The Long History of Pop Music and Spirituality

The embrace of pop music and spirituality is getting more and more attention, especially in the hip-hop scene (note the earlier entry), but one recent article quotes Philip Goth, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University:

“Religion and American culture almost dance with each other,” says Goff, who point to a long history between pop music and religion, including Elvis scoring his first Grammy for a gospel album. The article goes on to cite Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and U2, along with current spiritual-popsters Kanye West, Creed, Los Lonely Boys, Switchfoot, Lenny Kravitz and others.

Sex in the Living Room

Teens watching TV with sexual content are twice as likely to start having sex than those with little exposure. And it’s not simply monkey see, monkey do. Shows that simply talked about sex, but didn’t depict sexual behavior, had the same risk level.

The report noted that TV “may create the illusion that sex is more central to daily life than it truly is and may promote sexual initiation as a result.”

Did you know there’s an election today?

Yep. Today there’s a primary election in Minnesota. The only reason I know is because a flyer asking me to vote showed up in the mail yesterday, and as I ran past my polling place this morning I saw the flyers.

Visit the Secretary of State’s web site to find your polling place and what candidates are on the ballot in your area.

But apparently one of the races in my district is a non-event, and the other is only for Republicans. And I had to do a lot of searching to figure out that much.

To top it all off, only one of the candidates on the ballot today has a web site, and that candidate is running unopposed in the primary. I’ve gone off on this before, but c’mon people! Is it that hard for the news paper to cover local politics? Is it that hard for a candidate to put up a decent web site? $200 would make a decent web site and answer voters last-minute, I’m off the polls questions. How is that an expense you can afford to skip?

Arg. And they wonder why we don’t vote.

“Ordinary” Murder in a Superhero World

Identity Crisis: BatmanDC Comics is messing with the formula, killing off a superhero’s wife in the new seven-part series, “Identity Crisis.” The plotline has some fans up in arms, but DC defends the move, citing the need to explore further depth in otherwise stoic characters.

The story involves the murder and rape of the Elongated Man’s wife, and the fallout among the superheroes as some are indirectly involved and others unjustly punish the wrong suspect. It’s a tragedy that deals in guilt and redemption rather than traded blows and one-liners.

iPod: DJ in Your Pocket

Once upon a time I Djed a Christian skate night at the local Rolladium. I know, I know, it doesn’t get much cooler than spending your Saturday night going in circles in a roller rink still trying to overcome its 1970s remodeling. Of course spinning hits from dc Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Petra, the Newsboys and Carman certainly ups the hip factor.

Why on earth anyone would want to compound the problem of adolescent awkwardness by strapping eight wheels to their feet is beyond me, but for some reason I did it.

Every weekend my friend Adam and I would leave harassing messages on fellow youth group members’ answering machines (nobody had voice mail in the early 1990s), insisting they come to the Rolladium on M-59 from 6:30-9:00 for Christian skate night. On more than one occasion we would describe the music as “studly,” our preferred term for just about anything.

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