Download This!

I just checked RockRebel.com and found a link to this article about the band Scarlet Crush. I downloaded the song “Something to Say” from MP3.com months ago and it's still in regular rotation on my Winamp. From the article:

And then [guitarist Jeff] Sterzer, quite coolly, brings up Martin Luther.

"One of his new converts came up and said, ‘I’m a believer now; I want to serve God. What do I do?’ And Martin Luther asked him what he did for a living. ‘I’m a cobbler; I make shoes,’ he said, and Luther told him to make a good shoe and sell it at a fair price. There’s your reasonable service to God—it doesn’t have to be complicated. So that’s what we do: we make good shoes and sell them at fair prices."

Gotta love a band who quotes Martin Luther.

Go here and give “Something to Say” and their other stuff a listen!

More on Christians and the Culture

Continuing in the same vein as last night’s post…

Amy Welborn comments on a recent episode of the show “Sex and the City”. While I’ve heard a little about this show, I’ve never watched it and I have no desire to do so. A show about four women who live in New York, bed hop and buy shoes just doesn’t sound like something I want to watch. I’ve often thought that maybe I should watch it so I could more fairly judge it, and to keep myself from being too sheltered about what’s going on. (I get the impression that this is why Welborn watches the show.) But I just haven’t made the effort.

Judging from Welborn’s description of the most recent episode, the show sounds like pretty much what I’d expect. Except that apparently these four women aren’t very happy. Perhaps their lifestyle is not being glamorized as much as I figured it would be. However, according to Welborn, these women are not offered an alternative to their empty lives.

Maybe I'll force myself watch the show sometime so that I can get a first-hand impression of it.

Culture Wars and Blog Wars

Joshua Claybourn got a lot of flak for a post he made about filthy lyrics in some current pop songs. Even though he gave ample warning, some were angry that he posted some of the lyrics on his blog. I think their anger is misplaced. Claybourn did not post the lyrics gratuitously or to titillate. He did it because he was making a point, because he was trying to educate.

I think the flak he got illustrates the attitude many Christians take towards the world. They want to hide from everything and pretend the bad stuff doesn't exist. Well, it does exist. How are Christians supposed to have some relevance to the culture if we're not aware of what's going on? How are we going to respond?

I'm not saying that Christians need to go out and immerse themselves in all that's filthy in our culture to understand it. But Christians should not be sheltered and naive either. As Christ said, "be gentle as a dove yet wise as a serpent."

Claybourn makes this point more eloquently than I can:

Half of the population doesn’t think twice about it, and the other half finds it revolting. What’s wrong with this picture? On the one hand, you have Christians fleeing the scene and hiding from anything non-Christian in our culture. On the other hand, you have younger people (Christian and non-Christian) seeing little harm in the music. I think it would be naïve and foolish to think they’re not exposed to foul language and music frequently, even if they attend a Christian school. The alarming thing here is that these are the number one and number two "songs" in the country. Hundreds of thousands of people paid money for the CD, and an exponentially larger number listen to it on the radio or their computer.

Like I said, the anger at reposting the lyrics is misplaced. How about directing the anger at the "artists" themselves and at a culture that makes these people millionaires?

All in all, it's a good debate. Read Claybourn's posts, the comments and other posts that he links to.

New Blog

Bene Diction from Martin Roth Online now has his own blog. Also, Martin Roth's Christian Blog List will be moving to a new location.

National Military Appreciation Month

Somebody sent this to me via email today. It's a link to a Department of Defense website where you can thank the members of our military for defending this country.

Saving the World Before Bedtime

Create your own PowerPuff Girl (or boy) with the PowerPuff Portrait Studio. If I were a PowerPuff Girl, I'd look something like this:

Oh, yeah...

I was supposed to blog about music, wasn't I? I've always been a big music fan. But for some reason, I just can't write long, drawn-out essays on why I like something or why I think it's good. Usually, the best I can do is say, "This is cool! Check it out!" So, I'm going to post the most recent 5 CDs I've bought that I'm really enjoying right now:

The Hives/Veni Vidi Vicious - Twenty-eight minutes of pure fun!

The White Stripes/White Blood Cells - Cool, stripped-down garage rock.

Weezer/Maladroit - They never disappoint.

Woven Hand/Woven Hand - This is David Eugene Edwards' (of 16 Horsepower) solo album. Just beautiful.

Julee Cruise/Floating Into the Night - This is an older CD, released in 1989. If you like the Twin Peaks/Fire Walk with Me soundtracks (as I do), you'll like this.

My poor neglected blog...

July is more than halfway over and only two posts for the month so far. Pathetic, I know. Lately, most of my blogging energies (what little I have) are going into the American Conservatives' Weekly Blog. In case you're not familiar with American Conservatives, it is a conservative political forum. Its members are some great folks who seek to discuss news and current events in a civil environment without the usual BS.

We decided to try a new approach at American Conservatives. We now have a weekly blog, a thread that is a group blog for AC members. There is a featured blog (or two) with each new week. The commentary is centered on news and opinion from a conservative viewpoint. If you're interested, take a look, register and feel free to chime in. We also have other forums for posting news articles, interesting finds from the blogosphere and self-written rants and essays.

For the time being, most news and political blogging by me will be occurring on AC's Weekly Blog. LilacRose Blog will be where I will blog about faith, culture, music, books, TV, computer geek stuff, etc.

Cool Blue Angels Pic

The website for the Blue Angels (who are based here in Pensacola) have been deluged with people wanting to download this: The Blue Angels fly over New York City June 1, 2001. Here is the picture, showing the Blue Angels flying with the WTC in the background. Enjoy!

Click for full-sized picture.

Born on the 3rd of July

Yes, today's my birthday! Not much blogging lately because I've been too busy or too tired. Plus I have some stage fright because I've actually gotten a few hits. I'd like to blog a little bit about music when I get some time. Maybe this weekend...