Things I Think…
1. I never cease to be amused by those who get their knickers in a bunch over Super Bowl halftime shows. I do not like rap or hip hop music. If you know me personally, you know the preceding sentence was a mastery of understatement…I really don’t like that musical genre.
Therefore…I went to the store at halftime for snacks and thought nothing more about it. This is how adults act when they’re not trying to score points with their tribe on social media by announcing something akin to the end of Western civilization because a bunch of old rappers were celebrated on tv…
2. I also couldn’t care less about the religious views of football players…I don’t care if they are saved, I care if they can play…Tim Tebow didn’t start a mass revival with his loud piety and he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn three times in a row throwing a football…
3. If you want to stop watching something that is ruining the culture…start with cable news…
4. Learn to enjoy things for what they are without spiritualizing everything…it’s not necessary, nor does it impress Jesus…
5. The kind of freedom that people speak of politically is biblical only as an eschatological concept…freedom before the eschaton is “in Christ”…it’s a wonderful blessing to have a glimmer of it now, but it’s not a biblical promise until the King has come…
6. This is why I read books…“The point is that the rule of the expert, or the technocrat, which dominated the last institutional cycle, creates decisions that are frequently indifferent to consequences outside the expert’s field. The expert is a fox, as Aesop’s fable said, who knows one thing very well. He is not a hedgehog who knows many things, and the ability of the political structure to make decisions based on widely disparate experts, all claiming priority, leads to the chaos we have seen and points to the end of this posture. Expertise is essential, but a means of integrating expertise with common sense as the prime driver will be the challenge of the next institutional cycle.”
7. The inability to repent belies a lack of belief in grace and should call any declared faith into question…
8. Deconstruction often begins when abusive leaders fail to repent…which calls into question all that has been constructed through the leader…and it’s the beginning of spiritual health…
9. Whenever I hear a partisan say that their view represents “the American people” I know they’re lying…we have way too many tribes for one to represent the majority…
10. I feel the exact same way when someone declares “the Bible says”…the correct verbiage would be “my tradition interprets the Bible to say”…
Michael, I understand the over-hype and over-spiritualizing of events like the superbowl and the music that accompanies it. Fully agree with your perspective there.
But, let me add a twist to that.
Football and Entertainment are vocations that one can pursue to the glory of God and the virtue of the heavenly city or cater to the lies and seduction of the other spiritual urban alternative, Babylon the one is fallen and will face destruction.
I want to celebrate and glean from the disciplines that make up the work of faith, labor of love and patience of hope displayed within the football competencies of someone like Cooper Kupp.
On the other hand, I want to feel the compassion for those enslaved by the perverse lifestyles and enslaving surrounding organizations expressed in the lyrics of the so called artists celebrated at half time. I dislike the genre of rap as a whole but remain disgusted by the specific ones who have nothing but filth to spew forth. I will jump in the gutter to help redeem one exploited or destroyed by the after effects of Babylon but will also be ready to get in the face of one who exalts and celebrates it whether they be an ignorant fool in the audience or full fledged participant trying to get me to agree that life in the sewer is glorious and deserves to be underwritten and promoted as a worthy investment.
vic,
I respect your position.
Cooper Kupp is very clear about his faith.
The best wide receiver in history wasn’t…and I’ll take him on my team any day and twice on Sunday.
I hate rap for the same reasons you do.
I left a lucrative career in concert promotion because it made me sick to profit off the garbage.
Harping about it on social media won’t change that…and until the church cleans it’s own stall, we need to ignore the muck in others…
Rap is great. There is a lot of rap that is profane, but a lot that is not. But no need to specify rap on that, if you turn on pop radio, most of it has to edit about every third word, across all genres. Some of the best, most creative stuff going on in the world is from hip-hoppers right now.
The halftime show was good. I was unsure, because I knew a lot of them to have filthy lyrics in the past, but they self-censored very well it seems. It was a pretty decent, fun time.
Since the beginning of time, every generation has though theirs was holier than the next, and every single one has caught the vapors at the next form of entertainment. I’m gonna hold off on that mindset for as long as humanly possible.
Josh,
I’m sure that part of my discomfort is that I neither understand nor enjoy the genre.
I’m old.
Trey loves it….and I have to remind myself that Jerry Lee and Elvis were scandalous in their time…
Michael – exactly. I certainly don’t love all of it, or most of it. Just like I don’t love all rock music or jazz or whatever.
Michael,
In South America it was all about soccer. Pastors never tried to spiritualize it or use it as a step to the gospel. It just was, “everyone” watched it, and soccer stars were favored for their playing skills, not their spirituality. I don’t understand all the hype about the Super Bowl to be truthful, but I’ll confess that I like soccer better. They don’t stop the action all the time for a timeout.
Michael, your brief mention of “concert promotion” brought back an old memory of an 80’s friend, Robbie Marshall of Road Home Productions (Robbie also did some events with Tom Stipe). A quick google indicates he recently passed of ASL. Your path ever cross with Road Home/Robbie?
Good word on repentance.
Just saw this posted by the wife of a CC Pastor who Chuck put on the CCA and Brian has put on CGN. “Friends come and go. But enemies accumulate.”
This pastor has a reputation for uncontrolled anger for 40+ years. A few years back at the NWCC Pastor Conference a wife when sharing about marriage shared her need to repent of bitterness due to what this Pastor said to here. (Her pastor husband worked for this pastor for 30+ years) The then Senior pastor jump on stage and said I’m just a punk… no repentance at all… wonder what would have happened to David if he had said to Nathan… I’m just a punk vs what he did say.
The Calvary Chapel movement leadership needs to repent, confess and forsake their personal sin…. And the joy and power of the spirit will return. I John 1:4 saying to make joy complete. The new Jesus People revival they hope for will not come until they repent.
And you be strong as those that do call leaders to repentance get treated like enemies or worst.
prodinov,
No…I never had any interest in CCM.
The concert business wasn’t for me…I thought I was pretty wild until I saw some of the stuff in that profession…I couldn’t stomach it.
Thanks, Gordy…now I’m going to go nuts trying to figure out which guy that was… 🙂
Rap music is an oxymoron.,
Read this in Atlantic: “ Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs.”
Here’s the entire article: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/
I found it interesting
I tell my kids regularly, “God doesn’t expect non-believers to act like believers; He expects believers to act like believers.” It’s my paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 5:12-13.
I walked my dogs at SB Half-time. We all had a grand time. I was amused at how many different groups chose to be incensed over something that happened in a twelve minute production. Sheesh.
Trying to find a “truth” beneath every stone must be exhausting. Pointless too. There is enough truth in plain site to proclaim without having to appear ‘insightful’ or ‘tantalizing.’ It cheapens God’s word to a hat and a rabbit in a magician’s hand. Schtick.
A hearty amen to #5.
Good article OfficerHopAlong–let’s talk of it over dinner soon.
Interesting perspective Jeff. I often ask people what they think God expects from people. Most answers to “love him” or “to obey him”. I respond by asking “do you love him or obey him all the time?” After some thought they say “no”. So I ask again, “what does God expects from us?”—after a long pause and empty silence, I answer my own question sayin, “the only thing God expects us to do with an regularity and consistency is to possibly try, t love him and obey him but fail in these areas. In other words he knows we fare going to sin—which is why he sent his son to die for us.
I am sure that won’t resonate with you my friend, but it has helped me in my journeying with God.
I only followed the game on ESPN.com because wife and I do not have the TV signal thingy figured out on our Smarta$$ TV (but that’s another story), so I didn’t see the game or the half-time show, or the commercials/short movies. Didn’t get my feathers ruffled about any of it. It would be nice to see some more classic rock represented at the Super Bowl, but many/most of those artists are dead or close to it. But I am not going to lose sleep over it.
Like your number 4 thought esp. there Michael…no need to have to justify everything in my life with “to the glory of God”.
OfficerH…was it you that recommended Breedlove acoustic guitars? I am considering getting one of those.
Dan
I think we talked about Breedlove. I’ve played a several of them but to be honest I ha en’t played one I truly feel in love with. I like a brighter more punchy sound in my guitars. Right now I have a Brazilian rosewood 810 Taylor. Only 92 of them exist in the world. I also ha e an OM Morgan guitar made in Canada. Very nice guitar. Depending on how much you want to spend I can recommend some nice hand made guitars for you.
Some people absolutely love Breedloves. They are beautifully made, but the sound isn’t what I want. But you may love them! I for sure, wouldn’t buy one with out playing it first. As I am sure you know, each guitar has it’s own personality.