Pinned
A few months ago I watched the film Wise Blood starring Brad Dourif and based on the novel of the same name by Flannery O'Connor and I was instantly inspired to write a song about it.
I wasn't planning on writing anymore songs for the new Glass Apple Bonzai album that I'm working on, I thought I had them all written. I was wrong. The concepts of the film and novel, the acting, the philosophies all hit me really hard. Forced redemption, broken faith (not just religious but personal inward faith), reconciling with deception and the actions based on that deception, and so on.
It's not a surprise to most people that know me that I have a contentious relationship with the concepts, indoctrination, and implementation of religion in society. Not limited entirely to Christianity, though that one happens to be the most prevalent in the area I grew up. I don't have a problem with faith itself. I feel that faith is of the utmost importance. It helps give life direction and purpose. But when I say "faith" I don't mean "devotion to God" I mean a strong belief, trust, or confidence in a person, system, idea, or supreme being—frequently held without requiring direct physical proof or empirical evidence.
I am also very aware that faith in something malevolent can and does lead to acts that cause suffering, pain, illness, strife, and often death. Therein lies the problem. Faith is amazingly powerful but it is abused and its concepts are abused continually by people, organizations, and religions claiming to be in line with an omnipotent higher power that is overwhelmingly, if not entirely, good. And that through devoting your life to this being you will achieve some form of salvation at the end of your life and move on to an afterlife of endless peace (or hellfire and suffering, if you don't dedicate your life to their specific version of one of a thousand (or more) deities.)
As you can see, I find dedication to unseen, unheard, and unknown forces to be a sort of social, socio-political, cultural, and deeply personal Abraxas. A strike of lightning that destroys a tree that shades people in the hot summer but starts a fire to keep those people warm in the winter.
A religion as a communal entity simultaneously makes some people feel welcome, warm, give them shelter, and food...while also ostracizing others, pushing them away, causing them pain, heartache, suffering, or even leading to someone (often themselves) killing or being killed.
I'll end this Friday afternoon diatribe with something that is undeniably true: No faith, religion, nor believe should ever, or can ever preach the death and destruction of those that are not the same. That's not faith, nor religion, no devotion. That's evil. Plain and simple. So if your religion tells you to treat others poorly, even if that's simply pestering others to join your particular flavour of Jesus, then that religion is false and you're being lied to.
"I told him 'Jesus loves you, everyone else thinks you're an asshole'"
- Father Dyer (played by Ed Flanders)
I wasn't planning on writing anymore songs for the new Glass Apple Bonzai album that I'm working on, I thought I had them all written. I was wrong. The concepts of the film and novel, the acting, the philosophies all hit me really hard. Forced redemption, broken faith (not just religious but personal inward faith), reconciling with deception and the actions based on that deception, and so on.
It's not a surprise to most people that know me that I have a contentious relationship with the concepts, indoctrination, and implementation of religion in society. Not limited entirely to Christianity, though that one happens to be the most prevalent in the area I grew up. I don't have a problem with faith itself. I feel that faith is of the utmost importance. It helps give life direction and purpose. But when I say "faith" I don't mean "devotion to God" I mean a strong belief, trust, or confidence in a person, system, idea, or supreme being—frequently held without requiring direct physical proof or empirical evidence.
I am also very aware that faith in something malevolent can and does lead to acts that cause suffering, pain, illness, strife, and often death. Therein lies the problem. Faith is amazingly powerful but it is abused and its concepts are abused continually by people, organizations, and religions claiming to be in line with an omnipotent higher power that is overwhelmingly, if not entirely, good. And that through devoting your life to this being you will achieve some form of salvation at the end of your life and move on to an afterlife of endless peace (or hellfire and suffering, if you don't dedicate your life to their specific version of one of a thousand (or more) deities.)
As you can see, I find dedication to unseen, unheard, and unknown forces to be a sort of social, socio-political, cultural, and deeply personal Abraxas. A strike of lightning that destroys a tree that shades people in the hot summer but starts a fire to keep those people warm in the winter.
A religion as a communal entity simultaneously makes some people feel welcome, warm, give them shelter, and food...while also ostracizing others, pushing them away, causing them pain, heartache, suffering, or even leading to someone (often themselves) killing or being killed.
I'll end this Friday afternoon diatribe with something that is undeniably true: No faith, religion, nor believe should ever, or can ever preach the death and destruction of those that are not the same. That's not faith, nor religion, no devotion. That's evil. Plain and simple. So if your religion tells you to treat others poorly, even if that's simply pestering others to join your particular flavour of Jesus, then that religion is false and you're being lied to.
"I told him 'Jesus loves you, everyone else thinks you're an asshole'"
- Father Dyer (played by Ed Flanders)
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