A couple years ago, while writing on an unrelated issue, I told this story on this blog:

Back in 1998, a documentary was produced called Anatomy of a “Homicide: Life on the Street”. It was an analysis of behind-the-scenes and making-of an episode of the NBC police drama, followed by an airing of that episode. One of the issues that was examined was the back-and-forth between the writers and the network censors. To the writers, this was often a game — “how much can we get away with?” And one of the strategies that they employed in the game was classic misdirection. They had a particularly violent scene that they wanted in the episode, but they knew that the censors would never allow it. So they went nuts with foul language right before and right after that scene. The foul language jumped out at the censors and they balked at it, making the writers trim it back. They did so “reluctantly” and did the happy dance back in their offices, as the censors totally missed (and therefore allowed) what was really important to the writers.

Now, since I’m not God, nor do I wield Matthew 7:16 as a magic wand, I can’t divine the motives of others. But I have to wonder if Derek Webb didn’t do a similar thing with his latest album, Stockholm Syndrome.

Last month, I noted the controvery over the song “What Matters More“, as it contains two words allegedly not used in polite company. These two words are ostensibly more offensive to the sensibilities than references to bloody tampons, walking around and preaching naked for three years, publicly cooking over human feces and eating the results, and the desire to see others mutilate their genitals. And never mind that the employ of these words was a microcosm of the whole point of the song, anyway.

But I digress . . . .

Stockholm Syndrome is so loaded with prophetic condemnation of the American Church, that one has to wonder if the use of strong language in one song was a misdirection to keep the naysayers (not to mention the record label and the Christian bookstores) from noticing the other scathing content.  Just a few songs and the issues that they address:

• “The Spirit vs The Kick Drum” looks at the heinous things that we say with our lives, but would never verbalize
• “What Matters More” (when not being criticized for its language) asks if it’s really more important to fight the culture wars than to minister to the sick and dying
• “The State” takes Christians to task for the blurring obliteration of the line between faith and Americanism
• “Heaven” bemoans our obsession with materialism and the subsequent ignoring of the “least of these”

Such issues simply don’t fit in with the other things sold at your average Christian bookstore.  And let’s be honest — it’s not because the stores are shallow in and of themselves. Any store that stays in business for any length of time must reflect the priorities of the majority of its customer base.

Granted, there are other means/venues for Webb to sell his music and deliver his message. But considering the audience that most needs to hear this message, I can’t help but wonder if one song wasn’t (at least partially) designed to take attention away from the others, at least long enough for the listener to take his medicine.

My Facebook status yesterday noted that This Train was possibly “getting the band back together”. It’s looking more and more like that’s a probability, rather than just a quote from the Blues Brothers.

Well, now they’ve launched a MySpace page that indicates further reality of this monumental circumstance. (And, apparently, they know nothing about how to design a MySpace page, as this one is legible and not a full-scale assault on the optic nerve.)  On that page is the proof that they aren’t just playing with my emotions:

This Train formed around 1993 in Chicago, IL. Played and recorded heavily until about 2000…then everything went black…where did they go? Mark was heard saying they split up due to “creative indifferences.” Jordan did wish for a hiatus to “follow his dreams”, which he darn sure did…too bad the mighty Cobra thought ‘hiatus’ was the ancient Japanese poetry…and exclusively spoke in the 5-7-5 form for nearly 6 years. But all of that is behind us now…the guys have been talking again and discovered they might want to take another whack at recording and playing shows…they’ve started writing…stick around and see what happens…because they have no idea what’s gonna happen next…just taking the ride.

For those who may be unfamiliar with This Train, you have been missing out. Prepare to be schooled.

First a few baseline facts:

• Mark Robertson, front-man and principal writer for the band, was a Ragamuffin (the band behind the late, great Rich Mullins) and in the subsequent Ragamuffin Band that brought about the vision of the last Rich album (after his death) and recorded one other album of a similar nature.
• This Train opened for Rich on a couple of tours, and also for the Ragamuffin Band later.

This Train (particularly through Mark’s writing) has the ability to mix the sacred with the ludicrous, and sometimes in the same song.  One example would be “The Longest Goodbye”, a song about the rapture and longing for (our eternal) home — but that includes a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Perhaps the best (or at least, most memorable to me) example is the title cut of their second album, Mimes of the Old West (which you can hear on their MySpace page).  I had the opportunity to ask Mark if that song was a metaphor for the early Church or if it was simply about the mimes of the old West.  His answer gave some interesting back-story on the song, but essentially, it boiled down to “yes”.

I realized, in retrospect, that any other answer would have disappointed me.

Go check out the MySpace page — they’ve got 8 of their songs up there (including a cover of Rich’s “Screen Door”). Even if you’re a long-time fan of the band, there’s no such thing as hearing their songs too much.

There’s an encouraging article over on the NY Times site about some extreme sports guys (think X Games and such) who are Christians.  Some of the guys’ stories are a bit harrowing (some came to faith after near-fatal accidents or jail-time related to drug addiction), but this is just further testimony to God’s grace.

While it’s neat to see someone using his platform to talk about what’s really important, particularly in a less-reached segment of our society, I (unfortunately) can’t stop by pointing out the article.

I’m not going to name the author of the blog where I found out about this article as (1) it’s not important and (2) some of his statements make it a bit unclear where he’s coming from. But this little gem jumped out at me:

You never thought you’d be praying for [guys like these], did you? Well, now we can. Now we should.

WHAT ?!?!?!?!?!?!?! NOW we can pray ?!?!

• Is it not true that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”?
• Didn’t Jesus tell us to pray for (even) our enemies?
• Doesn’t “God demonstrate His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”?
• Hasn’t God chosen “the base things of the world and the things which are despised … and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence”?

But NOW is when I’m permitted to pray for these guys?

What has happened to the bride of Christ that we have erected self-imposed barriers about who we can and can’t pray for or care about?

Sometimes I have to wonder if Christians are living as though the Jehovah’s Witness interpretation of the 144,000 is being overly generous.

I find myself writing on Facebook a lot and not so much here on the blog.  Several reasons for that, but I’ve decided to occasionally bring stuff over here that I wrote over there.  Most of it will be links or quotes that I’ve discovered.

I’ll still write here when I have something less succinct to say (especially if I want to have ownership of it — FB’s ToS is your standard legalese nightmare of confusion).  But now if you’re not a FB friend, you can be one virtually.  And if you are, some of this will be worth a repeat anyway.

LINKS:

• Jeff Allen on God’s revenge
• Douglas Wilson on “green” and a Christian’s approach
• TRON (2) Legacy teaser clip
• An advocate for socialized medicine forgets to stack the deck (funny)
• Funny John Piper quotes

QUOTES:

Christianity is not immunity from trouble, but community with God — Sandy Adams

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. — CS Lewis - God in the Dock

OTHER STUFF:

• According to Jordan Richter of This Train, “we’re getting the band back together”. Assuming he isn’t just quoting the Blues Brothers, I’m gonna be squealing like a school girl.