More on Propaganda's "Precious Puritans"

The other day, I posted about Propaganda's new album, Excellent, and the song "Precious Puritans."

Owen Strachan has posted his thoughts, coming down to basically saying that Propaganda was too harsh in the song, and that this could lead to distrust of the Puritans.

There is a danger here. Specifically, I wonder if Propaganda isn’t inclining us to distrust the Puritans. He states his case against them so forcefully, and without any historical nuance, that I wonder if listeners will be inclined to dislike and even hate them. 

Steve McCoy has responded with some really good thoughts.

In the context of the song, the Puritans are not the point. They are one group, who is very beloved among many in my tribe, including me, which makes them an excellent vehicle for an artist to use to illustrate a larger point. And to miss the forest for the trees is either to misunderstand the artist or to be exactly the person the artist hopes to speak to, one who makes the Puritans too precious. Again, Prop isn't doing "demolition" of the Puritans, but of us all. And that means we are all unquotable, yet all quotable because of Christ. 

So does the song tell us not to read the Puritans, even accidentally? Not at all! In fact, it should help those who have made too much of the Puritans to read them better, and quote them more wisely. Though the history of the Puritans isn't new to me concerning slavery, this song has made me think of how to quote them better to those with skin unlike mine, with a history and heritage unlike mine. Why wouldn't we want that? 

If you come away from "Precious Puritans" with an "I'm never reading them!" view, you missed the whole point by thinking you are better than them. That point is rejected in the song.

I would probably side more with McCoy. Those were basically my thoughts from hearing the song, before reading Joe Thorn's blog posts explaining the song. I took the song to be more about Propaganda than anything else.

It's a very interesting and helpful discussion, though.

Do You Feel Like a Fraud?

Ed Welch:

Do you live in fear that other people will discover the real you? 

If that happened—if other people found out—would you lose your job, your spouse,
friends, and, in the words of Stuart Smalley from Saturday Night Live, “die homeless,
penniless and twenty pounds overweight?” 

For those who already feel below average and believe that their grades, jobs or
reputations prove it, there is no reason to feel like a fraud because the news is
already out. There is nothing to hide. But, for those who have received accolades
from others, the norm is that they feel hopelessly undeserving, like an incompetent
child. They hope that the charade of success will last, but suspect it won’t. 

So you either feel like a failure and you think everyone knows you are, or you feel
like a failure and you wonder when everyone will know. There seem to be no other
options. 

You have to love this universal human experience. For all the silly bravado and
endless methods to enhance self-esteem, we all feel like failures at heart. So, we can
all take a deep breath and relax—we are not alone. And we can wonder: why is it
that we all feel this way?

Read the rest.

Carl Trueman on Technology

Carl Trueman:

Privacy and solitude has just about vanished from our world and the strange thing is that we seem to love that fact. Moronic tweeting about routine daily activities, the constant rattle of texts, planes full of people who can barely wait for the wheels to touchdown before they need to switch on their iPhones: it is surely strange that the idea of being alone with one's thoughts for even a moment has now become something which seems to terrify people or at least be most undesirable. I even see commercials which seem to think the ability to watch movies on cellphones while taking taxi rides is a good thing. Bizarre. 

Of course, loneliness can be a terrible thing; but solitude can be incredibly fruitful. It reminds one that one is not necessary to the ultimate well-being of the world; it provides space for careful thought and reflection and often great creativity. Reminding us of our dispensability is important: it has always surprised me that, when I am out of email range for a few days, the world still manages to make it without me; rarely if ever is there anything not directly work related which arrives in my inbox which cannot wait for a few days. Some of our hyperconnected activity is surely connected to our own desire to convince ourselves that we are indispensable.  Some of it, in an even more sinister way, is no doubt connected to our desire to be in control.    

Solitude also helps prevent our lives becoming a permanent public performance. Constant public performing, from Youtube to blogs to Twitter, is a way of life for many people today. Now, public performing can be fun; it can also be helpful. Every book, every sermon, every lecture, every article, is a public action, a public performance. But so is every banal tweet and idiotic thread comment. I was struck a couple of months back when I wrote a short article on the public behaviour of a former Presbyterian pastor. His sad blog response, as forwarded to me, seemed to boil down to 'Trueman does not know me; how dare he comment!' Well, here is an off-the-wall suggestion: if you do not want complete strangers commenting on your behavior, you might want to try not advertising the events of your life as some kind of self-absorbed and histrionic soap opera in the public forum provided by blogs and tweets. Crazy idea, I guess, but -- who knows? -- it might be worth a shot. 

One's Christian character can be measured by many things.  I would suggest that one of the least noted is one's ability to be alone with only oneself and God. The hyperconnectivity of the current world seems to mean that it might actually possible to live for very long periods of time and never be alone, always be talking or connecting with someone, always be performing for third parties or passively consuming the performance of others. Pascal would have dismissed all of this as distraction or diversion, designed to prevent us from facing up to ourselves, our mortality and God's final judgment upon our lives.

New Album by Propaganda - "Excellent"

Propaganda, one of my favorite rappers/poets, has a new album out today called Excellent. I've only had a chance to listen to the first 5 or 6 songs, but it's fantastic. You can get it for free here or at Amazon.

Clever, creative, and thought-provoking, especially the song, "Precious Puritans."

Here are the lyrics to that song:

If you would allow me second to deal with some in-house issues here… 

Pastor, you know it’s hard for me when you quote puritans.
Oh the precious puritans.
Have you not noticed our facial expressions?
One of bewilderment and heart break.
Like, not you too pastor.
You know they were the chaplains on slaves ships, right?
Would you quote Columbus to Cherokees?
Would you quote Cortez to Aztecs?
Even If they theology was good?
It just sings of your blind privilege wouldn’t you agree?
Your precious puritans. 

They looked my onyx and bronze skinned forefathers in they face,
Their polytheistic, god-hating face.
Shackled, diseased, imprisoned face.
And taught a gospel that says God had multiple images in mind when he created us in it.
Their fore-destined salvation contains a contentment in the stage for which they were given which is to be owned by your forefathers’ superior image-bearing face.
Says your precious puritans. 

And my anger towards this teaching screams of an immature doctrine and a misunderstanding of the gospel.
I should be content in this stage, right? Isn’t that Paul taught?
According to your precious puritans. 

Oh, you get it but you don’t get it.
Oh, that we can go back to an America that once were, founded on Christian values.
They don’t build preachers like they used to. Oh, the richness of their revelations.
It must be nice to not have to consider race.
It must be nice to have time to contemplate the stars.
Pastor, Your colorless rhetoric is a cop-out.
You see my skin, and I see yours. And they are beautiful.
Fearfully and wonderfully divinely designed uniqueness.
Shouldn’t we celebrate that rather that act like it ain’t there?
I get it. Your puritans got it. But, 

How come the things the Holy Spirit showed them in the valley of vision didn’t compel them to knock on they neighbors door and say, “You can’t own people!”?
Your precious puritans were not perfect.
You romanticize them as if they were inerrant. As if the skeletons in they closet was pardoned due to the they hard work and tobacco growth.
As if abolitionists weren’t racist and just pro-union.
As if God only spoke to white boys with epic beards.
You know Jesus didn’t really look like them paintings. That was just Michaelangelo’s boyfriend.
Your precious puritans.
They got it but they didn’t get it. 

There’s not one generation of believers that figured out the marriage between proper doctrine and action.
Don’t pedestal these people, your precious puritans partners purchased people.
Why would you quote them?
Step away. 

Think of the congregation that quotes you. Are you inerrant?
Trust me I know the feeling.
It’s the same feeling I get when people quote me.
Like, if you only knew!
I get it. But I don’t get it.
Ask my wife.
And, it bothers me when you quote puritans, if I’m honest, for the same reason it bothers me when people quote me–they precious propaganda.
So, I guess it’s true.
God really does use crooked sticks to make straight lines.
Just like your precious puritans.

You can read a little more about the song, including an explanation from Propaganda, over at Joe Thorn's blog.

Rhett and Link Sing "All Night Long" ALL NIGHT LONG

Music Video of the Week: Needtobreathe

Needtobreathe - "Lay 'Em Down"

Al Mohler on "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife"

Al Mohler:

What Karen King revealed on Tuesday was a tiny papyrus fragment with Coptic script on both sides. On one side the fragment includes about 30 words on eight fragmentary lines of script. The New York Times described the fragment as “smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass.” The lines are all fragmentary, with the third line reading “deny. Mary is worthy of it,” and the next reading “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife.’” The fifth states, “she will be able to be my disciple.” 

The papyrus fragment, believed to be from the fourth century, was delivered to Professor King by an anonymous source who had secured the artifact from a German-American dealer, who had bought it years ago from a source in East Germany. As news reports made clear, the fragment is believed by many to be an authentic text from the fourth century, though two of three authorities originally consulted by the editors of the Harvard Theological Review expressed doubts. Such a find would be interesting, to be sure, but hardly worthy of the international headlines. 

The little piece of ancient papyrus with its fragmentary lines of text is now, in the hands of the media, transformed into proof that Jesus had a wife, and that she was most likely Mary Magdalene. Professor King will bear personal responsibility for most of this over-reaching. She has called the fragment nothing less than “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” — a title The Boston Globe rightly deemed “provocative.” That same paper reported that Professor King had decided to publicize her findings before additional tests could verify the fragment’s authenticity because she “feared word could leak out about its existence in a way that sensationalized its meaning.” Seriously? King was so concerned about avoiding sensationalism that she titled the fragment “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife?” 

This is sensationalism masquerading as scholarship. One British newspaper noted that the claims about a married Jesus seemed more worthy of fans of Dan Brown’s fictional work, The Da Vinci Code than “real-life Harvard professors.” If the fragment is authenticated, the existence of this little document will be of interest to historians of the era, but it is insanity to make the claims now running through the media.

A Word to the Grammar Police

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

HT: Patrick Schreiner

Music Video of the Week: Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons - "I Will Wait"

Considering Yourself "Dead to Sin"

From Desiring God:

Martyn Lloyd-Jones commenting on Romans 6:11, So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

"We are told to realize, and to hold before ourselves and in our consciousness constantly, something that is already true of our position or status. It is not an exhortation to us to do anything with regard to sin, but to realize what has already been done for us with respect to our relationship to sin. It is an exhortation to us to remember what is already true of us; it urges us to realize what has already happened to us as Christians, those of us who are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is true of us is that we are already in an entirely new position and standing with respect to sin. 

This is something which we have to believe solely because the Word of God teaches it. You do not 'experience' your position, you are told about it and you believe it. That is what justification by faith alone means. We have this Word of God which tells us that this is God's way of salvation; and we have nothing but the Word of God. As we have seen, we have all got to do what Abraham did, as the Apostle has already reminded us in chapter 4. We must just take the bare Word of God, believe it, submit to it, and act upon it. That is what we have to do with this statement."

Romans 6: The New Man (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), 120.

3-2-1: The Gospel

321 from Jeremy Poyner on Vimeo.

HT: Timmy Brister

A Good Summary of the Gospel

Trevin Wax:

In the beginning, the all-powerful, personal God created the universe. This God created human beings in His image to live joyfully in His presence, in humble submission to His gracious authority. But all of us have rebelled against God and, in consequence, must suffer the punishment of our rebellion: physical death and the wrath of God. 

Thankfully, God initiated a rescue plan, which began with His choosing the nation of Israel to display His glory in a fallen world. The Bible describes how God acted mightily on Israel’s behalf, rescuing His people from slavery and then giving them His holy law. But God’s people – like all of us – failed to rightly reflect the glory of God. 

Then, in the fullness of time, in the Person of Jesus Christ, God Himself came to renew the world and restore His people. Jesus perfectly obeyed the law given to Israel. Though innocent, He suffered the consequences of human rebellion by His death on a cross. But three days later, God raised Him from the dead. 

Now the church of Jesus Christ has been commissioned by God to take the news of Christ’s work to the world. Empowered by God’s Spirit, the church calls all people everywhere to repent of sin and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. Repentance and faith restores our relationship with God and results in a life of ongoing transformation. 

The Bible promises that Jesus Christ will return to this earth as the conquering King. Only those who live in repentant faith in Christ will escape God’s judgment and live joyfully in God’s presence for all eternity. God’s message is the same to all of us: repent and believe, before it is too late. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.

Before You Go To Bed

Joe Thorn:

Before you go to bed tonight take time to marvel at the grace of God extended to you today. He gave you life, breath, and many gifts to enjoy. If you faced trials and difficulties you did not have to face them alone, nor work through them in your own strength. Marvel, praise, and worship your God who has been there all day. 

Do not drift off to sleep before you address your sins, turn from them, and cast yourself on the overflowing mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Your sins were more numerable than you can count and more offensive than you can imagine. But Christ’s blood covers them all and cleanses you from all unrighteousness. You can rest tonight, knowing that God’s favor is upon you in the Son. 

Use the remaining moments of your evening to seek the Lord’s continued grace for yourself and others. Seek his protection and provision for all things with the eager anticipation that he will only give you what is best. 

Do not let your night simply fade into sleep. End this day intentionally by bringing your heart and mind to God in prayer. 

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, 

and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 

when I remember you upon my bed, 

and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 

for you have been my help, 

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 

(Psalm 63:5-7 ESV)

Best 4-Year-Old Piano Player Ever

You have GOT to be kidding me...

We Are Lovely Because We Are Loved

Martin Luther, from the Heidelberg Disputation, #28:

#28 - The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it. 

The second part is clear and is accepted by all philosophers and theologians, for the object of love is its cause, assuming, according to Aristotle, that all power of the soul is passive and material and active only in receiving something. Thus it is also demonstrated that Aristotle's philosophy is contrary to theology since in all things it seeks those things which are its own and receives rather than gives something good. The first part is clear because the love of God which lives in man loves sinners, evil persons, fools, and weaklings in order to make them righteous, good, wise, and strong. Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good. Therefore sinners are »attractive« because they are loved; they are not loved because they are »attractive«: For this reason the love of man avoids sinners and evil persons. Thus Christ says: »For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners« (Matt. 9:13). This is the love of the cross, born of the cross, which turns in the direction where it does not find good which it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the bad and needy person. »It is more blessed to give than to receive« (Acts 20:35), says the Apostle. Hence Ps. 41:1 states, »Blessed is he who considers the poor,« for the intellect cannot by nature comprehend an object which does not exist, that is the poor and needy person, but only a thing which does exist, that is the true and good. Therefore it judges according to appearances, is a respecter of persons, and judges according to that which can be seen, etc.

The 2012 Election: A Collision of Worldviews

Al Mohler:

On the issue of abortion, the Republican platform states, “we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” The Democratic platform states: “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.” 

The worldview clash could hardly be more dramatic. The Republicans frame the issue in terms of the unborn child’s “fundamental individual right to life.” The Democrats frame the issue as “a woman’s right to make decisions” — including the explicit right to decide to kill the baby in her womb. These are two contradictory moral claims. One party claims that no abortions should be legal and the other claims that all abortions should be legal. Each party is driven by their own moral logic. The Republicans are driven by the belief that, at every point of development, every individual human being is sacred and has a fundamental right to life. The Democrats are driven by the belief that the woman’s unfettered right to choose an abortion is paramount, and that a woman can demand an abortion at any time for any reason or for no reason. As their language states, “We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.” The most revealing words there are “any” and “all.” 

Both parties hold these positions because they are, in truth, the inevitable consequences of basic worldview assumptions. These assumptions include belief that marriage is essential to human flourishing and cannot be redefined without bringing on human disaster, contrasted with the belief that the liberation of humanity from oppression and prejudice requires the redefinition of marriage. In the background are contradictory assumptions about human sexuality, sexual morality, moral authority, individual autonomy, and the ends to which human beings are to aim their lives. 

The assumptions framing the abortion positions of the two parties include the belief that every human life is sacred and to be protected at every point of development contrasted with the belief that a human life takes on greater worth and right to live as the development continues, but is tentative at least until the moment of live birth. The belief that the baby is itself the most urgent moral unit is contrasted with the belief that the woman and her right to control her own reproductive destiny is paramount. Behind these beliefs stand convictions and assumptions about human dignity, the worth of human life, the responsibility of the society to every human life, the purpose and end of human reproduction, and nothing less than the meaning of both life and death. 

We are not looking at minor matters of political difference. We are staring into the abyss of comprehensive moral conflict. Christians voters cannot escape the consequences of their vote and the fact that our most basic convictions will be revealed in the voting booth come November. Christians cannot face these questions without the knowledge that God is the Giver of life, who made every human life in his image. We cannot consider this election without the knowledge that our Creator has given us the covenant of marriage as the union of one man and one woman as the demonstration of his glory and the promise of human flourishing. 

Americans will elect a President in November, but our vote will reveal far more than our political preference. The 2012 election is a worldview exercise of unprecedented contrasts. The electoral map will reveal more than an election winner. It will reveal who Americans really are and what we really believe.

What's Your Counterfeit God?

Music Video of the Week: Gaslight Anthem

Gaslight Anthem - "45"