I was feeling really cruddy today. So to make me feel better about my scratchy throat, I decided to listen to someone who always seems to have one...Tom Waits. I've only got one of his CDs--Real Gone--but I listen to it constantly. If Don't Go Into That Barn isn't the creepiest song out there, I don't know what is.
It got me thinking about how much I like people who seem to have an exceptionally complex relationship with God. Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Bruce Cockburn, Nick Cave, Bono, Bob Dylan--these people are fascinating to me. You'll never find their CDs in a Christian music store, yet the things they sing about and the sentiments they express are so much closer to my experience as a Christian than the syrupy stuff you hear on the radio. They wrestle, and doubt, and stumble, and fall (sometimes very, very far), and the answers aren't easy...and the Bible is full of just that sort of complexity. Look at David and the Pslams if you doubt that. Thank God there's room for those feelings on this journey. Thank God.
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Larger than Christianity, yet perfectly contained within Christianity.(?) ("Larger" not correct? Not to disparage; to suggest application beyond the religious--if such is truly possible.)
I'm interested in authors about whom you feel these feelings.
-daren
PS Yehuda from BGG mentions your blog favorably on his blog.
Actually Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash have both had CD's that are sold in Christian music stores.
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