Mature B-Boy This statement could sum 2005 up Jurassic 5’s career. From Soup + DJ Z-Trip social convictions spoken “Listen to the DJ,” Shifting Gears in political declarations to a realistic look at the life of a 2006 modern-day Muslim, Chali 2na Jurassic 5 + Dave Matthews and company are doing more “Work It Out,” Feedback than just creating innovative music. They’re continuing to progress. But most of all, they are seizing the day. 0

ONLINE BONUS: Check out RELEVANTmagazine.com to read the entire interview with Jurassic 5.

JESSE CAREY is the web content producer for RELEVANT Media Group and the (pretty) face of RELEVANTmagazine.com’s Video Slice of the Day.

JURASSIC 5

47

WE DIDN’T CALL IT BINGING

WE CALLED IT

COLLEGE

BY ELIZABETH GRATTAN

TONIGHT, SOME FRIENDS AND I crashed a frat party.

It’s actually a little easier than you think, provided your timing is on target.

I wanted to get hands-on research for this article and figured if you’re going to write about campus binging, it helps to actually observe binging on campus. So, we crashed the party. These guys were totally stoked to talk to us and more than willing to help me out. They all had something to say, and they were all drunk. Very drunk.

One of them, Tom, said they had started drinking at 10 p.m. It was now 11:30, and most said they had already downed about 12 beers. Another guy, Matt, said that was typical: “F--- yeah, I can put down at least five an hour!”

They had set up a small bonfire on the lawn. Empty bottles, cans and cases of beer littered the yard. Music was blaring, and every three minutes we heard a sort of call of the wild: “Woo woo wooo wah wah wah ooooo!”

48

WE CALLED IT COLLEGE

Bill, the one issuing this call, said he wasn’t too happy we were there and warned his friends that we were just trying to embarrass them. Then he took a leak on the fire.

I asked the guys why they liked to drink so much, and how often they did. Frank said he partied so he could forget his “whole life.” He said that’s what college was for. “This is our f---ing time.

Work hard, play hard. We just have a few years left before we’re out there ... so ... h--- yes, we’re drunk!” Tom said he and the guys drank “all the time.” Frank agreed. And Bill again sounded his call of the wild.

“So, you guys ever do anything you regret after you’ve had a night like this?”

They roared. “F---! H--- yes! Oh s---, Frank, tell her your story, man. You gotta tell her. It’s f---ing awesome!” Frank decided not to. But a guy named Jim said one night he crashed his body, headfirst, into a new wall in the frat house. The university charged him $500, and he was put on suspension for 30 days. Frank said

his story was better, but he didn’t want to tell it. The whole group broke out in laughter. (According to a 2001 Harvard Alcohol Study on binge drinking, frequent bingers are 17 times more likely to miss a class, 10 times more likely to vandalize property and eight times more likely to get hurt or injured as a result of their drinking.)

More students showed up at the house. The guys had each polished off at least two more beers. There were now 10 sophomores and freshmen hovering around me, answering my questions and asking a few of their own: “Are you single?” “Wanna beer?”

The tequila showed up about this time, and it must have suddenly occurred to them that talking to me was one of those things they might regret. They started begging us not to use their names or the name of the fraternity. We agreed and thanked them for letting us crash their party. Tom told us we would find the girls at the clubs.

I hadn’t been to a club in a few years. Lots of things haven’t changed. Ladies get in free and the boys drink cheap. Most of the “boys” were actually post-grad. There were even a few middle-aged men. The dancing has changed. Girls dancing with girls is the new rage. Provocative, enticing, sensual dancing by seemingly straight girlfriends.

Now, I don’t know if women are smarter than men, but none of them would talk to us. We tried flattery and bribery, but they still weren’t amused. So we spent an hour and a half observing them instead. Shot after shot after shot, they celebrated their Friday night on the dance floor.

The middle-aged men just stared up and down and up and down.

The post-grads seemed to be strategizing, pointing to a few short skirts and giving high-fives every 15 minutes. It appeared they might be wondering who would go home with whom.

I was wondering, too. According to a Harvard School of Public Heath Study in 2001, a woman has about a one in five chance of being sexually assaulted during her college years.

That’s when I had a flashback. While a few parts are blurry, most are disturbingly vivid. The will of a man and the strength of a woman become pretty corrupt after a night of kamikazes.

Some of the worst decisions I ever made came during a night of binging. There are men I can’t remember, faces I’d just as soon forget.

Friends I fought with, floors I fell on and bathrooms that became my bed. It’s amazing what sorts of things we will tolerate when we are drunk. Porcelain gods and beer goggles are pretty expensive in the economy of life.

Watching those girls jump on top of platforms brought back a lot of memories. We had a different kind of club for every night of the week. Campus bars with quarter drafts, dance clubs with dollar shots and warehouse raves where you went to forget everything you ever learned about being a lady.

I drank away a lot of days and blacked out many nights.

But no one could have told me then that I was binging.

My intentions always fell in line with every other person I knew. We were just having fun. And while partying may have caused my grades to slip, I never saw it as a problem. I never intended to drink so much, so often. We didn’t call it binging. We called it keggers, shooters and quarters.

We called it college.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health defines a binge drinker as a person who drinks five or more drinks at a time at least once in 30 days.

For many, five drinks wouldn’t even be the start of a party.

The study out of Harvard loosens that label to two weeks and breaks down the definition to include “occasional binge and frequent binge drinkers.” According to the research, this type of drinking is on the rise. Most college bingers belong to a fraternity or sorority, where four out of five members binge.

Typically, white men consume the most alcohol on campus. The study determined that students who spend time in special interest groups and clubs or volunteering binge less, if at all.

We saw those stats flesh out firsthand. After our excursion at the frat house, we walked past “The Pancake Party.” About 50 students were gathered at the Baptist Student Center listening to music and hanging out. All appeared sober. Most looked bored.

That isn’t to say the Christian kids are clean. In fact, most of those I interviewed who had attended a Christian university said they had their first beer at college. One woman told me she and her friends used to drink in the campus chapel in the middle of the night. Fifteen percent of the colleges in the Harvard study were religious institutions.

While attending a Christian school may not inhibit binging, faith can play a role in the decision to stop. It did for me. After I drank away my tuition and dropped out of college three times, I finally realized I wasn’t the woman I wanted to become. So I hit my knees and made a decision. I’ve been sober since.

One student I talked to, Evan, said he prays that God will help him stop binging, but “I also know that ultimately it is my choice to stop.

He will show me reasons why I should stop, but it is my hand that brings the drink to my mouth.”

Some people grow up and out of their college drinking habits.

Friends change, a marriage begins, a career calls, and it just doesn’t feel too great to be sitting in a meeting at 9 a.m. with a hangover anymore. But some don’t. We met a couple of guys on the campus who had graduated the year before. They were hammered, just strolling around the streets they used to own.

Only time will tell what the future holds for Tom, Frank, Bill and all those girls in the club. Their stories aren’t unique. The same scene plays out by the thousands every Friday night, one drink at a time. d

THE WORST DECISIONS I EVER MADE CAME DURING NIGHTS OF BINGING.

ELIZABETH GRATTAN is a freelance writer and speaker in Nashville, Tenn.

Photos by John Carl

WE CALLED IT COLLEGE

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UNRAVELING

THE FRAY

BY JEREMY HUNT

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THE FRAY

IF ALL THE BUZZ surrounding overnight sensations The Fray were to fi zzle out, if all the excitement were to suddenly die down, what would the Denver natives do?

“Dave will be running several successful restaurants,” lead singer Isaac Slade said dryly in an interview with USA Today.

“Joe is an amazing businessman, so he’ll operate a number of retail outlet chains, probably own a hedge fund or something. I would love to get into fi lm. I have a production company, and we’ve made a couple of shorts and are working on a feature. And Ben—he has the musician’s curse. He wants nothing more than to be a drummer for the rest of his life.”

Given their rapid ascent to national renown, Slade’s tongue-incheek backup plans seem understandable. The story of The Fray is one that appears almost too good to be true. An unassuming group of high-school buddies, many of whom grew up playing worship music in church, suddenly hit it big.

The Fray’s Cinderella story seems even more unlikely considering that the band had never toured before getting signed to the big leagues with Epic Records.

“In the tour we’re doing now, we’re having to establish friends and fans all over the States because before we signed the record deal, we hadn’t toured at all,” drummer Ben Wysocki tells RELEVANT. “The fi rst time we’d played outside of Denver as a band was the label showcase. So once we had the deal, we had a lot of work to do to backtrack and earn our keep in all these cities and familiarize the country with us.”

Of course, having the muscle of a major label helps ease the stresses of touring.

“They [Epic] have been really good to us,” Wysocki says. “Having such a big company behind you, it really does things for you. Since the record has come out, it’s helped because we’ll get to a city, and they’ll already be two steps ahead of us. They’ll already have the record, which is a really cool feeling.”

But The Fray is hardly resting on their top-of-the-charts laurels.

Wysocki and bandmates Slade, Joe King and Dave Welsh are focused on earning their rock ’n’ roll stripes. They’re doing it through a grueling tour schedule.

“We’re still having to earn that kind of respect,” Wysocki says.

“That’s the work that we’re up to now, which is a lot of work because by the time you cover most of the cities in the United States, it’s time to go back and revisit them.”

HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU KID: (L-R) Ben Wysocki, Isaac Slade, Dave Welsh, Joe King THE FRAY

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“I THINK IT’S HEALTHY TO BE REALLY EXCITED AND PEE IN YOUR PANTS ABOUT SEEING YOURSELF ON VH1.”

—BEN WYSOCKI That sort of no-nonsense approach to touring appears to be spilling over into other aspects of band business. When discussing the heady nature of their relatively quick rise to fame, Wysocki’s comments reveal a very mature and confident outlook. He says they’re working hard not to put too much emphasis on their newfound prominence.

“I think the transition is just now starting to take place, where we’re learning how to protect ourselves from some of that,” he says. “There needs to be a time of that initial romantic excitement—of seeing yourself on TV and hearing yourself on the radio. That is exciting for anyone and should be. I think it’s healthy to be really excited and pee in your pants about seeing yourself on VH1.

But now the transition is starting to take place for all of us where we have to focus on the job ahead and on our personal lives outside of this. We’re having to learn how to protect ourselves from that.”

That protection, it appears, even includes disavowing all knowledge of industry measurements such as chart positions or album reviews. “Dave, our guitarist, told everyone at the label and the management that he doesn’t really care about the charts or our position on the charts,” Wysocki says.

Where Have I Heard That Song Before?

In 2006, The Fray had more songs licensed than any other group. Their songs have appeared on: • • • • • •

Scrubs Grey’s Anatomy What About Brian NCIS One Tree Hill Bones

Just to name a few ...

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THE FRAY

“Not only does he not care, but he doesn’t want to know. So whenever we get emails about our position on the charts, Dave’s not included. It’s kind of gotten to the point where the initial excitement of seeing yourself in magazines is gone. We’ve been there, and now it’s time to focus on the job ahead of us and the music. Sometimes the reviews and the charts just distract you from it.”

So if they’re not getting all freaked out about the fame and glory, what does excite them?

“The weirdest [experience], which is also the most exciting when you think about it, is going to a city that we’ve never been to before and actually having people show up—having a lot of people show up—because we’re not really veterans to this touring thing,” Wysocki says. “Even in our old bands we didn’t tour very much.

As musicians we don’t have a lot of touring experience. We have a lot of experience playing to five people in Denver, but as far as driving to a city and having a lot of people show up, we’re pretty naïve in all that. That’s really exciting, that 600 strangers show up to watch you play music. It’s really flattering and strange.”

But if it’s crazy tour sagas that you’re searching for, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere. Wysocki says that despite the chaos that their name implies, The Fray keep it pretty chill on the road.

“As far as tour stories, we’re Christians, so the answer to that question is pretty boring,” he says. “As we’re coming in contact with other touring bands and opening for other people and having other people open for us, we’re learning a lot about ourselves, because we’re a pretty boring band on the road. We’re not big partiers, so we don’t really have any party stories or anything. It’s not our style.”

As it turns out, their faith also influences their music, though they don’t want to be exclusionary about it.

“As Christians, we set out to make really honest art that is relatable and understandable for people, regardless

of their religious orientation or faith background,” Wysocki says. “Isaac grew up writing Christian songs in a Christian language about Christian themes and Bible verses, and then he started making friends who weren’t Christians, and they couldn’t understand what he was singing about. They couldn’t relate to it. We wanted to steer clear of those labels and a lot of baggage and make art in a way that can relate to Christians and non-Christians.”

ONLINE BONUS: Check out RELEVANTmagazine.com to read the entire interview with The Fray.

In any other young band, this sort of clarity might seem surprising, but it just seems to be par for the course for The Fray.

They’re here not just to move people, but to make them think. Along with giving music to their fans, they’re also aiming to give life.

“I think we’re called to make music for more than just the Church and to make music for the unchurched people and hopefully speak a bit of life into them,” he says.

Ultimately, the guys of The Fray seem to

be motivated by the deeper things of life, whether it’s the pursuit of art or their faith— or both at the same time.

“All the bands that we really respect and that have longevity in their career are ones that are ever-changing and always evolving,” Wysocki says. “I think we’d like each of our records to sound different than the last, to ensure that we’re growing and pushing ourselves to do something differently on this record than we did on the last one. If

people like what we do, then they can grow with us. We’d like to see ourselves change and evolve and grow, but still hold on to the identity, the voice of the music that we’re making.”

With an outlook like this, perhaps The Fray won’t need those career backup plans. 0 JEREMY HUNT is a writer, musician and Internet editor. He and his wife live in Charlotte, N.C.

THE FRAY

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wo nd er

dr ug

BY MATTHEW PAUL TURNER

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WONDER DRUG

FOR A MOMENT, Todd closes his eyes and thinks. Even though two years and 97 days have passed, he still vividly remembers what his life was like before he began taking Adderall, a popular stimulant for children and adults diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). According to Todd (not his real name), being diagnosed with Adult ADHD changed nearly every aspect of his life—for the better. Now, because of a little orange pill he takes once a day, he’s able to think clearly without becoming overwhelmed by distraction and constant anxiety.

“I call Adderall my wonder drug,” says the Wisconsin native, who began taking Adderall when he was a sophomore in college. “Before I was diagnosed with ADHD, I’d spend six hours working on a research paper and only write a paragraph. Now, I no longer get anxious because I can usually finish a paper in six hours. My ADHD meds changed my life.”

His tone gets serious for moment; it’s obvious he’s spent a good deal of time thinking about the effects ADHD has had on his life. He remembers first feeling “different” when he was 11 or 12. Though he tries to resist becoming frustrated by his unfocused past, Todd admits to having moments when he wishes his parents had paid more attention to the telling signs of ADHD he experienced as a kid.

“I had the normal symptoms,” Todd says.

“I couldn’t sit still or stay focused on one particular topic. My mind was constantly racing. I was always hyper. You should have seen me three years ago; I was a complete mess.”

If it seems like nervousness, lack of concentration, poor organizational skills, anxiety and other symptoms of Adult ADD/ADHD have become more popular in the last few years, you might be onto something. You’ve probably seen the cutesy commercials for Strattera, a newer medication to treat Adult ADHD, or perhaps you’ve heard everyone from Dr. Phil to Katie Couric talking about the disorder once thought only to affect children. All this talk might make some believe that Adult ADHD has become en vogue. And perhaps that’s true; increased awareness has seemingly caused an influx of new psychiatric patients in recent years. According to the Academy of Certified Social Workers, the number of younger adults using drugs to treat Adult

ADHD more than doubled from 2000 to 2004. Even more astonishing, according to Medco, a prescription management company, the money young adults spent on treatment of ADHD more than quadrupled within that same time period.

Thirty-four-year old Keri Tryba believes life would have been very different had a psychiatrist not told her she had ADD at age 24. Like millions of Americans, she chose to take meds. “My whole world woke up,” says the Chicago native. “Being on Adderall makes me a better parent, a better wife and better at my job.” Without the little pill, Tryba’s unsure whether her marriage would have lasted. “It would have been a lot harder; let’s just say that.”

It’s just after 9 p.m. on a Wednesday, and Todd’s leaving his church’s young adult Bible study. Walking out to the parking lot, he lights a cigarette and gets a serious look on his face.

“Adderall helps me spiritually,” he says.

Knowing he probably doesn’t sound that convincing, he continues. “I’ve probably heard at least 3,000 sermons in that building,” Todd says, pointing his cigarette at the church building. “But I swear, because I’m now able to sit still and concentrate, I feel like I’ve just begun to experience God.” Todd claims that ADHD kept him from any real profound encounter with God. At times, faith seemed almost impossible for him.

“I hated things like Sunday school. And youth group wasn’t much better. If things didn’t engage me or keep my interest, I’d usually zone out. Sometimes I do look back on my past spiritual life and think, ‘what if?’”

Jay Pesek, a 27-year old who began taking Adderall for ADHD while in college, knows too well what Todd experienced; he also understands the spiritual dilemma of ADHD.

“You have no idea how cool it is to finally have the ability to sit down and take in the book of Psalms or pray for more than 30 seconds,” Pesek says. “At times, I think Adderall saved my spiritual life. Once in a while I think, ‘Wow, how much spiritual stuff did I miss because I wasn’t able to concentrate?’ That’s a real frustration.”

On any given day 100 or so attentiondeficit sufferers visit the ADD/ADHD page at ChristianForums.com to talk about their frustrations. These distracted faithful visit the site to sound off on everything from their inability to finish Bible studies to their sidetracked prayer time to the rights and wrongs of taking meds. One 20-year-old forum user with the handle “Zippety13” long thought her struggle to pray was a spiritual one. “I thought I didn’t love God enough to pray,” she writes. “I’d been trying harder and harder and getting more and more stressed about it.” According to her post, it was only after being diagnosed with ADD that she considered the possibility it might be part of her prayer problem.

Zippety13 is undecided on the topic of meds though; she’s not convinced that God would want her doing that.

Even for the most psychologically aware Christians, it’s strange hearing someone suggest that a pill might make it possible—or

“I’VE JUST BEGUN TO EXPERIENCE GOD.” —Todd at least, simpler—to experience God. Besides, if this theory were true, wouldn’t some churches be handing these pills out like candy sometime between the opening song and the preacher’s first point? Let’s face it: ADHD is not an excuse you hear every day in regard to a struggling spiritual life, nor is there any known research available to truly suggest it should be. But does the lack of research prove its illegitimacy? Or should the Church be taking the claims of folks like Todd and Pesek more seriously?

Stephen James, a 33-year-old certified counselor, pastor and author (Becoming a Dad, RELEVANT Books), doesn’t flinch when he hears that some people think

WONDER DRUG

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ADDA - Attention Deficit Disorder Association is the world’s leading Adult ADHD organization. Facts, conference schedules, articles and more are on this exhaustive site. www.add.org AdultADD.com - Find physicians, get useful facts about living with adult ADHD, take the screening test and learn more about treatment options.

ADDitude magazine - This bimonthly resource includes inspiring stories, resources and news of developments in the treatment of ADHD. www.additudemag.com

Adderall is helping them get closer to God. James says it’s quite normal for some Adult ADHD sufferers to struggle concentrating on Sunday mornings. “ADHD is a mental disorder,” James says. “Just like an individual struggles at school or work, some have trouble paying attention in church situations.”

However, don’t expect this pastor/ counselor to begin recommending the average unengaged church attendee visit a local psychiatrist and start popping pills for spiritual nourishment. “Sure, people feel like the meds help them experience God,” James says. “For a person with ADHD, meds like Adderall are helping them quiet the noise. That’s what stimulants do; they help people focus, which in turn stops the disconnect happening in their brains.”

But according to James, the “connection to God” one experiences post-meds is only a perception. “Medications make it possible for our minds to be engaged through prayer, sermons and the like,” James says. “But they’re not helping one’s soul connect with God. True connection to God happens in the

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heart and soul. Meds can’t do that.”

However, Keri Tryba feels differently. “[Adderall] helped me begin having conversations about faith,” she says. “Sure, the ‘connection’ began in my head, but sooner or later my heart and soul began to absorb the new things I learned about Jesus. I don’t believe I would ever have been able to experience that without being on something.

I believe that with all my heart.”

Attention-enhancing concoctions like Adderall use amphetamines to stimulate the brain. Most users profess being able to perform better, faster and longer. “Almost every patient I prescribe Adderall to has a positive experience,” says Dr. J. Draud, a leading Nashville, Tenn., psychiatrist. “Most improve quickly and remain on it for as long as they feel they need it.”

But as with many psychiatric drugs, controversy does exist. Last year, due to several colleges reporting illegal abuse of drugs like Adderall, the FDA began requiring month-to-month prescriptions for the meds and large refill quantities became a thing of the past. Also, a December 2005 Details magazine article reported a dangerous trend involving Adderall among young up-andcoming Wall Street brokers. According to the feature, in an effort to move up the New York ladder, some climbers are snorting Adderall (without a prescription, of course) to enhance their ability to perform. One interviewee put it like this: “That pill makes me work long, hard and love every minute of it.”

If it does that for a job, it is a bit intriguing to think what it might do for Sunday mornings.

Todd lights up another cigarette, the third since we began talking. His eyes shift back and forth from me to a group of college girls giggling across the parking lot, back to me and then elsewhere again. Regardless of medication, Todd admits that at times he still must work hard to concentrate. His

“ADDERALL SAVED MY SPIRITUAL LIFE.” —Jay Pesek confession begs the question: Is the pill theory a bunch of crap?

“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t think it is. But sometimes I do wonder if the Church should find alternative ways to present truth, ’cause certainly meds aren’t the answer for everyone.”

Education facilities are constantly looking for alternative methods to teach simple theories. And many businesses spend millions of dollars so they can properly communicate their mission and engage personalities with various learning styles.

Maybe the Church should follow suit and begin looking for methods beyond Bible studies, preaching and prayer times to help people with ADHD connect with God without the use of drugs.

Todd’s still staring straight ahead; he’s obviously thinking about his last statement.

“I don’t think I’ll be going off Adderall anytime soon,” he says. “This church ain’t gonna change anytime soon. And I’d still probably need meds to even know a change happened.”

He laughs. Then looks over at the group of girls. One of them waves hello. He gives her a James Dean nod. He seems to be having no trouble paying attention now. 0 MATTHEW PAUL TURNER writes about his own journey in his latest book Mind Games: Advice,

Stories, and Truth for Thinking Free (Tyndale). www.matthewpaulturner.com

BY CAMERON LAWRENCE

PHOTOS BY DENNY RENSHAW

THE MUSIC WORLD HAS BEEN KIND TO Sufjan Stevens. Only five albums and six years into his career as a recording artist, the Michigan-bred singer/songwriter has near-idol status in indie circles. Even the more cynical music journalists have turned into certifiable “fanboys,” plastering his face across their magazines and websites at any sign of news.

Scroll through his MySpace profile (anonymously run by a fan), and you’ll see they have been good to him, too. You’ll fi nd no less than 1,000 messages from adoring fans. One user gushes that Stevens’ music gives his life meaning, another says it sets him free—not to mention a couple dozen comments about how sexy he is. And that’s all in the last week.

Stevens lives in a working-class neighborhood of Brooklyn where he doesn’t get recognized or accosted by devotees—just how he likes it. He takes a humble, if not bewildered, approach to his success and fi nds comfort in New York’s vastness. “That’s the great thing about New York,” he says. “There are always bigger fish out there. You think you’re a big deal, and there’s always a much bigger deal standing right next to you. I actually don’t like attention anyway, so I’m grateful to blend in and remain anonymous.”

His neighborhood is one of the most diverse in the city, he claims, and not one of Brooklyn’s trendier spots. It affords him the opportunity to live a normal, down-to-earth existence where it’s easier for art to remain secondary to life. He laughs when

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asked if moving to New York lives up to the hype. His reasons had little to do with music and were much more practical.

“I moved here about six or seven years ago to go to graduate school,” he says. “So I wasn’t drawn to the hype so much as the university I went to. I think everything is over-hyped anyway.”

Everything?

“Yeah, in life,” he says. “Our rendering of things through story and our expectations are often inflated. The reality of life is much more even-tempered. And that’s true for any place you live after a while. There’s a process of demystification.”

At the moment he’s taking a break from his project of making an album for each of the 50 states, which he admits is all a gimmick anyway. But taking a break doesn’t mean he won’t be working. “It’s a misnomer, I guess, because it’s not completely true. I think what it means is that I’m not ready to embark on a recording just yet. I’m going to be playing a festival in Washington, and I’m going to collaborate with other musicians as well. And I’m going to work on some arrangements for strings, just as a way of honing my composition skills.”

As prolific as he is in both composition and recording, Stevens hasn’t yet come to terms with being a public figure. “I’m not sure why, but I get really frustrated with my role as an entertainer,” he says. “I’m communicating something to the world, but the people who appreciate what I’m doing tend to project their appreciation onto me, and I get really frustrated with that. I’m a little embarrassed by it because I want to redirect this kind of reverence to the song, and the song in itself. It’s affecting people and has power and authority regardless of me. I think it’s important for me to distinguish that, because honestly, I’m just as in awe of the mystery of music as anyone else.”

But love him they do, and his catalog garners more praise all the time. Once playing only in small venues for small crowds, Stevens now headlines tours that regularly sell out, and the venues are only getting bigger. But he’s learning to deal with it.

“It’s my challenge at every level, even before I had any public appeal, to create music that’s gorgeous and beautiful, that has mastery and deeper meaning. That’s always been my challenge, and even if you have success, I think it should continue to be your challenge. I do a pretty good job of ignoring any kind of attention I receive.

I try to be gracious, but I’m not always as

60

gracious as I could be. I tend to not do well when I’m recognized or when someone is showing gratitude for what I do. I get a little embarrassed.

“But something must change when there’s an audience for what you do,” Stevens explains. “It does tend to affect what you produce and what you write. Even if I’m not willing to admit it, or I’m embarrassed by it, or haven’t reckoned with the social aspect of it, there is inherent in songwriting the desire to communicate something and share it with other people. So in some ways, a larger audience could augment that experience and inspire and challenge the songwriter. Hopefully that’s the direction I’ll take. Knowing that there is an audience, you’ll have a greater respect for your work and greater respect for the listener. There’s a greater accountability to what I write or record.”

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS ...

Sufjan Stevens’ relationshipdriven label, Asthmatic Kitty, features such up-and-coming indie artists as Shapes and Sizes, Castanets and HalfHanded Cloud.

A GRADUAL CLIMB Stevens fi rst took steps toward his nowprolific and highly celebrated career while an undergraduate student at Hope College in Holland, Mich. At the time, however, he didn’t consider himself either a singer or a songwriter. Singing was an activity relegated to the private sector, either in songwriting or his home studio. Since then, recording remains an integral part of his songwriting process. Until his last semester of school at Hope, he experimented with sounds and assembled songs on a simple 4track recorder.

In that fi nal semester, Stevens enrolled in a class on Pro Tools—professional-grade recording software—and began uploading and editing the material from his 4-track on the computer. The output of that semester’s

work became his fi rst release, A Sun Came— a record he defi nes as a collage of songs, styles and musical experimentation. After releasing A Sun Came in 2000, Stevens felt a lack of focus and direction. Ultimately, he became disenchanted with creating music, doubting his abilities as a singer and as an instrumentalist.

He graduated from Hope and moved to New York to join a graduate program in fiction writing at the New School for Social Research located in Greenwich Village. “I was frustrated with songwriting and wanted to write fiction at the university and maybe be a part of the academic environment,” he says. He claims that he felt that playing music was his natural inclination, yet he didn’t think it would ever become a viable opportunity for income—it was just his hobby. “I wasn’t going to produce anything I could live off, and that’s why I went to writing school,” he says.

While spending most of his time on the computer, both for his day job as a designer and writing for school, he started writing songs—one for each month of the Chinese Zodiac. Those songs eventually became his second release, a mostly electronic and instrumental record called Enjoy Your Rabbit. In light of his catalog today, Stevens considers the record an anomaly, but a vital step in his career. “I think it was a response to my frustration with songwriting, the acoustic guitar, etc.,” he says. “I was sort of sabotaging all of my methods and habits for songwriting through self-abnegation—you know, not letting myself write on banjo or guitar.”

Enjoy Your Rabbit proved to be what Stevens needed—what he now refers to as a cleansing, fast-like experience. In essence he gave up his musical life in hopes of truly fi nding it again. “I guess, when I look back, it sounds really puritanical—forcing myself to suffer so that I could somehow come to a point of recognition about who I am as a songwriter. And of course, immediately after, I wrote the songs for Seven Swans.”

Stevens released the biblically literate Seven Swans in 2004, after the previous year’s album, Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State, a melancholic tribute to his childhood and adolescent home.

Where Michigan’s songs explore themes of faith more generally—the idea of location, brokenness and redemption—Seven Swans is a more personal, direct treatment of his Christian faith, focusing in on subjects such as Abraham taking Isaac to the altar in “Abraham” and Christ’s sacrifice on the

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cross in “To Be Alone with You.” Stevens intimately delves into the personal, which often includes his faith, though he doesn’t consider his music to have or be a religious platform. Nevertheless, David Crowder, a recording artist and worship leader, recently latched onto one of Michigan’s songs, “Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette?

Mackinaw?),” and recorded his version of it for A Collision, a worship album released last year. But Stevens didn’t have anything to do with the Crowder deal. His label, Asthmatic Kitty, set it up, and Stevens has yet to speak to Crowder, though he’s flattered. “I have to admit—honestly, I like his arrangement better than mine,” he says. “He shortened the song, abbreviated the arrangement and pulled out melodic elements that are there but made them more prominent. I think he

“I’M JUST AS IN AWE OF THE MYSTERY OF MUSIC AS ANYONE ELSE.” did a better job of honing in on the emotional climate of the song.”

2005 saw the release of Stevens’ Come On Feel the Illinoise, followed by The Avalanche, a collection of leftovers that released in July of this year. Illinois was widely received as a big-budget reworking of Michigan, but not to Michigan’s detriment; it remains a beloved favorite among many of his fans.

When asked if he felt the same way about the rest of Michigan as he does about “Oh God, Where Are You Now?” he’s quick to affi rm.

“It was the best I could do at the time,” he says. “I didn’t have a lot of time or

resources then, and I was just recording on the weekends—sort of desperately running around trying to fit it all in. I think Illinois was somewhat of a response to my lack of resources on Michigan. Illinois is just a fuller realization of what I was trying to do with Michigan musically.”

While Michigan may sound like a downgraded Illinois to some (Stevens included), it remains a testimony to Stevens’ values as an artist—those of being a resourceful and dedicated person, which are traits he admires in other artists and musicians. Those who are able to accomplish

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a lot with modest means earn his respect and, often, that of his label.

Stevens started Asthmatic Kitty with his stepfather, Lowell. The label runs on a foundation unique to indie labels: relationships, common ideals and work ethic, rather than big money.

“It’s crazy because we were so naïve early on,” he says. “And through trial and error, and fumbling through the motions, we’ve created this network that’s really supportive.

A lot of that has to do with friendships that are created over time and relationships you create with people in the industry.”

BETWEEN FRIENDS

controlled musical environment.

Stevens exudes reverence for music and the craft of songwriting. “As I’m writing alone in my room, there’s a weird communion with the art form. Initially you’re throwing around chord progressions and experimenting with melody. You begin shaping, sort of accidentally, words out of sounds. That’s a pretty special, sacred, divine experience.”

Stevens explains that the act of songwriting, in some way, mimics the act of God creating the earth. “In Judeo-Christian theology, the world is created through words,” he says. “And that’s how I perceive what I’m doing musically. I’m just sort of mimicking, or modeling, that endeavor.”

In addition to being a formally trained oboist, Stevens plays most of the instruments on his records. When asked where creative

Relationships also remain a core value in Stevens’ work as an artist. While on the road, he makes sure to bring his friends along, and if you’ve seen his ensemble, that’s no small few. “When I’m touring, I bring a lot of people with me, because it’s important for me to be surrounded by my friends and good people, and to create a social environment.”

Sufjan Stevens’ Stevens says he believes that ambitious project to write music is, on a fundamental level, a soundtrack for each of communication between people. the 50 states started with Michigan in 2003. At his In his mind, music doesn’t have current rate, he will be 127 meaning when locked away in years old when he finishes. isolation. “I think it’s healthy,” he

Two Down, 48 to Go

says. “We live in community, and we’re created in community. We’re created out of the unity of two people, and then we’re made into a family. It’s just inherent in who we are.”

“IN JUDEO-CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, THE WORLD IS CREATED THROUGH WORDS. THAT’S HOW I PERCEIVE WHAT I’M DOING MUSICALLY.” By contrast, Stevens’ creative process is initially isolated from creative community.

Typically, it’s not until he brings his material to the studio, which also is often a solitary experience, or when he prepares to tour that the creative process involves others.

He describes writing songs as a sacred and unique experience, believing music exists somewhere in the supernatural realm—even before its incarnation in the physical realm of sound waves, frequencies and ear drums.

The songwriter, then, somehow captures the song from the supernatural and reconfigures it into music, which according to Stevens, is somewhat artificial. The song, he says, is a

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community comes into the picture, and whether or not it’s a necessary element, he’s confl icted.

“Those are difficult things to reconcile, because I initially work in isolation and tend to write and record by myself,” he says. “That’s always been the case. The social dynamic of performing with other people, and recording with other people, is really important, but it’s a bit of a challenge for me. I tend to be a workaholic and a micromanager and a bit of an egomaniac in how I orchestrate everything. Even down to the drum parts, I tend to micromanage every single nuance. Generally the musicians

know they are being hired to perform according to my demands.”

SET APART While Stevens is widely accepted by people of all kinds, perhaps no one group has latched onto him more than indierock-minded Christians, and rightfully so. He’s among a handful of artists—the Danielson Famile, The Innocence Mission, Denison Witmer, Woven Hand and HalfHanded Cloud, to name a few—that have sidestepped the Christian music industry while still using music to share or explain their Christian beliefs and backgrounds.

He’s also among the few embraced by a community of journalists, musicians and fans who don’t share his faith, and yet he didn’t compromise his own faith to get there.

Because of the unique position he holds, seemingly standing between two worlds, for some he’s a leader and an inspiration. And still there are others who misconstrue his identity and purpose or misinterpret his motives.

“I can’t honestly say how I’ve been misconstrued, because I can’t gauge the mind of the listener,” he says. “But I do know there’s a tendency to simplify and to categorize. I’ve been categorized as a particular kind of artist, a folk musician and a Christian. And these terms are used to possess and categorize and simplify what I’m doing. But they’re also out of my hands. I’m not concerned with how I’m received or how I’m misconstrued, because that’s really the work of the listener and his or her responsibility.”

While Stevens believes that people oversimplify or misinterpret what he’s saying, he understands that his lyrical honesty and vulnerability are the cause.

And he’s not about to change that.

“I don’t ever want to be responsible for or engage with a particular subject in my music in a way that is dishonoring it,” he says. “And I can’t tell if I’ve done that or not.

I still don’t know. I do know that I kind of walk that line, and I tend to disclose things about myself that are really important and personal. For me, it’s part of my conviction.

It’s necessary for me to do that sometimes to achieve a kind of greater revelation and understanding of who I am and what I’m doing. It’s an instinct that, on some level, I want to share with people.” 0 CAMERON

LAWRENCE

lives

and

writes

in

Atlanta, Ga.

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IS IT MORE THAN JUST A SONG AND DANCE?

BY ADAM SMITH

THE WORD “WORSHIP” conjures different images to different people. To some, it’s a tattered hymnal. To others, it’s a slick, well-lit band on a stage at the front of a church. To many, it’s an industry. But, is worship something more ethereal than all this?

There is a growing sentiment that true worship is more than rehearsed music—that perhaps worship itself cannot be narrowly defined. It sees worship as a holistic, authentic experience that touches the individual, the community and God. While broadening the perspective of worship beyond music may seem a daunting task, there are many who are taking it on. They are working to find ways to glorify God both corporately and privately outside of the usual avenues.

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A HOLISTIC APPROACH Chris Seay is one pastor who is striving to see worship as a holistic experience. Seay pastors Ecclesia, a church located in the arts district of Houston, Texas.

“We use a lot of visual arts throughout the service,” Seay says. “People paint, create. We invite poets in our community to write the invocations and benedictions. We’re in the arts district in Houston, so we’re going to use the arts.”

When asked why there seems to be a growing trend in the church toward alternative forms of worship, Seay contests whether these forms are alternative at all.

“It’s just coming back to who we’ve been,” he says. “Over the last 500 years, we’ve said we’re going to make these few things sacred, these few songs sacred. I think most of us have come back around to say that all beauty is God’s beauty, all truth is God’s truth. They’re only alternative [forms of worship] in the way that we’d gotten so narrow, and now we’re realizing that being narrow wasn’t so great.”

ART Sarah Hanson is an assistant at Regent University School of Law. However, her talents lean more toward the creative side. She’s a painter who loves to worship God through a brush.

“As far back as 1991, the Lord had been speaking to me about painting,” she says. “When I finally obeyed Him and took a short course to learn how to mix the paint colors and achieve specific effects, He surprised me as only God can!”

What began was a flow of creativity as Hanson opened herself to what and how to paint. She believes her art ministers to others and exalts God. “Once, at a worship conference, I was one of several artists who had been asked to paint during the time of musical worship,” she says. “As my heart worshipped with the musicians and singers, a painting began to form on my canvas. It was indicative of God the Father’s response to our worship. It was a portion of an aboriginal-looking face. Visible are one eye, one ear, one nostril and part of the hair, mustache and beard. God said, ‘My eye is on your worship.

It is a pleasing sound in My ear and a pleasant aroma in My nostrils.’”

LITURGY There is a call back to liturgical worship, the use of pre-written responsorial readings, in today’s modern Church. While many evangelical churches have begun to incorporate liturgy into their services, many liturgical churches have found new and creative ways to make liturgy relevant to today’s culture.

Holly Rankin Zaher is an author, speaker and founding member of Three Nails, an emergent Episcopal Church movement in Pittsburgh. She believes that liturgy can be a valuable connection point for worship.

“Liturgy provides a story for people to enter into and a pattern to connect,” Zaher says.

“When we started the Three Nails worship service, we had a lot of people from a nonEpiscopalian background. I decided I could impose Episcopalian liturgy or let it erupt from the people. Liturgy literally means ‘the work of the people.’ You have to allow it to be the work of the people and do it as a community.”

Paul Walker, pastor of a popular Episcopal young adults service in Charlottesville, Va., also sees liturgy as being a work of the people.

“The liturgy itself is a communal activity,” he says. “It provides the language to connect to God vertically. But the guy kneeling next to you is saying the same thing, which gives you the idea that you’re not alone.”

Zaher keeps liturgical practices fresh in a contemporary setting by updating the liturgy.

“One of the articles of the Anglican faith is that we can change the liturgy to be appropriate to the culture,” Zaher says. “You keep liturgy fresh by recontextualizing it. It’s more a pattern than a prescription.”

PUB THEOLOGY Joe Thorn pastors Grace Baptist, a church west of Chicago. On the second Tuesday of every month, he and a few of his church members gather for two hours at the local pub to eat, drink and discuss the deeper elements of the Bible. He calls it “pub theology”—a salute to the early Christian thinkers such as Martin Luther who dined while debating.

The goal is simple—grow closer to God, grow closer to man. “Our relationships are strengthened, we promote community both within and outside of the Church, and who doesn’t love to talk about theology?” Thorn says.

Thorn knows that God can be explored well outside the doors of the church.

“Worship doesn’t only happen between the prelude and the benediction at church, but it continues in our homes, at work and even at a local pub when life is lived in the presence of God for His glory,” he says.

EXCELLENCE In The Adventure of Worship, author Gerrit Gustafson notes the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9 concerning worship: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain” (TNIV). Gustafson adds, “Just going through the motions equals unacceptable worship ...

God knows exactly how much of us is really involved in our act of praise. And He expects us to give it our all.”

Recent graduate Lori D’Augostine would likely agree. “There’s something to be said for excellence,” she says.

When the 27-year-old ponders how she worships God, she starts to tear up. She glances up at the wall where a black-andwhite photograph of ballet slippers sits over her desk. Before she even speaks, it is clear that dance performance is more than just a hobby to her. “It’s my life ... and now I do it for Him,” she says softly.

She shows the video of a presentation she wrote, directed and choreographed detailing the lives of martyrs from Joan of Arc to Cassie Bernall. The play was performed in front of an audience of graduate students. Seeing it again, D’Augostine is still visibly moved.

“That’s worship,” she says.

Worship seems to be changing within the Church. It is becoming more holistic and rooted in ancient tradition while couching this tradition in a modern context. Still, many believe there is a long way to go. Chris Seay sums up the situation by referencing a scene from the film Walk the Line.

“Johnny Cash goes in to play for [producer] Sam Phillips, and Phillips calls him a liar. He says that Cash is doing the same gospel song, the same way it’s always been done. I hope a lot of people would step forward and say that to artists and worship leaders. We have a lot of people mimicking other people. It’s time for people to step forward and find their own voice. When we see that kind of creative force unleashed upon the world, I think the Gospel is going to have a significant impact.” 0

ADAM SMITH is managing editor of RELEVANT magazine.

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THE RELEVANT NATION Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a side of our generation the stereotypes miss. The labels say we are apathetic, politically indifferent and spiritually lethargic, when in fact the exact opposite is true.

The following seven pages tell the stories of people who just happen to be passionately pouring their lives into causes they believe in. From a record label entrepreneur to a social activist in the jungles of Cambodia, these are ones, like countless others, who are doing all they can to make a difference.

They arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t special, but they are driven. And their faith propels them. They are us. We are them.

This is the RELEVANT Nation.

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JAY BAKKER PASTOR BORN: December 18, 1975 LIVES IN: Brooklyn, New York FAVORITE SCRIPTURE: John 13:34-35 REVOLUTION CHURCH www.vivalarevolution.org

IF ANY ONE INDIVIDUAL had a front-row seat to the rise and fall of TV evangelists in the ’70s and ’80s, it was Jay Bakker.

The son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, he witnessed the doubleedged sword of popularity as his parents received both the praise and contempt of the Christian community. Having seen some of the ugliness that the trappings of Christian celebrity had to offer, it would not have been a shock if Bakker had completely renounced the beliefs of his parents. Yet God had something different in mind for this young man, and his journey of faith has influenced countless others as they have navigated the minefields of this life.

Growing up, Bakker says that he always wanted to do ministry for people who “either didn’t feel like they fit in the Church or who didn’t need the Church.” Bakker attended Master’s Commission, a ministry training center located in Phoenix, and even though it wasn’t the right fit for him, he met some like-minded people there, including Mike Wall, who had an idea for starting a ministry called Revolution, designed to reach the unreached.

“For six months we just planned and put our heads together to figure out how we could do it,” Bakker says. “A few months later we started having services, just having bands come and play, doing a little rootsy type of thing, meeting late at night and reaching out to punk rockers and hippies and stuff like that.”

Throughout this period of ministry, Bakker still struggled with his perception of how God viewed him. “I still felt like God disapproved of me. I still felt like I always wanted to do bad things or I was tempted to sin or if I kept hanging out with people I would sin. So I quit the ministry after about a year there and left. I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m even capable of serving God anymore.’”

He took a year off and moved in with a friend, Donnie Earl (D.E.) Paulk in Atlanta. It was Paulk who really helped Bakker understand the deep, transforming power of grace.

“He was a real example of who Christ was to me,” Bakker explains. “I started to realize how true grace was, and when I learned that God loved me just the way I was, I had to get back in ministry. I wanted to tell the whole world about God’s grace.”

That message of grace is the foundation of Bakker’s ministry to the unreached. He recently moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn to start a new branch of Revolution. But ultimately, seeing people’s lives transformed is what motivates him in his calling. “It’s simple things ... I love theology, I love to study things and try to figure things out, but it’s those basics of God’s love and what Jesus did on the cross that keep me going,” he says. “And seeing how people feel as the shackles of man-made religion come off.” —JEREMY HUNT

THE RELEVANT NATION

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GRETA ARNQUIST THE PEPY RIDE GIVE GRETA ARNQUIST the choice to travel by plane, train, automobile or bicycle, and she will choose option D every time.

When Arnquist is on her bike, she feels free, connected and alive, and when she is riding across Cambodia with The PEPY Ride, an organization she co-founded, she feels at home. On the dusty, gravel roads of Southeast Asia, Arnquist has found her mission.

Arnquist first discovered her love for nature and adventure in the Northwoods of Minnesota. Her free spirit eventually took her to Japan as an English teacher, where her desire to travel, learn and help others was ignited. On a volunteer trip to Cambodia, she witnessed a country devastated by the Khmer Rouge regime, which has killed at least one in six Cambodian people in the last thirty years. Education was first to be destroyed in the devastating restructuring campaign, eventually leading to the disbanding of all formal education.

While traveling, Arnquist saw too many distended bellies of poverty and missing limbs blown off by landmines to turn away. It was the Cambodians’ enduring hope against all odds that convinced Arnquist she simply had to do something.

When Arnquist and friend Daniela Papi first brainstormed PEPY (Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself—www.pepyride.org), it was a two-person biking adventure meant to raise money to build a school in Cambodia and deliver educational supplies to schools as they biked across the country. The dream spread like wildfire, and soon PEPY grew into an internationally recognized non-governmental organization, raising funds for developing communities and disaster relief regions, with tens of thousands of dollars in donations

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coming in from all over the world. PEPY now organizes multiweek bicycle trips as well as weeklong volunteer projects that take their participants into developing areas to work with the local organizations for which PEPY raises money.

Arnquist is compelled by the people she meets along the dirt roads of Cambodia, and especially by the 500-plus children of The PEPY Ride School in Siem Reap. With its solar panels, vegetable garden, free lunch program, computers and Internet access, and salaried teachers, The PEPY Ride School contributes as much to sustaining the environment as it does to the community’s education. Arnquist and PEPY are not just helping rebuild a foundation for education; they are showing Cambodian people that someone cares about their past and believes in their future.

The people Arnquist has met demand that she use her most precious gift—the love inherent inside her, of which she finds constantly renewable sources. Realizing her own power to give has taken what was once just an adventure and infused it with purpose and worth. When Arnquist sees the smiles, shakes the hands, makes connections and learns from the friends she meets on the road, she finds more within her own heart to give than she ever knew possible.

Nothing in her life BORN: May 18, 1981 has proven more LIVES IN: “My last place of residence was rewarding than Hamamatsu, Japan ... now I’m a wanderer.” that. To think, it LAST BOOK YOU READ: A Sand County Almanac all started with a

by Aldo Leopold girl and her bike.

—KELSEY KREIDER

Greg Willis (center)

GREG WILLIS GREG WILLIS left his youth ministry job in South Carolina and moved to Texas to work in a grocery store. What would inspire such a career change, especially for a man with a wife and baby to support? For Willis it was all about a shift in priorities. After 15 years of working in ministry, he was eager to embrace a more community-oriented model of living and hoped to connect with those outside of conservative Bible-Belt suburbia.

After the birth of their son, Willis’ wife Jolie began taking their son for walks in the neighborhood and meeting the neighbors; she saw a separation between these people and the ones in the pews.

“A lot of really kind and loving people would openly share with her that they had made a choice a long time ago that going to church was a step away from God, rather than toward Him,” Willis says. “Shocked, we began to ask ourselves, ‘If this is how people are feeling in white middle-class Bible-Belt suburbia, what is going on with the rest of the world?’”

Willis realized there were two worlds— the world of those who still respected the institutional Church and government and the world of the marginalized, who don’t see the Church as the center of their universe and don’t see politics as the end all, be all.

Through several God-oriented events and situations, the Willises found themselves in the second world, at the Oak Grove Abbey, an intentional

BORN: August 22, 1970 LIVES IN: Austin, Texas INSPIRED BY: “My grandparents have been the most consistent heroes of the faith for me. They radiate hospitality, generosity, family loyalty and wisdom with an undying love for the Scriptures and for befriending and assisting anyone and everyone toward Jesus.”

community in Austin, Texas. It incorporates communal living with monastic practices, providing just such an opportunity for Willis and his family.

“We decided, let’s not plant a church; let’s plant a community,” he says. “It’s more intentional as far as kingdom work.

In a place like Austin the only way for a church to have integrity is to live in community. Thinking cliché phrases like ‘Jesus died for your sins’ would mean anything to people in downtown Austin is naïve. But something that could potentially resonate is people living together in a community way.”

Willis took a job at one of Austin’s culturally influenced grocery stores to do just that. “The fifth- and sixth-century Celtic monastic movement is probably the closest thing I’ve read to what we’re doing,” he says. “Their way of evangelizing wasn’t a mental choice but some underthe-radar demonstration of life.

“This process of being stripped of conventional methods and taking on a more organic and missional approach led quickly to the belief that the only way to truly embody God’s Way in a place such as central Austin was to be in community—a demonstrative living alternative to the status quo.”

—CHRIS TROUTMAN

INVISIBLE CHILDREN Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole & Jason Russell NAME: Bobby Bailey BORN: December 12, 1981 LIVES IN: San Diego, California FEELS PASSIONATELY ABOUT: “Being with people, being alone at least once a day, reading the newspaper, sharing ideas, reaching for the impossible” NAME: Laren Poole BORN: April 28, 1983 LIVES IN: San Diego, California WORSHIPS: “Behind the wheel with my music” NAME: Jason Russell BORN: October 12, 1978 LIVES IN: San Diego, California INSPIRED BY: Dan Eldon, Bono, Steven Spielberg, Oprah, Vince Flumiani

www.invisiblechildren.com

CALIFORNIA FILM STUDENTS don’t seem like the most likely advocates for children in the third world. However, that is precisely who has started a major campaign to bring awareness to the horrendous state of affairs for children in Uganda. For the past 20 years, children between the ages of 8 and 14 have been kidnapped and brainwashed as soldiers by a rebel army attempting to overthrow the Ugandan government.

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Invisible Children, Inc.—founded by Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole—is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing financial resources to Ugandan children by documenting their true, untold stories in a creative and relevant way, resulting in positive change.

The first major step in creating awareness in the United States was to create a DVDlength documentary about the threesome’s time in Uganda. Their film, Invisible Children, is the cornerstone of Invisible Children’s efforts. They have a feature film in the works as well.

To get their film to people who can make a difference, they launched the Suburban Safari: National Tour. The tour consisted of groups of college and high-school students in seven Winnebagos traveling around the country to showcase the film and rally more people to the cause.

The tour culminated with the Global Night Commute, where people all around the world were asked to leave their homes on April 29, 2006, and walk to their downtown streets to sleep for the night, choosing to become “night commuters” like the children of northern Uganda who walk into cities to sleep every night to escape being abducted from their rural homes. Eighty thousand people participated in 136 cities and seven

countries. Their slogan was: “On April 29th, we gathered. To make a difference. To end a war.”

In addition to awareness, Invisible Children supports an educational program that not only pays for schooling but also provides mentors for kids, many of whom are orphans. To fund the school and provide jobs, the organization has founded the bracelet program, which sells bracelets made by people in Uganda. The bracelets are woven from reeds in Uganda and sold in the United States along with a short video telling the story of one person in Uganda.

“Even though these people are impoverished, they have so much to offer us,” Bailey says. “They are people with differing hopes and dreams who articulate themselves well. Going to a culture that just doesn’t have the benefits I grew up with ... there’s something that makes me want to fight for that. There’s nothing I want to do more than give them the same opportunity that I’ve had all my life. The idea of equality pushes me forward—the idea that we’re on the brink of something extraordinary. That coupled with the opportunity that we have the chance to inspire the kids of America.

Maybe life has another layer of fullness from giving it away.” —ERIC SULLIVAN, WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY REBECCA MAYER

ANGELA C. WU

THE BECKET FUND ANGELA C. WU NEVER PLANNED to go into religious freedom work. “I was mostly interested in civil and human rights work until I took a missions trip to Turkey, and I didn’t even know why I took the trip,” she says. “But God showed me step by step that I should go, and then showed me why He had me there”—to see the need for global religious liberty work.

Wu grew up in both Taiwan and New York City. After earning a degree in modern intellectual history from Northwestern University, she worked with OXFAM America for a year, then enrolled at Harvard Law School. Her search for truth led her to Christ in the summer of 1999. After Harvard, she earned a European law degree on a Fulbright scholarship in Brussels, Belgium, moved back to New York City and worked at a corporate law firm until 2005 (with a year’s interlude as a federal court clerk in San Francisco). Then she went to Turkey.

“After that, I knew I was interested in religious freedom issues, but I didn’t know where to start, or think that it could be a full-time calling,” she says. “I wanted to work with people, write and still practice law.”

One day, a friend in the state department mentioned a job opening at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an organization that advocates freedom for adherents of all religions. “By the time I hung up, I knew this was it,” she says. “It was everything I’d been looking for.”

Wu moved to Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2005 to be the director of international advocacy at The Becket Fund. The BORN: October 27, 1974 job is multifaceted. The Becket Fund LIVES IN: Washington, D.C. filed a brief in Swedish High Court FAVORITE COFFEE DRINK: A properly made for a pastor imprisoned for preaching macchiato on sexual immorality and grace from the pulpit; they also intervened at the www.thebecketfund.org United Nations on behalf of a mosque in Azerbaijan and advocated on behalf of a Muslim woman who was dragged out of Turkish parliament for wearing a headscarf.

Choosing cases can be difficult. Wu says it is important to work on cases in countries with developed legal systems, but many of the international religious persecution bulletins she receives are in countries where The Becket Fund can’t work effectively.

“I find myself praying about it all the time, but in the back of my mind I know He’s in control,” she says.

At the end of the day, it’s intensely rewarding for Wu to know that she has helped those that she can. “I’d like to see my life get closer and closer to the ground,” she says. “I want to get closer to people’s needs, to speak to their hearts and serve them.”

—ALISSA WILKINSON

AT 15, RORY FELTON had the chance of

RORY FELTON THE MILITIA GROUP BORN: January 27, 1982 LIVES IN: Long Beach, California LAST BOOK YOU READ: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

www.themilitiagroup.com

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a lifetime. Well, sort of. With his band’s cassette demo in hand, Felton approached Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye after a concert at the Midwest Underground Media Symposium in Kansas City, Mo. “I was a huge fan at the time,” Felton says. “So I went up to him and said, ‘Ian, I want to give you a demo of my band.’ And he turns to me and says, ‘No. We only sign D.C. bands. Start your own label.’”

So that’s exactly what he did. Felton’s label— The Militia Group—is now the indie home for more than 20 star-studded artists including Copeland, The Appleseed Cast, Denison Witmer, Acceptance, The Rocket Summer, Cartel and Lovedrug.

All of this from a 24-year-old University of Southern California music business dropout.

“You hear of people who go through college and have no idea of what they want to do,” he says. “I never went through that at all. I’ve always known what I was going to do. I’ve always known what I wanted to do. And I just went and did it.

Everything else just fell into place.”

Setting up shop in his freshman dorm room at USC, Felton began recording then-unsigned bands like The Juliana Theory and Rufio. What started out as a hobby of recording albums for his friends soon turned into something much bigger.

“While I was living in L.A., I saw lots of great bands that were unsigned, like Noise Ratchet and Thrice,” Felton says. “I was wondering why no label would pick them up. I talked to a friend of mine, Chad Pearson, and asked him if he wanted to start a record company. He was like ‘yeah sure.’

So we got a bank loan, signed a distribution deal and picked up our first four artists. I guess we just stepped into the fold.”

Although those steps have continued to grow larger since the company’s start six years ago, Felton’s heart for his work remains unchanged. He still excitedly tears the packaging off new records, shows up at concerts six nights a week and gets shivers when he stumbles upon the rarity of a truly great band.

“I just love music; in ways it consumes my life,” he says. “But it’s something I really enjoy.

Not many people get to do what I do for a living.

If you look at the last six years of my life, it’s inconceivable to think there’s not a greater hand at work. This didn’t just happen.”

As for MacKaye?

“I found his email address about a year ago and told him the story from when I met him in Kansas City,” Felton says. “He was really polite and said thanks. So I sent him some records, and he sent me a postcard. I was pretty excited.” —JOSH ORENDORF

BETHANY HOANG INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION IN A HALLWAY at Princeton, where she was a first-year seminary student, Bethany Hoang saw a poster that changed her life. It had a picture of a girl, tears streaming down her cheeks, and said: Slavery is alive. Rape for profit must be stopped.

Hoang didn’t know slavery still existed. She’d studied the history but was oblivious to modern-day slavery. She had a desire to work with victims of sexual abuse but knew nothing of the global trade of sex trafficking—the abduction and sale of women and children for prostitution.

“I put my name on an email list, and I started to get all kinds of articles every day about cases of trafficking around the world,” Hoang says. “The more I learned, the more I found myself just hanging my head in my hands. It was too much, more than I could bear.”

A few months before Hoang graduated from seminary, her boyfriend Anthony (now husband) introduced her to the International Justice Mission (IJM), an organization that works to rescue victims of slavery and oppression. Teams of lawyers and investigators document conditions of oppression, abuse and slavery, taking the evidence to local authorities. Victims are rescued and cared for, and oppressors are prosecuted.

For Bethany Hoang, IJM was not only an answer to prayer, but an effort she felt compelled to join. “That was the point when the calling I had been sensing at last trumped my fear.” She realized that “the Gospel can be—and must be—proclaimed

BORN: February 26, 1979 LIVES IN: McLean, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. FEELS PASSIONATELY ABOUT: “My husband, the written and spoken word, dead 19th-century composers (and wannabes), lived theology, excellent coffee, good lighting, moving water and above all things—freedom that leads to extravagant servant love”

www.ijm.org

through bringing freedom to the captive, release to those who are being oppressed ... that there actually is a way to do justice and that God calls us to do it,” and she has made Isaiah 1:17 her personal mission statement.

As director of the IJM Institute, she travels throughout the world speaking at churches and universities, as well as training missionaries for the injustice they will encounter. She and her team provide biblical teaching, tools and resources that they pray the Holy Spirit will use to fundamentally change and deepen the conviction of the Church. She has seen firsthand what Gary Haugen, president of IJM, has noted: Though justice is “central to the heart of God,” it is “on the margin of our mission” within the Church.

“If you read Scripture, it’s abundantly clear that justice is the calling of all who follow Jesus—no matter who you are or where you live. Justice is fundamental to the heartbeat of God’s passion for the world.” —MICHA BOYETT HOHORST 0

BY JEFFREY WORTHEN

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MEWITHOUTYOU

T’S A BALMY SUMMER EVENING in Philadelphia, and mewithoutYou bassist Greg Jehanian is spending it relatively low-key, relaxing and catching up with old friends. His bandmate and childhood friend, guitarist Mike Weiss, is playing organized softball with some friends across town.

Somewhere in between, lead singer Aaron Weiss (Mike’s brother) is likely trying to convince guitarist Christopher Kleinberg and drummer Richard Mazzotta to join him for a deliberately unorganized game of street hockey. The main objective for the road- and studio-weary band during the few days they have in Philly, their beloved hometown, is to unwind, and they all seem to be enjoying their brief time among friends and family. Having just finished recording their new album as well as a tour with fellow indie rockers Thursday and Minus the Bear, mewithoutYou deserves the brief bit of downtime before they head back on the road for another countless string of shows.

The new album, Brother, Sister, is the third mewithoutYou release on Seattle-based Tooth & Nail Records. It is the first mewithoutYou album to feature Jehanian, who replaced bassist Daniel Pishock shortly after the critically acclaimed Catch for Us the Foxes was released in late 2004. Jehanian has toured with the band for the past two years, and took some time to talk with RELEVANT about what it was like to finally enter the studio and actually write new material as a member of the band.

“When I came on board, Catch for Us the Foxes had just come out, so nobody in the band really wanted to write at that point,” Jehanian says. “We just toured and toured and played those songs.”

Jehanian had been with the band for about a year when they decided it was time to start writing new material. By that time, Jehanian had gotten used to being around his childhood friends again, many of whom he’d played with in previous bands, and mewithoutYou started to focus on what lay ahead, beginning with a fresh batch of songs.

“Making this record just came really organically, and

the songwriting seemed to flow out of us,” Jehanian says, adding that the album is a step in another direction for the band. “I don’t think that was a conscious decision; it just kind of happened, but making this album was a very smooth and easy process for all of us.”

While Brother, Sister may have expanded the band’s sound more than ever before, the most discernable characteristic to mewithoutYou is unchanged: the powerful voice of frontman Aaron Weiss. Loaded with energy behind the lead mic, Weiss takes turns singing, screaming and whispering his gritty spoken word poetry in front of heavy, melodic chords, intense drumming and complex, intriguing bass lines. Weiss sings in a way that seems intentionally jarring. His lyrics are as honest as they are profoundly original and have deeply impacted fans, who appreciate the raw, candid manner in which Weiss talks about his faith and matters of Christianity.

Jehanian points out that lyrically, the previous album was heavily involved with issues of healing, sincerity and humility.

“It was basically us saying, ‘Here I am, here’s my heart,’ and just lifting it all up to God and looking for answers,” Jehanian says. “To me, this record seems a little more hopeful. Not that our last album was negative, but it had that kind of gritty honesty. I think to some degree this one does too, but it seems a little more lighthearted and hopeful, all while still being intense. You know, getting up and dusting yourself off, after being down in the dirt.”

Brother, Sister is mewithoutYou’s most challenging work, but it is also their most rewarding; fans who take the time to discover the intricacies of the album will appreciate it more with every listen. This band is indeed different than any other post-hardcore band out there, Christian or otherwise. This is evidenced by the fact that they beat out the Arcade Fire, Matisyahu and Saul Williams to win the Left Field Award (given out to the most original artist) at last year’s mtvU Woodie Awards.

By being able to share the stage with such prominent acts,

MEWITHOUTYOU

75

NOT PICTURED: HUCK FINN: (L-R) Michael Weiss, Greg Jehanian, Aaron Weiss, Richard Mazzotta, Christopher Kleinberg

mewithoutYou is embracing this recognition as a platform to share their lives, music and faith.

When Jeremy Enigk, the iconic lead singer of Sunny Day Real Estate and more recently The Fire Theft, offered to sing backup vocals on a couple of tracks (breathing fire into the songs “Depeche” and “Hand Tattoos,” specifically) for Brother, Sister, the band was ecstatic.

“We actually had no intention of working with him when we started recording the album,” Jehanian says, “but our producer, Brad Wood, had worked —GREG JEHANIAN with Jeremy on the last two Sunny Day Real Estate albums, as well as The Fire Theft. We were kind of joking with Brad at the studio, asking him if he’d call Jeremy and see if he’d want to do some vocals on the record, and Brad said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’” While the band looked around at each other in disbelief, Wood got Enigk on the phone, and within minutes, mewithoutYou had added a pretty incredible backup singer to their lineup. Enigk was finishing up recording his second solo record and was unable to physically travel to Los Angeles to record

“OUR FAITH IS EXPRESSED IN DIFFERENT WAYS INDIVIDUALLY.”

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MEWITHOUTYOU

with the band in person, so the band sent several songs via email. Enigk, with his own recording equipment, laid down some ideas and sent them back to the band. “We’re all very flattered that he would do that and very grateful, and it definitely helps the quality of the record,” Jehanian says. “His stuff sounds amazing.”

While the band is gaining attention worldwide for their musical accomplishments, Jehanian says the greatest thing about being a part of mewithoutYou is that while it consists of five individuals who are different in so many ways, they all share the bigger, common goals that bind the band together for a cause greater than themselves.

“I know that our faith is expressed in different ways individually,” Jehanian says. “We all come from different brands of Christianity and different backgrounds, and some of us have longer or shorter backgrounds of calling themselves a Christian or being raised in the Church.

There’s definitely a feeling of unity, though. It’s hard to speak for everybody, but I definitely think that what’s being spoken or sung from stage with the lyrics and the way we express ourselves and live on and off the stage, I want to somehow pour out God in that. If God is in us, and we can show that love, hope and light through what we’re doing, then that alone would make me very happy.” 0 JEFFREY WORTHEN is a photographer and writer living in Virginia.

FIND YOUR VOICE W I T H L I K E W I S E B O O K S F R O M I N T E R VA R S I T Y P R E S S

ENCOUNTER GOD IN THE CITY RANDY WHITE WITH A FOREWORD BY RAY BAKKE

Inner-city ministry veteran Randy White invites us to hear the call of God rising up from the urban hum. Let urban life rouse your unexamined assumptions about privilege, race, class and power, exposing human poverty and the raw value of every soul.

“Here is a gentle invitation to participate in the healing of broken lives and cracked sidewalks, and to practice resurrection in the abandoned places of the empire.”

—Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution

IS BELIEF IN GOD GOOD, BAD OR IRRELEVANT?

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WHAT IS

TRUTH?

BY KELLY MONROE KULLBERG

78

WHAT IS TRUTH?

I

HAD BEEN GONE A MONTH. Even though we’d been broken up for several months, I missed Rob, a grad student in physics at MIT, and my best friend of six years. Life had gotten confusing in the age of the almost-marriage. I’d become frustrated, and we called it quits.

When I finally returned to Boston, he occupied my thoughts. I wanted to try again. Hopping off the plane, I drove into Cambridge and up the street to my house. I was surprised to see Rob’s car in my driveway. “Thank you, God,” I whispered.

But a moment later it hit me: Rob’s car wasn’t in my driveway, but in the driveway of my next-door neighbor and good friend. She and other friends had often joined Rob and me on hiking and skiing trips. She had even agreed to be a chaperone at times, helping Rob and me avoid getting too comfortable physically before marriage.

We were quite a pair, the three of us.

And now he was with her.

I realized it would be difficult for me to stay there, especially when Rob couldn’t even look me in the eye when we saw each other. I decided to move into a pine cabin on a wildlife sanctuary in the woods on the north shore of Boston to live for a while.

A few years before this happened, several friends and I started The Veritas Forum, which are gatherings to explore truth, reality and true life, at my school, Harvard University. To our surprise, thousands of students became curious about Veritas in other schools around the country. A friend offered me the use of his cargo jets, and I’d spent time flying to 50 universities between Harvard and Berkeley. The same year I moved into the cabin, Christianity Today named me an up-and-coming Christian leader in America. And there I was, hiding in the woods, barely breathing, and wondering where God was. Not only had a seven-year relationship ended bitterly, but I contracted Lyme disease and my stepfather lay dying in hospice care.

Not being able to handle the realities of my new life, the questions raised in Veritas Forums became my own: Why would a loving God allow such pain? Does any possible truth survive on the far side of complexity? Is hope possible, or do the skeptics have it right—get what you can before you die? How does love last? Is there justice for

wounding a human soul? Where is God now?

In my pain, I realized that I could not know much of anything by my own intelligence, virtue or reason. I needed truth to break into my life, to be revealed from outside of me ... to me. I was open to all possibilities. I began to ask the questions. I began to listen. I began to pay attention.

In all of what I’d read, lived through, seen and heard, three words emerged with what C.S. Lewis called the “ring of truth” with layers of beauty, clarity and coherence. They are testable and verifiable by eyewitnesses as true. No scholar has disproved any one of them: Creation. (The) Bible. Jesus.

1ST WORD: CREATION Near the cabin I’d begun to run and hike in the snowy salt marsh at low tide. One day the sunlight was getting away from me, and I thought I’d catch the last of it. I put on some Gore-Tex and hiking boots and was off on what I called “the red barn run.”

I had a routine for these outings: put some wood in the stove for heat that night, either hug the dogs or bring them along, go down through the woods, pass the neighbor’s chicken barn, greet the sheep, skirt the big red barn, hike into the marsh to the tide’s edge and be back home in under an hour.

Tonight was different. A shining planet shone beneath the crescent moon. Stars emerged in the sky like members of a choir.

Songbirds in the snowy pines became a timbered chorus of complex and lilting harmonies. The ocean tide slowly rose to the occasion.

Earth and sky became the colors of bread and wine, flesh and blood.

The setting sun turned the barn to orange and, later, to crimson.

Something about it seemed too good to be false.

I felt inklings of a symphony behind which might be a score and a conductor. I sensed a story with a wooing author. I felt something like Tolkien’s enchanted vision, but the rightful owner of the one ring was the lord of light, not of darkness. The bearer of that ring to rule the spheres was some sort of wild and relentless lover who could find us anywhere.

It all seemed conspicuous, orchestrated, fine-tuned, like worship, but without me. My will and pride rebelled against the worship.

The universe could sing and dance the night away for all I cared.

My own story was over, mission aborted.

But the beauty became acute. Whether I chose to kneel or my legs were broken for me, I don’t know. I fell to the wet earth, my forehead

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THERE I WAS, HIDING IN THE WOODS, BARELY BREATHING, WONDERING WHERE GOD WAS. down in the mud and snow, fighting nausea, asking myself, What story am I living? The secular story’s prison of self and circumstance?

Or the biblical story that moves from a glorious creation, through a horribly bad fall and on to redemption?

Which story is true? The answer came unbidden and clear: “The one that yields Life.” How could I move from one story to the other, from death to life? How could I fall forward?

In that wild sanctuary, the question was clear—Would I forgive?

Would I be remembered to the living, to join the dance, even if with the weakest step?

I know less by my slim reason, virtue and experience, and more because Truth revealed Himself to me. It was as if the One who spoke the universe into being was still speaking and still creating. He was breathing along with all living things, including me.

2ND WORD: (THE) BIBLE The cabin housed a friend’s library of world literature, science and philosophy, so I read many books. No human philosophies satisfied me. Reason helped and pointed me in the right direction, but still left me feeling cold and alone. Some of my life experiences were wonderful, but others were wrenching and left me bitter. How else might I discover the larger story? I needed to know.

whatistruth_issue22=.indd 080

One book emerged as true unlike any other. In all the literature I’d read, it was the Bible that described with piercing precision my human heart, my angst and the pathos of the human condition in our complexity: “Where can I run from Your Spirit?”

If there is a God who can create a universe, it would follow that He could manage to write and oversee the printing of a book. He could even care for its translation into many languages and cultures. Unique among sacred texts and origin stories, the Bible claims to be God’s Word in print, like a treasure map—preserved over millennia yet always fresh. It is open to investigation, inviting the reader to test it by experience as false or true, leading to death or life. It is not a book of human mythology or vague spirituality, but of power for real and abundant life.

This Word is a hitchhiker’s guide to the whole cosmos, especially life on one amazing blue and green planet. Its Author refines our vision of Himself and ourselves. Not only does He reveal Himself as the Maker of the heavens and earth, but all the more so, as the Lover of our souls.

The more I was immersed in the text, the more I found the “ring of truth” in the Bible at various levels: its consistency with modern scientific discovery; the journalistic details and integrity of the text; the surprising fidelity of the transmission of the Bible over time; the unique coherence of its many books though written by 40 people in three languages, on three continents, over a span of more than 1,500 years; the clear fulfillment of many specific prophecies; and, finally, the sense that the text is true to our human nature and desires for love, mercy, connection, meaning and glory.

I came to love this Word of God like I love treasure hunts and treasures, like I love opening a love letter. It is a Story worth living in.

8/4/06 9:48:54 AM

And a Word that is alive. More than anything, I love the Bible because it tells me about the heart of God Himself, seen most clearly in His living Word—the person of Jesus.

3RD WORD: JESUS The treasure map led to the treasure. God most clearly spoke a Word who eyewitnesses sensed had become flesh and blood, “full of grace and truth.” He was loved by women and men. He was embraced and known by small children. He ennobled the least, the lost and the humble of heart. He was a friend to sinners.

Of all the competing voices and claims to truth, One sacrificed Himself—which is what lovers do for the one they love. Truth is not an abstraction, or a coward sitting in the comfort of his living room recliner with his remote control and plasma TV view of the world.

Rather, Truth became flesh and blood in a real time and place, was beaten and killed as a substitute for our sin, chose us in our pride and shame, and showed us God’s heart. Truth has a face.

That same Truth was seen by more than 500 eyewitnesses on 13 occasions, risen from the dead. Jewish and Roman historians wrote about this as well, given the rapid expansion of His followers despite persecution.

Harvard’s founders dedicated a college to His glory. The secret of the shield, Veritas, has a name—Jesus. And so their bylaws read: “let every student consider that the main end of his life and studies is to know God, Jesus Christ, who is eternal life ...”

I struggled to forgive others. I was now confronted by the One who offered to forgive me. To say yes to both—to receive God’s mercy and in turn to extend it to another—was to say yes to God and to new life for myself as well. It was to trust and to live forwardly, not in bitterness

but in faith. I still cling to that wellspring of mercy for myself, out of which I am able to forgive others, to forgive myself and to live again.

Though I’d been hurt by a friend, the presence of Jesus in the lives of other Christians came alongside me. Harvard friends would hop on the train and come up for weekends. We’d paddle my red canoe or sea-kayak between islands, boil lobsters, play Ultimate Frisbee, talk and sing. When I was bitten by a deer tick and contracted Lyme disease, one friend prayed and I was healed (both symptomatically and confirmed by blood tests). I could see the life of Jesus in the people who followed Him. In each of these three words—creation, (the) Bible, Jesus—the Author invited me to take a small step, to rejoin the dance, by forgiving. I was invited to receive the mercy of Jesus who died on the cross for me, and then to give that mercy to others. It was as if the Creator and Author held out His hand and asked me to dance. Slowly I took that first step, through grace. What followed was the gradual healing of my mind, body and heart so that I could re-enter my community of friends and the adventures that we love.

What is Truth? Truth is that which yields life. To live in truth is to confess our bitterness, sin and shame—it is to unload our sorrows on the One who can bear them. To live in the Story of Jesus Christ is to live in hope that God is orchestrating all things for His and our own good. It is to fall forward into what theologian N.T. Wright calls “a freshly storied world.” 0 KELLY MONROE KULLBERG is the author of Finding God Beyond Harvard:

The Quest for Veritas (InterVarsity Press, 2006). She advises Veritas in many universities, teaches guitar for fun and loves to play Ultimate Frisbee with friends and family in Columbus, Ohio. www.veritas.org

unreasonable. exhilarating.

mysterious.

Join Steven James, author of the critically-acclaimed Story, to navigate the uncommon sense of following Jesus. With arresting stories and breathtaking writing, you’ll find yourself pondering a faith that’s full to the brim with truth while being fully mysterious.

Mystery abounds at

www.stevenjames.net

Free discussion guide available for personal or group use

“Here, the Almighty Creator of the galaxies has a bellybutton.”

—Steven James

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A COSTLY FAITH

A COSTLY FAITH LESSONS FROM A PAWNSHOP VAN

BY DAVID CROWDER

I GREW UP in east Texas—Texarkana, Texas, to be precise. The town’s name nods to its fantastic geographic mergers, as half the town sits in the great state of my birth, while the other half hangs over into Arkansas. And we’re proud of this—the city existing in two opposing states. Even the city’s water tower, situated just off Interstate 30, makes the promise to everyone passing through that Texarkana is “Twice as Nice.”

Stateline Avenue separates one state from the other. This avenue of apportionment runs from the Red River (a flowing bit of water north of the city and aptly named for its red clay hue) to the post office downtown where the imaginary state-dividing line continues its direct linear course through the post office, splitting the edifice in two, before emerging on the other side where the imperceptible line then turns into a visible strip of paint just prior to running up the post of a sign from which two metal shapes dangle—one in the shape of Texas, one in the shape of Arkansas. The sign’s blatant intent is for you to stand in front of it while spreading your legs, placing one foot gingerly in Texas while heroically spanning the strip of paint and depositing the other foot in Arkansas. It is also assumed you will perform this act while being photographed to document such a miraculous feat of bi-state simultaneity. I guess the idea of a dualistic geographic state seems fantastic

enough to warrant this pictorial monument, as I have in fact personally observed a number of pictures taken in front of the sign.

And I’d add that those participating seemed genuinely excited. But I’ve stood there myself, in that very space, and I couldn’t feel a thing. I am certain I did it correctly: my legs were adequately spread, my feet were accurately positioned on either side of the strip of paint, my body inferably severed by the imaginary division projecting up from the ground. I was theoretically in two places at once, which should register something pretty cool in one’s senses, but there was nothing. At an early age I began to doubt the promises of water towers.

If, however, it were ever requested of me to sum up my east Texas experience for someone unfamiliar to its culture and its people, I would tell them about Gary Mills.

Gary Mills worked for my dad. Sort of. That is, when Gary wasn’t in jail.

Gary owned a van. He bought it at a pawnshop. In case you missed that, I’ll restate here—the van Gary owned was purchased at a pawnshop! That’s funny.

Only in the piny woods of eastern Texas and portions of rural West Virginia can vehicles be acquired from pawnshops, for like $2. These are my people. But I insist that we of the eastern Texas populace are almost brilliant. Almost genius! As will be evidenced in the person and ingenuity

of one Gary Mills concerning one van purchased at a pawnshop.

One time the brake lights went out on Gary’s van. Gary did the obvious. He spraypainted, in bright fluorescent orange across the back doors of the van, “Stop!” If you think about it, it is almost brilliant. If you were to observe this word and then obeyed the fluorescently projected directive, you would become reasonably safer. Which was what Gary eagerly hoped to promote through his thoughtful painting—safety for those in proximity of his driving.

It seems vans acquired from pawnshops can be surprisingly prone to failures of varying types. One day Gary’s accelerator cable broke. (The accelerator cable is a cable that goes from the accelerator pedal to the engine, where it attaches to the accelerator arm.) He stepped on the accelerator pedal, and the van moved neither forward nor backward. But Gary is almost a genius.

You may have noticed a large intrusion of plastic in a van, bulging out into the forward-inhabited space between the driver’s right knee and the passenger’s left knee.

This plastic intrusion is often crowned with faux-wooden beverage holders and covers what mechanics like to call “the engine.” I’m unconvinced this is healthy—mere plastics separating operator and machine—but there it sits regardless. Being almost genius, Gary, knowing this to be the case—the engine

A COSTLY FAITH

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there so close, drilled a hole through the plastic cover. He then ran a rope through the newly drilled hole and attached the rope to the engine’s accelerator arm. Thus, the rope then became the accelerator pedal! Now to move the vehicle in a forward direction, Gary needed only to reach over to his right and pull on the rope hanging from the freshly drilled hole in the plastic engine cover. Astounding! Almost genius! But his mastermind genius did not end there! No!!

He then took a saw and cut a slit down from the freshly drilled hole, effectively forming the shape of an antique keyhole. He then tied knots in the rope at different speed increments. Cruise control! You want 40 mph? Simply pull on the rope until you see the second knot, then slide the rope down the freshly cut gap and the knot holds the rope securely at 40 mph. Almost genius I say!

Fortunately for the rest of us, Stop! was still thoughtfully displayed in orange fluorescence.

If only we could see him coming.

This strikes me as too closely metaphorical of my faith—living here in the American South, being born into it, it costing me nothing. It often feels to me cheap and rigged.

Like things kept breaking along the way, and now I’m pulling on this ridiculously intricate array of ropes spreading to so many levers and pulleys, and my hand is getting rope burn from all this tugging, and the knots are starting to fray, and I think duct tape is involved. Not to say I haven’t occasionally made attempts toward a costly faith. Once, I gave up R-rated movies (becoming selfaggrandizingly more concerned with a movie’s rating than the real-life societal issues the film may have been a reflection of—it is sadly humorous to note that the movie might have been as close as I would come to any of these messy issues!). Or perhaps we relinquish the use of certain words, or cease the consumption of certain beverages or the inhalation of certain burned materials. And we applaud ourselves while bemoaning the costliness of the Gospel. And the irony is that all these efforts often serve to only cheapen our faith more. They become but more ropes through more holes, and I have but only so many hands.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the soul.

And death. Our mortal state, situated here as humans. It seems like we don’t do that much anymore—think about death and the nature of the soul and the body. And maybe this is understandable, seeing as it used to be our primary point of conversation when discussing our faith with others—the turnor-burn evangelism of our not-too-distant

JESUS INSISTED THAT THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN WAS NOT JUST A SPACE WE WOULD LATER INHABIT ... past. It is a rope we let go of maybe. For a while there we seemed quite focused on the ever after, which doesn’t seem a terribly antagonistic stance on the surface, but it did in fact lead many a head into the clouds and afforded luxurious room for the neglect of environmental and social issues. The logic was that if the present were just transitory, if we’re just passing through, then it followed that there was no need to feel any affinity toward this place or spend much time trying to tidy up, which is almost brilliant. But we’ve now moved on, I think. The present has taken center stage. But my fear is that in hopes of becoming more palatable and less divisive, we forget the eternal unfolding in our words and deeds.

I think we live in a space divided. I think Jesus insisted that the kingdom of heaven was not just a space we would later inhabit, but also one that He was bringing here and now.

That it is surrounding us. That we are walking around in it. That we are bringing it. That the eternal begins now. Here. We exist with one foot here in the earthly and one in the eternal.

Yet we rarely feel it. We rarely live with a sense that someone should take a picture.

That what is happening right now bears documentation. That we’re in two places at once.

I want to live a faith that is a reflection of the cost of its eternal origin, not merely a reflection of my transient one. I want to feel the reality of where we sit. That the things we decide here are eternal ones. That our conversations mean something. I want to live in a manner that feels heroic, that turns the invisible into the visible, that is a solid intrusion of the eternal into the divided streets of humanity. 0

DAVID CROWDER is a worship leader and author of Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody

Wants to Die (RELEVANT Books).

PIGEON JOHN • MUSE • THOM YORKE • JARS OF CLAY

KEANE MORE THAN MEETS THE EAR LYRICALLY GRIM, YET ODDLY CATHARTIC—at least in a humanistic sense—Keane’s Under the Iron Sea blasts the notion that these Brit rockers are just hapless imitators. Founded in obscurity far south of London in the tiny village of Battle, the band has lived on the fringes of the orchestral rock movement. Coldplay is the band’s nemesis: bigcity craftsmen who have stolen the American spotlight. Some would say Keane is the better band (or maybe it’s Elbow), but the obvious public chastening is what makes their new effort so compelling. The fact that Under the Iron Sea is almost entirely devoid of electric guitar—even what sounds like a Fender is probably just a synth loop with some kind of massive distortion effect—makes the album even more astounding.

Lyrically, nearly every song could have been written in a grimy pub with a crusty pencil, borrowing from both William Blake and The Beatles. OK, we get it: The world is going to pot, no one ever notices your pain. Love is just a lyric in a children’s rhyme complains band chief Tim Rice-Oxley on “Is It Any Wonder?” He writes like a card-carrying fatalist, insisting that there’s nothing left inside this old cathedral, just the sad, lonely spires.

Slower tracks like “Nothing in My Way” and “Hamburg Song” would fit right in on the mental patient ward. Fans of the mesmerizing brilliance of their last release, Hopes and Fears, might be surprised by all the oblique imagery and chilling, razor-to-the-throat gravitas.

Yet, musically, Keane is more complex than ever: Think Elvis Costello mixed with Snow Patrol. On “Bad Dream,” the soft melodies channel McCartney, and “Put It Behind You” has a rollicking bass part that almost

86

completely obfuscates the amateur psychoanalysis. If Elbow is a math test, with layered melodies that escalate to heaven, Keane has become a hardened Oxford don who slaps you with a wooden ruler and sends you back to hell. Yet, there’s always something profound circling around in the mix that perks your ears and engages your mind.

The sun peaks on “Leaving So Soon” with its soaring vocals and splendid grand piano accents. By “Frog Prince,” the Prozac takes over: Maybe letting go of your problems will work after all, even if life eventually leads to nothing but a “deep sleep.” —JOHN BRANDON

KEANE

UNDER THE IRON SEA (INTERSCOPE) GENRE:

ALT ROCK :LYRICS

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

MUSIC REVIEWS

reviews_issue22++.indd 086

7/31/06 6:12:30 PM

PIGEON JOHN PIGEON JOHN AND THE SUMMERTIME POOL PARTY (QUANNUM) LYRICS:

MUSIC:

SPIRITUAL CONTENT:

GENRE:

HIP-HOP

Imagine, if you can, Brian Wilsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SMiLE as a hip-hop record, complete with guest spots from guys like RJD2 and J-Live, and you might start getting a bit of what this Pool Party is about. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s every bit as good as Pigeon Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s last album, Pigeon John Is Dating Your Sister, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bigger, broader and more colorful. Club tracks like â&#x20AC;&#x153;Freaks! Freaks!â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;One for the ...â&#x20AC;? will get your feet moving, while more serious tracks like â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weightâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;As We Know Itâ&#x20AC;? will get you thinking and nodding your head at the same time.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pigeonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ rst record since switching to Quannum Projects, the mainstream indie home of DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born and Blackalicious, and hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hoping the move means more tours, more collaborations and more great albums. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;BENJAMIN ESPOSITO

MUSE BLACK HOLES & REVELATIONS (WARNER BROS. ) LYRICS:

MUSIC:

SPIRITUAL CONTENT:

GENRE:

PROG ROCK

Despite being lumped into the â&#x20AC;&#x153;faux-Radioheadâ&#x20AC;? genre (along with Starsailor, Travis and Coldplay), Muse has managed to evolve their sound over the course of two more albums and gained greater recognition with 2004â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleeper hit Absolution, a hard-hitting yet contemplative rumination on death and the apocalypse. With Black Holes & Revelations, the band aims for superstardom of the sold-out arena variety. The album continues the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth by taking everything they have done before, stirring in a few new inďŹ&#x201A;uences and adding more accessible hooks and upbeat tempos. Subtlety has never been Museâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s specialty, and it is not even attempted here. Black Holes is overblown and, at times, a bit overbearing. It is also propulsive and catchy enough to be more inviting than alienating. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;AARON MAURER

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reviews_issue22++.indd 088

HX]dda d[ 8dbbjc^XVi^dc i]Z 6gih

7/31/06 6:16:23 PM

THOM YORKE THE ERASER (XI RECORDINGS) LYRICS:

MUSIC:

SPIRITUAL CONTENT:

GENRE:

EXPERIMENTAL

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nearly impossible to listen to The Eraser without reinforcing strong Radiohead opinions. If we could separate Yorke from Radiohead and hear it with objective ears, would we still like it? On his solo album, The Eraser, Yorke blends the tired sounds of analog electronics with raw representations of eerie piano, sparse guitar and percussion in this creepy pop medley. Although Yorke, with longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, has assembled a record sure to please fans of Kid A and Amnesiac, he fails to venture into virgin territory and merely further pleases his electronic vices to spite the pop charts. Fans of Radiohead (whose lofty expectations are often overshadowed by an undying loyalty to Yorke) may be disappointed by the lack of new ground forged on his ďŹ rst solo outing. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;CHRIS TROUTMAN

JARS OF CLAY GOOD MONSTERS (PROVIDENT) LYRICS:

MUSIC:

SPIRITUAL CONTENT:

GENRE:

ACOUSTIC ROCK

Good Monsters ďŹ nds an introspective band at the end of their contract going back to what they do best: folksy rock. In contrast to their increasingly experimental albums of late, this newest release hearkens back to the self-titled debut that made CCM and mainstream listeners alike fall in love with the group.

Tracks like â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dead Man (Carry Me)â&#x20AC;? are able to forge new, harder-edged ground while remaining deďŹ nitively Jars of Clay. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mirrors & Smoke,â&#x20AC;? a duet with lead singer Dan Haseltine and Leigh Nash, adds a whimsical country tinge without sounding gimmicky. Lyrically, the Jars seem more overtly spiritual than ever, yet still maintain the approachability that led to their broad market success. Overall, Good Monsters may be a return to formula, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a formula that worked. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;FRED BURROWS

AND PERCENT FROM !CCORDING TO DATA ABOUT OF THE ESTIMATED MU PERCENT OF THE VICTIMS WERE MALES AND PERCENT WERE PERSONS YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER &ORTY FOUR ACCOUNTED FOR THE REMAINDER )N ACCORDING TO SUPPLEMENTAL DATA REPORTED FOR OFFENDERS

OF THE OFFENDERS FOR WHOM SEX AGE AND RACE WERE REPORTED WERE MALE AND PERCENT WERE PERSONS AND OLDER 3EVENTY PERCENT WERE AGES /F OFFENDERS FOR WHOM RACE WAS KNOWN PERCENT WERE PERCENT WERE WHITE AND THE REMAINDER WERE PERSONS OF OTHER RACES $ATA INDICATE THAT MURDER IS MOST INTRA RACIAL AMONG VICTIMS AND OFFENDERS )N DATA BASED ON INCIDENTS INVOLVING ONE VICTIM AND ONE SHOW THAT PERCENT OF THE BLACK MURDER VICTIMS WERE SLAIN BY BLACK OFFENDERS AND PERCENT OF WHITE VICTIMS WERE KILLED BY WHITE OFFENDERS !CCORDING TO THE "UREAU OF *USTICE 3TATISTICS HOMICIDE RATES DECLINED TO LEVELS LAST SEEN BEFORE 4HE HOMICIDE RATE DOUBLED FROM THE MID gS TO THE LATE

IT PEAKED AT PER POPULATION AND SUBSEQUENTLY FELL OFF TO PER IN )T RO IN THE LATE gS AND EARLY gS TO A PEAK OF PER IN 3INCE THEN THE RATE HAS DECLIN PER BY !LSO FROM THE "*3 (OMICIDES ARE MORE LIKELY TO INVOLVE MULTIPLE OFFENDERS THAN MULTIPLE VICTIMS 4HE PERCENTAGE OF HOMICIDES INVOLVING MULTIPLE OFFENDERS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY IN THE gS AND EARLY gS INCREASING FROM IN TO IN 4HE PERCENTAGE OF HOMICIDES INVOLV THE LAST DECADE HAS RISEN MULTIPLE VICTIMS INCREASED GRADUALLY DURING THE LAST TWO DECADES FROM JUST UNDE MILLION CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE ADEQU MILLION CHILDREN HAVE NO ACCESS TO MILLION CHILDREN LACK ACCESS TO INFO MILLION CHILDREN HAVE NO ACCESS TO MILLION CHILDREN HAVE NEVER BEEN TO S MILLION CHILDREN ARE SEVERELY FOOD DEP 4OTAL NUMBER OF !)$3 DEATHS BETWEEN THE END OF MILLION .UMBER OF y w a m c o l o r a d o . o r g ORPHANED BY !)$3 LIVING IN 3UB 3AHARAN AT THE END OF MILLION "Y $ECEM MILLION CHILDREN ARE SEVERELY FOOD DEP WOMEN ACCOUNTED FOR OF AL 1.800.for.ywam LIVING WITH ()6 WORLDWIDE AND MILLION IN SUB 3AHARAN !FRICA )N YOUNG PEOPLE YEARS OLD ACCOUNTED FOR HALF OF ALL NEW ()6 INFECTIONS WORLDWIDE MORE THAN BECAME INFECTED WITH ()6 EVERY DAY !N ESTIMATED FIVE MILLION PEOPLE IN LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES DO NOT HAVE THE !)$3 DRUGS WHICH COULD SAVE THEIR LIVES

!S OF .OVEMBER

4HE #$# HAS REPORTED CONFIRMED CASES SUSPECTED CASES AND A T KILLED BY !NTHRAX IN THE FIRST CONFIRMED DEATHS IN MORE THAN DECADES 4HE FIRST VICTIM &LORIDA BAS EDITOR 2OBERT 3TEVENS WORKED AT TABLOID NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER !MERICAN -EDIA )NC IN "OCA 2ATON &LORIDA OTHER MEN WORKED AS DISTRIBUTION CLERKS IN THE "RENTWOOD POSTAL FACILITY IN 7ASHINGTON *OSEPH 0 #URSEE DIED AT THE 3OUTHERN -ARYLAND (OSPITAL #ENTER IN #LINTON -ARYLAND AND 4HOMAS , -ORRIS *R

DIED A .EW 9ORK HOSPITAL WORKER WHO CONTRACTED INHALATION ANTHRAX 4HE LATEST VICTIM /TTILIE ,UNDGREN DIED .OVEMBER AT 'RIFFIN (OSPITAL IN $ERBY #ONNECTICUT -S ,UNDGREN WAS YEARS OLD

!S OF .OVEMBER

4HE #$# HAS REPORTED CONFIRMED CASES SUSPECTED CASES AND A TOT KILLED BY !NTHRAX IN THE FIRST CONFIRMED DEATHS IN MORE THAN DECADES 4HE FIRST VICTIM &LORIDA BASED EDITOR 2OBERT 3TEVENS WORKED AT TABLOID NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER !MERICAN -EDIA )NC IN "OCA 2ATON &LORIDA OTHER MEN WORKED AS DISTRIBUTION CLERKS IN THE "RENTWOOD POSTAL FACILITY IN 7ASHINGTON *OSEPH 0 #URSEEN DIED AT THE 3OUTHERN -ARYLAND (OSPITAL #ENTER IN #LINTON -ARYLAND AND 4HOMAS , -ORRIS *R

DIED AT THE 'REATER 3OUTHEAST #OMMUNITY (OSPITAL IN 7ASHINGTON $ # +ATHY .GUYEN

DIED /CTOBER 3HE A .EW 9ORK HOSPITAL WORKER WHO CONTRACTED INHALATION ANTHRAX 4HE LATEST VICTIM /TTILIE ,UNDGREN DIED .OVEMBER AT 'RIFFIN (OSPITAL IN $ERBY #ONNECTICUT -S ,UNDGREN WAS YEARS OLD

MILLION CHILDREN ARE SEVERELY F What am I going to say? Father, get me out of this?

OOD DEP!S OF .OVEMBER

KILLED BY !NTHRAX IN No, this is why I came in the first place.

EDITOR 2OBERT 3TEVENS D j o i n u s - Y o u t h W i t h A M i s s i o n : S t r a t e g i c F r o n t i e r s

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE Chisel. Carve. Deepen.

800.54.GRACE â&#x20AC;˘ gts.grace.edu â&#x20AC;˘ gtsrec@grace.edu

reviews_issue22++.indd 089

~reviews_issue21.indd 093

8/4/06 10:55:52 AM

SUFJAN STEVENS

THE AVALANCHE: SONGS AND OUTTAKES FROM THE ILLINOIS ALBUM (GEFFEN)

BOY KILL BOY CIVILIAN (ISLAND)

GENRE:

GENRE:

NEW FOLK

BRIT ROCK

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Jeff Tweedyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solemnly misogynistic â&#x20AC;&#x153;Via Chicagoâ&#x20AC;? is the best song ever about the windy city. Period. But Sufjan Stevens is far more verbose. On The Avalanche he unearths 21 more songs about key moments in state history. This is hardly an album of B-side scraps; The Avalanche brilliantly displays new takes on some of Stevensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; best works. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;JB

Boy Kill Boy hail from the British Isles armed with depressing anthems of the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;80s moodier artists. Albeit the Cure, Depeche Mode, Joy Division and possibly even The Killers have done this before and better, this bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s synth hooks and convicted vocals could easily establish Boy Kill Boy as a hit in the guilty pleasure genre. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;CT

DR. OCTAGON

VIVA VOCE

THE RETURN OF DR. OCTAGON (OCD INTERNATIONAL)

GET YR BLOOD SUCKED OUT (BARSUK)

GENRE:

GENRE:

HIP-HOP

INDIE POP

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Dr. Octagon, aka Keith Thornton, is at it again. Nearly 10 years after his breakthrough record, Thorntonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legendary hip-hop skills are as good as ever, showing no signs of atrophy. With songs about ants, trees, aliens, peanut butter and a gorilla driving a pickup truck, The Return of Dr. Octagon is as weird, warped and twisted as they come. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;JO

The spiritual ambiguity is vast on Viva Voceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fourth album. While the husband/wife duo earned their stripes on the Christian rock circuit before moving on to Barsuk, their new lyrics seem to both afďŹ rm and contradict their earlier faith sentiments. While the spirituality is complex, their trippy indie pop is as wonderfully simple as ever. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;TC

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Set in Geneva, Switzerland, you will have the opportunity to participate in the life of a multi-national team while working with international young people. With access to all the adventures of the Swiss Alps, you will have the unique chance to be shaped by a place where centers for the United Nations, World Council of Churches, World Trade Organization, Red Cross/Red Crescent, and many more reside!

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reviews_issue22++.indd 090

7/31/06 6:19:13 PM

GUSTER

GANGING UP ON THE SUN (REPRISE)

JOHNNY CASH

AMERICAN V: A HUNDRED HIGHWAYS (LOST HIGHWAY)

GENRE:

GENRE:

ROCK

ALT COUNTRY

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Ganging Up on the Sun borrows a few Beach Boys harmonies and airy arrangements to varying degrees of success. Joe Pisapia has become an official member, but maybe he should wait on the business cards.

His contribution is nebulous, oscillating between happy organs and excessive banjo. It’s light rock when more bluster is needed. —JB

This blistering posthumous work is the Johnny Cash we always wanted: a bittersweet ode to the thrills and spills of life, a spiritual groundbreaking and a cathartic dirge. His failing vocals just make it all the more sincere, and producer Rick Rubin adds a haunting edge. “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” is startlingly uncountry, a true magnum opus. —JB

PETER BRADLEY ADAMS

BRANDON HEATH

GATHER UP (MOUSE IN THE MOON)

GENRE:

AMERICANA

ACOUSTIC ROCK

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Peter Bradley Adams, formerly of eastmountainsouth, climbs into your subconscious with Gather Up. Haunting, ethereal track “Unreconciled,” Beatles-esque chorus “One Foot Down” and Indian/Southern rock mix “Chant” blend Americana with piano-driven tunes and forceful polemics that will appear on a soundtrack near you very soon. —BS

reviews_issue22++.indd 091

DON’T GET COMFORTABLE (ESSENTIAL)

GENRE:

Brandon Heath’s Don’t Get Comfortable is a radio-friendly collection of 11 perfect ballads. Almost too perfect. While the Nashville native pushes the boundaries of familiar Christian music, he’s still largely a product of it. As a result, Heath’s debut is good, but it’s not great. Heath has potential to make premium records. Let’s hope he does. —JO

7/31/06 6:20:36 PM

ALEXI MURDOCH

TIME WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE (ZERO SUMMER)

SONIC YOUTH RATHER RIPPED (GEFFEN)

GENRE:

GENRE:

BRITISH FOLK

ART ROCK

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Although Time Without Consequence doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t capture the same depth or mystery of Murdochâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original Four Songs EP, all is not lost for the London-born singer/songwriter. Starting his own record label in lieu of signing to a major contract, Murdoch is exactly where he wants to be: making simple, honest music. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;JO

On Sonic Youthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 21st record in 24 years, these NYC rockers continue to create sounds not often heard on a pop release. Rather Ripped recalls some of SYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monumental earlier ventures in art rock territory. Not as ambitious as previous albums, this record still satisďŹ es with walls and walls of sound on the B-side. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;CT

CUT CHEMIST

DON PERIS

THE AUDIENCEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LISTENING (WARNER BROS.)

GO WHEN THE MORNING SHINETH (JEMEZ MOUNTAIN)

GENRE:

GENRE:

HIP-HOP

NEW FOLK

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Amassing albums from his near 20 years of world touring with hip-hop heavyweights Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli, Cut Chemist compiles a record thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s as well traveled as himself. Macfadden samples rare, eclectic vinyl to create a seamless album that plays like a Polaroid montage of his hip-hop career. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a groove-laden, head-bobbing must-have. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;JO

Karen Perisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; vocals may be the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sparkling gem, but her absence here allows Don Perisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; arranging prowess to shine. The record successfully blends sweeping orchestral melodies, acoustic and verby electric guitars and loose, brushy drums. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a soundtrack to lazy afternoons, evenings on the front porch and peaceful summer slumber. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;CL

'PS NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO DPOUBDU VT BU

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1IPOF & NBJM ATS ASHLAND EDU 8FCTJUF WWW ASHLAND EDU SEMINARY

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reviews_issue22++.indd 092

-ASTER OF $IVINITY -ASTER OF !RTS 2ELIGION -ASTER OF !RTS "IBLICAL AND 4HEOLOGICAL 3TUDIES -ASTER OF !RTS IN #LINICAL 0ASTORAL #OUNSELING -ASTER OF !RTS IN 0RACTICAL 4HEOLOGY $OCTOR OF -INISTRY

7/31/06 6:22:17 PM

M.WARD

MR. LIF

POST-WAR (MERGE)

MO’ MEGA (DEFINITVE JUX) GENRE:

GENRE:

FOLK ROCK

HIP-HOP

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Riding the coattails of the successful Transistor Radio, Ward’s fifth LP is an album from a man on top of his game. Post-War is a collage of pleasantly abrasive vocals, twanging guitar and unrefined songwriting. Recorded in an attic in Portland, Ore., with indie elites Neko Case, Adam Selzer and Jim James, Post-War is impossible not to like. —JO

On the follow-up to his 2002 debut, I Phantom, Mr. Lif provides a concept album about the effects of an increasingly modernized world on lowerclass America. Thus, it’s angry, heavy and relentless. A lot of his anger is directed at President Bush, but there are many targets, including Bill Clinton. Mo’ Mega is difficult and profane, but authentic. —MS

ANATHALLO

JILL PHILLIPS

FLOATING WORLD (NETTWERK)

NOBODY’S GOT IT ALL TOGETHER (SQUARE PEG ALLIANCE)

GENRE:

GENRE:

INDIE ROCK

ACOUSTIC ROCK

:LYRICS

:LYRICS

:MUSIC

:MUSIC

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

:SPIRITUAL CONTENT

Refreshingly eccentric, Floating World is a strange musical circus of horns, claps, stomps and howls. The album is rumored to have influence in ancient Japanese mythology, making it darker than most of the group’s previous work. But don’t worry; Anathallo is just as good as they are strange. —JO

Jill Phillips is the sweet folk darling of Christian music. Her soft-rock melodies permeate like a spiritual fragrance. Fans of Julie Miller and Bebo Norman will appreciate the tight harmonies and snap-your-fingers jangle. The title track has more grit than glimmer; the lazy-hazy guitar on “Square Peg” makes you want to find a coffee bar, and fast. —JB

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reviews_issue22++.indd 093

7/31/06 6:23:24 PM

BODY PIERCING SAVED MY LIFE

AN INFINITY OF LITTLE HOURS

AUTHOR

AUTHOR

ANDREW BEAUJON

NANCY KLEIN MAGUIRE

PUBLISHER

PUBLISHER

DA CAPO

PUBLICAFFAIRS

POP CULTURE

RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY

TO THOSE WHO ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH IT, the entire concept of Christian rock—the music, the industry, the celebrity—is difficult to understand and ripe for mockery. Andrew Beaujon, an editor for Spin, spent nearly a year entrenched in the culture with an eclectic assortment of its members. He begins on a basic level, giving a detailed history of Christian music, from the ’70s Jesus freaks to dc Talk’s Jesus Freak. He points out many of the industry’s controversies, including Marsha Stevens who was “written out of Christian music history” after she declared her homosexuality.

Body Piercing mines the backgrounds of some of Christian music’s most influential people, like Pedro the Lion’s Dave Bazan, David Crowder, Stavesacre’s Mark Salomon, Tooth & Nail’s Brandon Ebel, Squint’s Steve Taylor and HM magazine’s Doug Van Pelt. Many of them grew up in similar evangelical, anti-“secular” rock families. In particular, Bazan seems incapable of escaping his extremely conservative evangelical upbringing, despite blatantly denouncing several aspects of the Christian faith.

Nevertheless, Beaujon, who is agnostic, opens his mind to those within the subculture, and he slowly starts to get it. He also finds that some of the music—David Crowder Band, mewithoutYou, Mute Math—is excellent even when compared to their mainstream music peers.

Body Piercing ends as a well-balanced, ultimately hopeful, thorough exploration of the politics, motivations, background and theology of the mysterious world of Christian rock. —TYLER CLARK

JPOD

AMERICAN GOSPEL

A HERETIC’S GUIDE TO ETERNITY

AUTHOR

AUTHOR

DOUGLAS COUPLAND

JON MEACHAM

AUTHORS SPENCER BURKE, BARRY TAYLOR

PUBLISHER

PUBLISHER

BLOOMSBURY FICTION

RANDOM HOUSE HISTORY

Ethan, the narrator of Coupland’s new novel, is a geeky gaming programmer who feels like a geeky character from a Coupland novel.

Ethan and his fellow programmers (whose last names all begin with J) do battle with the marketing department over the content of their new uber-cool skater game while struggling with their own feelings of meaninglessness. Coupland—who coined the term “Generation X” (for which the JPOD-ers hate his guts)—writes himself into the story, and the result is a wacky romp through the lives of twentysomethings trying to figure out The Meaning of It All. —AH

94

ONE MEAL PER DAY, LIMITED CONVERSATION, late-night prayers and no modern plumbing were some of the traditions kept by the Carthusian monks, as profiled in An Infinity of Little Hours. The Order was the most solitary life in the Catholic Church, and is marked by their adherence to 11th-century rituals. Thirty-six men entered the Parkminster monastery in West Sussex, England, in the early 1960s, and Maguire follows five: Paddy, Hans, Bernie, Chuck and Dave, who each come from different parts of the world. She culls their memories, letters and the Carthusian library to recreate their daily lives and struggles. One reaches the full brotherhood, but the other four who leave have problems with sex, food, family or the physical demands of forced deprivation.

The climax of the story is figuring out which of the five will stay or go.

One man’s weakness is another’s strength, and the right combination is rarely present. But each takes a bit of the solitary life with him back into the modern world, creating personal “cubicles” for reflection and contemplation.

Maguire’s book is best at tracking each personal story, but she lacks a clear narrative that makes other creative nonfiction books compelling.

The squabbles between the monks provide insight into their humanity—the insignificant becomes magnified when there is so little outside influence. The sounds of the choir, the look of a garden or the “passing of wind” during prayer are causes for arguments. Maguire makes clear that the monastic life is not for the pleasure of the introverted, but for interaction with God. —JOSH SPILKER

Many believe that deciding the “proper” role of religion in American public life is an irreconcilable dilemma. Turns out it’s been that way since the republic began. Meacham, the managing editor of Newsweek, traces the tensions from their starting point through the Reagan administration before outlining hopes for the future. He navigates this political minefield by generously quoting the founders to prove there’s a safe middle for belief and politics to coexist within. Or as he puts it, “The great good news about America—the American gospel if you will—is that religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it.” —KC

PUBLISHER JOSSEY-BASS

THEOLOGY Fearless of being burned at the stake, Burke presents his provocative thoughts on the world no longer needing the Church. With a new approach to the heretics of the past, he forces readers to re-examine their thoughts about the Church, universalism and grace. Burke uses philosophy, history and the Bible to reinforce his argument that the Church is inhibiting rather than encouraging a true relationship with God. His assertion that grace is something that we can opt-out of but not opt-in to will turn the heads of many people who thought they had this whole Christianity thing figured out. —ES

BOOK REVIEWS

reviews_issue22++.indd 094

7/31/06 6:24:51 PM

AD TEMPLATE AWESOME.indd 5

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