Truth, Incorporated

It must be very comforting to believe in a supreme being that is all powerful.

I’ve been attending an evangelical church (link updated 6/14/2004)over the past few weeks. At first, I was kind of annoyed with their over the top spreading of their personal love of God. They have a whole separate part of the service—not part of the typical order of worship—that focuses on offering praise to God.

At first, I thought of Andy Partridge--I once read had complained that he felt that God was insecure to be demanding us humans to constantly bestow Him with praise. Then I began to wonder: perhaps they are so eager to express their praise because they feel their hold on God to be a fragile one; they have to constantly remind themselves that they love God, lest they forget.

In contrast, the wife turned me on to some pretty good Christian techno. I can’t fully explain it—ok maybe I’ll offer a theory in a moment—but these all out Christian artists put together some damn good techno. The piece my wife bought was pretty good—and only had a few lyrics. That’s partly why it’s so good—it doesn’t clutter up the sound with words.

The initial piece has some spoken word from Revelations: “I am the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. I am what was, what is, and what is to be. The almighty.”
After jamming this tune a few times at high volume, I began to look upon the total idolization of God to be pure—similar to the state of nirvana offered to Buddhists.

And there goes my point: If we concentrate on the pure image of God as being this all powerful, all knowing deity, then our meditations on the nature of God can prove to be our own fuel for understanding Him. This understanding wouldn’t come from some words in a sermon, or perhaps the bible itself, but rather our own understanding from within.

To make my point another way: Douglas Adam’s series ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ refers to this device that is used for torture. The point of this device is to illustrate one’s own insignificance in the universe. The intended victim would have to view the box, which would then show the extent of their own insignificance.

Think for a minute about your own insignificance in the face of the universe: How do you compare with such monuments of Jupiter and Saturn? Planets that have their own lives that will span billions of years—yet are still only a small piece of the universe. If you actually viewed this box of Adams’, then you would truly see yourself as a simple insignificant speck in the universe.

A person who properly believes in God would look into that box and see God. Their belief in God would shield them from the wave of insecurity that would come from the lack of significance. Someone who doesn’t believe in God would be overwhelmed by the vastness before them … if they didn’t already know it was there.

So I now get to my point: Why does Christian techno seem to be so good? Perhaps because they have this vision of God as a supreme being, and they simply try to express this in the language of random sound. If they have achieved this purity of vision, and then passed it on through their art, then I am a willing listener.

Comments

[The Wife]

Actually, I've struggled with this for some time, and sometimes still do: Why does God insist on praise? Actually, I'm not entirely sure He does insist on it; I think those of us who are so inclined just think it's the right thing to do for the Creator -- "the Alpha and Omega," as apt.core (via Rev. 1:8) distills it.

Here's one idea I came across recently: Suppose a single mother with no child support works two jobs to support her ne'er-do-well son. The son never once thanks her or shows his appreciation. Then he decides to drop out of school, forget college and move out of the house and, oh, can he have some cash to blow on booze and broads. The mother drops everything and tells the kid, "I provided for you and worked my butt off and you didn't give a single word of thanks. How dare you." Is the mother asking for thanks out of insecurity -- and therefore, one might think, undeserving of thanks and praise? Not at all, not in my book.

To resurrect an old Letterman catch phrase, "I do and I do and I do for you kids, and this is the thanks I get?" Why praise? To be crude about it, why the hell not?