Quote from Forum Archives on October 30, 2003, 3:53 pm

Posted by: weeks <weeks@...>

All of this talk about Christian culture got me going back a few years.
The "Christian" band Daniel Amos was always sort of fascinated by
this...well, maybe more Terry Taylor. Anyway, they did an album called
Bibleland that was pretty amazing (dAN can attest to this) which sort of
slammed the whole Christian culture thing.

The interesting thing though is that in the middle of all this, the point
wasn't that we did all this crap (see the song below) but that we're all
broken and nobody has it right. You might see God one way, I might see
Him another...who's to say who's right? All we can really possess is
what we experience (snuck a Charlie Peacock line in there), right?

I mean if I say that God told me something very personal and that He told
me it audibly. It wasn't some profound biblical thing, but it was
exactly what I needed to hear at the time. Some say I was drunk
(probably was drinking given the time), others say it was my imagination,
and others believe me...but the fact is no matter what someone else says
about my faith, I alone have to contend with it and reason it out.
That's Biblical anyway.

So if someone gets upset over drinking, lame christian music, lame arts,
bad t-shirt slogans, test-a-mints, even Bibleland...then what does it
really matter? For every person it hurts, there is someone it helps. Be
sure of it, God even used an donkey to get his point across (no, not a
self reference here).

The last few lines of this song make it clear - no matter how hard we try
we can only create shadows of a perfect place from the ruins of an
imperfect world. How can the finite describe the infinate? I imagine
all our best songs and most beautiful words sound like gutteral
utterances to the ears in glory...we should all be thankful for grace.
With that perspective, I guess all this lameness doesn't matter. Maybe I
need to get beyond my pride and just accept that while my music is much
better to my ears, it isn't that different to God than what he hears come
from Carman.

I can't believe I just spoke the c-word. What is happening here?!?
Better follow it up with some DA.

BibleLand

from the album "BibleLand"
Words and Music by Terry Taylor
©1994 Twitchen Vibes/B-1 Music/ Chenka-Chenka Music/ Word Music, ASCAP

We're going out to Bibleland
by a Motel 6, and a burger stand
oasis there in the desert sand
We'll play all day on the Family Plan
in Bibleland
There's a fifty foot cross and a pearly door
a lions den where the lions roar
a manger scene on a revolving floor
a leper and a christian book store
in Bibleland

And something beautiful, something clean
behind the shabby bible scenes
Something real that built a dream
called Bibleland....

Midgets dressed up as Peter and Paul
a Christian rock band by the wailing wall
that Goliath guy makes us feel so small!
takes a half an hour just to see it all
It's Bibleland
A river of life and a pit of doom
Noah's arcade and an upper room
Canoes cross the Jordan, there's an empty tomb
and three shows daily starring Debby Boone
in Bibleland
In the ruins and the waste
lurks the shadow of a perfect place
the mark of God on a strangers face
in Bibleland
Bibleland
Bibleland
Bibleland.....

- James

"I will always remember the day Rene Descartes died.  We had just
finished a wonderful meal and were sitting around plotting our next move
over coffee.  The waitress came up and asked, "More Coffee?"  Descartes
replied, "I think not."   And just disappeared right before my eyes."