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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Music is a fine art, and as a fine art it is forever changing, and changing rapidly. That is because music, like all artistic expression, captures as much emotion as reason. It seeks to express thoughts that are as yet inexpressible in more detailed and analytic form.
I do not mean that music is not rational. Indeed music is capable of incredible statements of deeply thought-out philosophy, both ordered and harmonic and dissonant and noisy. Music is truly a universal language in that it enables us to communicate across cultures and across time.
But music's special gift is that it is affective. It appeals to our innermost feelings. Consequently, people's taste in music is highly personal, preferential, and idiosyncratic. We know what we like and like what we know. We like what we like whether others like it or not.
In times of rapid cultural change, some music is always on the frontier of discussion and development. So if you like today's music you may not like tomorrow's because you may not share the values, feelings, and philosophies being expressed.
Music is preference because it is so personal. In any given family, spouses and other family members may have very different musical tastes. So judging what is "good" or "bad" in music is forever problematic. As always, the key to determining acceptability for the Christian is whether the music directly violates Scripture or whether the music falls within the infinite realm of choice that God has given us. If it does not undermine Scripture, than the music must not be labeled "bad," whether we like it or not.
Music is a fine art. Like it or not, music is synonymous with preference.
Music is a universal language. It enables us to communicate across time, across cultures, and across psychological and geographic space. Music may be a philosophic statement, deep and profound, or an emotional expression, shallow or deep, profound or simple.
As a philosophic and emotional expression, music is a language within our own language. As Christians, we should develop the ability to ascertain how a given musical expression relates to Scripture. Does the music fit into the infinite realm of Christian liberty God has given us for the purpose of expressing our worship of Him? Does a given musical piece actually violate biblical principles in some way? If the music doesn't violate the Scripture, are we able to appreciate the variety of humankind's God-given musical gifts?
We ought to be able to listen to different kinds of musical styles and lyrical content and determine what the person or persons is trying to say to the world. What is the Country artist saying? The Rapper? The Rocker? Is one musical artist consistently immoral? Is another artist gifted at conveying the beauty of love and commitment?
What is our teenagers' music saying to us? Is it all "bad," or is at least some of it telling us something we need to hear? Yes, it's true that their styles are sometimes musically immature. But whether or not you like what you hear teenagers' music is saying something that needs to be heard and answered.
Music is a medium. It's a language. It communicates. It has something to say. It can be Christian, non-Christian, or anti-Christian. Whatever it is, Christians who care about influencing their culture need to learn to speak the language.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
A while back my SAT-7 colleagues in the UK developed a new website called Wazala.org. It features issues, news, views, developments, and challenges in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In particular, Wazala keeps an eye on Christians, Christianity, and the Church in the region. Wazala is a derivative of the Arabic word "wasala," meaning to connect, to join, to reach out.
Who can deny that MENA is a strategic region? Virtually every night, in some way, the region is featured in stories on international news channels. If you know much about biblical prophecy you know the region plays a prominent if not predominant role in the End Times. Add to this oil and other economic considerations, the volatile position of the “island” of Israel, and the fact that three wars continue to plague the region—depending upon whether you believe Afghanistan is part of the ME, depending upon how you evaluate fighting in Iraq, and depending upon whether you believe the Libyan Revolution is a “war,” at least in terms of Western involvement. In any event, MENA is strategic by about any definition of the term.
Wazala.org references things political, but it is not given to political prescription. Rather, Wazala attempts to apply a Christian perspective to developments in MENA. In this the site provides the rest of us a service. The West, and especially America, needs to learn more about MENA. We need to learn how cultures function where there is essentially no separation of Church and State. We need to understand not simply news-network-theology but the deeper, theologically complex, layered nuances of the region’s dominant religion. The more we learn the more, hopefully, we understand. The more we understand the more we will be able to give an answer of the hope that lies within our Christian faith.
I highly and without reservation recommend to you www.wazala.org. It’s good to learn the Lord is at work in MENA. Indeed, “He is there and he is not silent.”
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Why did 9/11 happen? Short answer: because evil exists. Why was it allowed to happen? Only God knows.
On this tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001 that last point about God’s providence is more profound than glib.
On that horrific day, jets hijacked by hate-driven men were flown into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and, because of the heroism of passengers, the Pennsylvania countryside instead of the White House or U. S. Capitol. The cost of that day has been severe. Markets and real estate dropped and trillions have been spent on security, insurance, gasoline, and two lengthy wars. And the greatest cost has, perhaps, been a loss of American confidence and optimism.
Why did God allow this? Or put another way, what should we have learned from this tragedy? One thing is that God is there in the midst of the worst kind of adversity even when it doesn’t seem so—a point I tried to make in a recent article called “What Robinson Crusoe Teaches Us About Adversity.”
God is sovereign, meaning he exercises authority over the world and its issues and events. This doesn't mean he causes or desires everything that happens, because in his providence he allows human choice including evil ones. It does mean that he is not surprised, is never off-balance, and is always governing or restraining the full potential of human sin natures. He also, eventually, brings things together for good—even when and where we cannot see it, even in the wake of tragedy like 9/11.
This last point is difficult for some people to take. Actually, the idea that God knew about and allowed 9/11, let alone could bring good from it, is hard for people to understand or embrace. For some it makes God seem at best uncaring and at worst capricious and nasty.
And I cannot provide a pithy explanation that answers every criticism or doubt. But I can say that God is not only sovereign but characterized also by love, righteousness, and justice. He does not use people, treat human beings like pawns, or play games. He does not kill people for the fun of it. He is good and not evil, and he brings blessings in the working of his will that we cannot anticipate or even necessarily recognize when they come.
So, yes, I believe 9/11 falls within the sovereignty of God. I don’t know all the “Whys,” but in faith I believe God has and will use it for our good and his glory. In this I pray for those who lost loved ones and those otherwise hurt by 9/11. May God be present always in our adversity.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
America needs more than jobs. It needs leadership that truly believes in the innate greatness of America's original ideals and its people. We don't have that on either side of the aisle.
We only have politicians-as-tacticians, people more adept at talking political minutia than vision and destiny. A person who got his or her jollies talking about political processes and various government activities used to be called a “Policy Wonk”—think Bill Clinton. Now, it seems, pols running for office, including the presidency, have all become Policy Wonks, arguing on the stump and in debates about which Republican or Democrat approach to governing is going to—wait for it—“create jobs.” Like that’s going to happen.
Americans need a recaptured sense of who we are and a recast sense of what we’re capable of doing. Not Pollyanna platitudes but, still, some bottled optimism based upon a keen understanding of why life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness produced for decades a culture, country, and economy attracting immigrants from around the globe.
We’ve lost confidence in who we were and who we are. Worse, a lot of Americans, at least media, intellectual, and political elites, don’t believe in who we were.
We have a sluggish economy, but America isn’t so much in an economic crisis as a leadership and hope crisis. We really don’t believe anymore that there can be a “better tomorrow.”
Add to this a crippling debt, which is rooted in our moral decline more than simple economics, and you get our current dilemma. We’re in over our heads and we don’t know what to do next. One thing's certain, though to listen to pols running for President you wouldn't know it: we cannot right the ship without sacrifice. Few wanna-be Presidents are willing to say so.
So, what do we need? America needs leaders with moral character and courage, men and women who believe in what’s best about America so they can help us do what’s best for America. Who will be our Joshua?
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Chas
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Increasing incidences of violence—or “acting out” as it’s called today—in and around American sports are symptoms of deeper, wider, larger cultural problems. At least it’s difficult not to interpret sports-related violence this way.
And why shouldn’t we do so? High school, college, and professional athletics are not a world unto themselves despite what a few sports celebrities seem to think. Athletics is simply another thing we do in culture, our way of life.
Athletics at its best is a time-honored form of competitive fun, full of human drama, sacrifice, extraordinary effort and resolve even in defeat, sportsmanship and honor. It’s a form of self-expression that taps all human characteristics, including what religion calls sin. Unfortunately, we don’t escape ourselves in sports. The human dilemma still exists. We are both good and evil, so people cheat, lie, and “act out.”
This year’s preseason NFL games were marked by a rising tide of fan violence. August 20, at the San Francisco-Oakland game, fans fought in the stands, two men were shot outside the stadium, a person was beaten in a restroom, and security ejected 70 while police arrested 12—all over a game. We Americans used to look with smirks, smugness, and superiority upon soccer fan behavior worldwide, but no more. We can get into senseless violence just like everyone else. What happened to “family entertainment”?
After the Canucks lost in the Stanley Cup NHL final fans rioted and burned in the streets, embarrassing a city and a sport, even if one known for on-ice fights. At a San Francisco Giants vs LA Dodgers game earlier this year a man was severely beaten. Similar violence has occurred at university and even high school athletic events, including the chanting of vulgar language aimed at opposing players.
Police and others suggest several reasons: alcohol, sold vigorously and consumed in quantity, in the stadium and at pre-game tailgating; higher ticket prices; joblessness; social media making us more aware of incidences that were there all along, and so it goes.
But none of this gets to the core of a generation coming of age with a greater sense of entitlement and fewer learned self-limitations than ever before. Nor does it acknowledge that American culture is becoming more capricious and violent across the board—more “random” mass murderers on university campuses, in malls, at high schools, more public figures enduring threats and employing security, more family violence and “He was such a quiet, nice boy” killers “acting out.”
It sounds too simple or maybe too complex in a philosophic sort of way, but I think it’s true: the generations coming of age in American culture now are a long way from the Greatest Generation in their understanding of individual responsibility, initiative, work ethic, character principles like integrity, willingness to defer gratification or sacrifice, and earn goals, even a willingness to set goals, and most of all, understanding and embracing the difference between right and wrong. Younger generations including to some extent my own Boomers were not taught right and wrong.
So if something isn’t going the way you want, you “act out.” You fight verbally or physically, you simply take what you think is owed, you cheat, you lie. In the worst cases, people respond violently.
I don’t think the answer is more security, better trained and better paid police, or more stringent alcohol policies. Sports venues are trying: at a recent Michigan State University football game the announcer borrowed from airports, telling people "If you see something, say something." I support all these efforts,, but I don't think they will solve the problem. I think the problem is deeper, going to the root of what it means to be a human being first and an American second. We’ve lost our sense of limits, which is to say law and order.
Ironically, limits liberate, at least the right kind of limits do. Limits based upon respect for life, others, and property, for example. Such limits free us to live, work, and pursue happiness. We’ve lost a lot of them, so we do what’s right in our own eyes—a not so good plan.
Government can’t provide a right sense of limits or vision of hope, nor certainly can corporations or athletics. Only we can do this, but we need help. Where, I want to know, are the churches?
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.