A Sound of Sheer Silence

A while back in this space , I wrote about a book entitled Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor.  The core idea, concept of "lunar faith" as contrasted with "solar faith," was a home run for me.  Many people, maybe even most people, either have or want a faith that is solar--it provides clarity and definition and warmth pretty much all the time.  A faith that has shadows and soft edges, one that masks almost as much as it reveals, would be counter to what they are seeking out of this whole faith project.  I get it, and I can't say I haven't looked to bathe in that solar light.  But I find myself drawn to that softer moonlight, and more to the point I get itchy when there is too much sunlight.  I need things to be a little fuzzy, whether that's because I need the mental space to imagine what is there, or because I'm not quite ready to fully confront what is there, or just because there is a beauty to that fuzziness. But what does luna...

I will confess that I really like Jesus Christ Superstar .  I like the music, I like the over-the-top staging.  I just like it.  And, in a true upset, the live version on NBC Easter Sunday night was actually really well done.  Judas (Brandon Dixon), Mary Magdalene (Sarah Bareillis), and Simon the Zealot (Erik Gronwall) were particularly good, Alice Cooper was appropriately ridiculous as Herod, and John Legend as Jesus brought a soulful note to the character.  The live audience was a nice touch, and the staging was very industrial and interesting. But, watching in Sunday night, it hit me as to the real reason why I like Jesus Christ Superstar .  People talk about how  Jesus Christ Superstar  is a "modern" take on the Jesus story, and that's true.  People talk about how it shows a more human Jesus, and that's true, too.  But the real reason why  Jesus Christ Superstar  is modern is that the whole story is really a reflection on...

Leonard Cohen died yesterday.  He wrote many wonderful songs, but certainly his most famous is "Hallelujah," and rightfully so. Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah I have no problem with science, and I absolutely refuse to accept the Luddite notion that there is something inherently wicked about our technological civilization, especially in light of the human suffering from disease and starvation that we have been able to mitigate with that technology.  But I also simply cannot accept the idea that the phenomenon of human experience is capable of being reduced to purely materialistic concepts that can be explained scientifically.  So much of what we do and what we experience is deeply irrational and purposeless according to those pure scientific standards, and ...

I spent the weekend visiting my high school friend Fr. Justin, who is an Orthodox priest in the Russian tradition.  I went to services with him on Saturday evening, and then Mass at a local Catholic Church on Sunday.  Each one struck me in a very particular way. Saturday Evening There is a sense in which the Orthodox are far, far more conservative than anything we see in Western Christianity.  The Liturgy I attended Saturday evening is basically unchanged for at least 1,000 years, and parts even longer.  I remember attending a service where Fr. Justin was preaching on "the New Martyrs," only to realize half-way through that they lived in the 8th Century--the Orthodox definition of "new" being somewhat out of line with most other uses of the word "new." Having said that, I think there is a significant difference between the conservatism of the Orthodox and the conservatism of Catholics and Protestants.  With the Orthodox, one gets the sense that the r...

One of the criticisms that always comes up when you want to re-evaluate or challenge Christian sexual morality is that the real goal is laxity.  "You just don't want to have to follow all those rules; you just want to be able to do what you want," these folks will say. I think it is precisely the opposite.  I think the focus on rules is a way to let ourselves off the hook from dealing with the real problem with relationships. Christian sexual morality, as currently constructed, is an acts based system.  There are a list of discrete behaviors that you must not do.  But that's basically it.  Outside of the bounds of the prohibited acts, there is no real moral guidance on how to behave in the context of a romantic or sexual relationship.  Sure, one can apply generalized principles (don't lie, etc.), but the take away that many people get from this system is "as long as I am not fornicating, I'm OK." I believe this system tacitly endorses, or at le...

About a week ago, Kanye West gave an interview to GQ  magazine , where he weighed in on a number of topics.  As is often the case with 'Ye, he said a number of insane and ludicrous things.  I was particularly struck this quote, in which he discusses the content of a 45 minute toast he made to himself at his wedding to Kim Kardashian recently: And what I talked about in it was the idea of celebrity, and celebrities being treated like blacks were in the '60s, having no rights, and the fact that people can slander your name. I said that in the toast. And I had to say this in a position where I, from the art world, am marrying Kim. And how we're going to fight to raise the respect level for celebrities so that my daughter can live a more normal life. She didn't choose to be a celebrity. But she is. So I'm going to fight to make sure she has a better life. The notion that "celebrities" are some sort of persecuted minority in society, and that he is planni...

I have been meaning for some time to talk about things other than religion on this blog, but it seems like I can never quite get around to doing it.  So, I am going to try out a new series called "Pop Culture Mondays."  This will be a series of short or medium-size musings on something in the broader culture that interested me over the course of the week.  We'll see how it goes. *************************** According to the Billboard Charts, the Number 1 R&B/Hip-Hop song in the U.S. this week belongs to the woman shown at the left.  She goes by the name Iggy Azalea, and she is a 24 year old originally from Australia. Her song "Fancy" is clearly a big hit-- it was Number 1 last week on the overall Billboard Chart .  It is one of those classic "earworm" songs, in that it is incredibly catchy and sticks in your head whether or not you want it to do so.  For earworm songs, a discussion of whether the song is "good" or "bad" i...

My parish, St. Dominic's in San Francisco, performed Bruckner's Requiem Mass in D Minor for All Souls Day last week.  I wasn't at all familiar with the piece, but it was beautiful, and beautifully done by the outstanding choir.