“So much to sing about.”
Friday, October 21, 2005
When I was in high school in the mid-nineties, I experienced a revival of faith that catapulted me from cradle Christian to youth-group-attending, hand-waving, Lord-praisin’, born-again believer. Like most young fundamentalists of that era, I was urged to take a good, hard look at my music collection and weed out the “ungodly” influences, replacing them with sound-alike substitutes from a burgeoning sub-genre called contemporary Christian music.
When I reflect on that period in my life, the soundtrack that accompanies it is inevitably generated by one band: Jars of Clay. I became a rabid fan, attending concert after concert, hounding the musicians for autographs, memorizing every note of every song and mining each new single for spiritual insight. It’s all a little humiliating in retrospect, the zeal of adolescence—especially when, a decade later, I was asked to interview the lead singer of the very band whose posters once decorated my bedroom walls.
Interestingly, Jars of Clay’s path over the last ten years has in some ways run parallel with my own. During college, I veered from my fundamentalist roots and after graduation, moved to Washington, DC, to become an intern with a social justice organization. Meanwhile, Jars’ lead singer, Dan Haseltine, was embarking on his first trip to Africa, which brought him face to face with the heartbreaking reality of poverty and AIDS. These days, teenage fans hear things at a Jars of Clay concert that I never did—and those teenagers are better off for it.
Click here to read more about Haseltine’s commitment to faith-fueled activism at Sojourners magazine. (The entire issue is worth a read—I love this compilation of great tunes for the journey.)
Sea change.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
In the last few years, evangelical colleges have begun changing their attitude about popular culture. Rather than blanket rejection, these schools are interested in engaging popular music, film, video games, et cetera. Last year, I covered the beginnings of this “paradigm shift” in an article that appeared at Christianity Today Music. Now, Messiah College has taken their engagement model to the next level with a weekend conference:
Faith and Popular Culture
Reconciling with the Popular Arts
November 11-12, 2005
Messiah College
Grantham , PA
Featuring concerts from Jeff Tweedy, Sarah Masen, Sam Ashcroft, and Matt Slocum
Lectures from Steve Turner, David Dark, Andy Whitman, Crystal Downing, and our own Ken Heffner (among many others)
Three cheers to Jeff Rioux for getting this off the ground! Click here if you want to register.
In conversation.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Conversations with Aqualung and Jars of Clay are now available for download.
1 comment on "“So much to sing about.”"
Kate,
Still looking at puttings more of those Fest Faith and Music audio files up? Just checking. Enjoy the blog. Send me the tapes and I will put them up for you : )