“Sometimes staunch Calvinists (may their tribe increase) like to get more than a little worm theology into their prayers. What this prayer time needs, the thinking seems to go, is about three feet of accumulated total depravity. Of course we are sinners, and of course we must acknowledge it in our prayers. But to wallow …
Two Ways to Cook
“Like New Orleans cooking, New Orleans jazz derives its power from deftly balanced ingredients and carefully controlled heat” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, p. 29).
Praying in the Wrong Direction
“When the people of God are praying to God, the one offering up prayers on their behalf should not start (or continue) preaching to the people. If a pastor did not get his last point of the sermon in, he must not shoehorn it into the closing prayer. The one praying should never forget who …
Beast of Burden
“The real break came in the late 1960s, when the counterculture went sour, and popular music began attracting people who were less interested in music than in using such a powerful medium for culturally radical purposes. The harbingers of this break were the Rolling Stones, who relished the blues but did not hesitate to make …
Vain Repetitions
“I grew up in evangelical circles and knew the public prayer ropes. I could pray readily in public settings, particularly in church, and did so in accordance with the accepted canons for many years. When I finally began to write my prayers out before the service, I noticed something funny. I had stopped repeating myself. …
Foundational Murder
“We know that it was common practice, not only among the Semites, to lay the first stone of a new town on the body of a human sacrifice offered to the power of the city in order that his spirit protect the city” (Ellul, The Meaning of the City, p. 28).
Not That Simple
“Bloom implies that all popular music ‘has the beat of sexual intercourse.’ Taking exactly the same view, Steven Tyler of the hard rock band Aerosmith boasts: ‘It’s rhythm and blues, its twos and fours, it’s f***ing.’ In general, neither friend nor foe acknowledges that the monotonous beat of hard rock (and, indeed, of much rap) …
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Keep It Short
“For example, the Bible requires that public prayer be kept as brief as possible, given the duties and needs we have in prayer. At first glance, this seems counterintuitive, but it only seems this way because our carnal flesh is very religious. The Bible says that God is in heaven, and that we are on …
Intervening Grace
“Thus the Lord himself is going to substitute his work for man’s, and he will build lasting cities, different cities, the true cities of Judah, cities which will be under another sign and controlled by a power other than Cain’s” (Ellul, The Meaning of the City, p. 27).
And Why Not?
“I do not use the word popular as the opposite of high, serious, or good. It cannot be stated too often, or too emphatically, that this usage is both illogical and ahistorical. In every period and place, it is possible to cite works that possess both popularity and artistic merit” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our …