rattle and hum

First things first, a little confession or two. Not everything you're reading is entirely original - I mean this in two different ways. Firstly, I'm lifting many of these entries from a memoir I once began but never got around too finishing...it provides a nice fallback for updating a blog every other day (though so far only the first post was from the failed memoir). Secondly, and probably more importantly, everything you're reading here is just my outlook on life, and my outlook has been profoundly influenced by multiple people and authors. Just for quick reference, if you need some good Christian junk to read, definitely go check out Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, Donald Miller, and John Piper. It definitely looks like I'm just name-dropping, but in all honesty I've read only one book from Claiborne and Piper, one-and-a-half from Donald Miller, and two from Rob Bell. Please recommend other material for me to read! (I do plan on reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love, since everyone and their mother has recommended it. Twice.)

Okay, so for today, what to write about? Michael dared me to be happy with my blog for one day (since apparently so far it's been bleak, depressing, dismal, somber, and just plain sad),so I'll write about something that is very happy (to me)...

Did you ever have something that you really, really loved? Like a movie, song, book or whatever; anything that connects with you on a super deep level. You cherish that thing so much; it's just a perfect representation of some emotion or moment or memory.

For me, this perfectly describes U2's concert film "Rattle and Hum". Way back when it was released, the critics gave it a mediocre response, and the film's financial failings led to Bono famously stating onstage that the band had to go "dream it all up again". But I love Rattle and Hum. The film is shown mostly in black and white, which instantly kicks 99% of the eighties-ness out the door. The other 1%, present as occasional slow-mo moments and (very) questionable hair and clothing choices leads to more than a little criticism from my friends (particularly the music snob, who interestingly doesn't comment on the music all that much).

Despite this, I still love Rattle and Hum.

I don't know why, but there are moments in this film which connect with me emotionally and spiritually (more on that in a second) so, so much. It's the passion behind the band, the beauty behind the music, the flawlessly portrayed chaos and rawness of the film making. There are moments like a cameraman rushing across stage in the middle of the climax of "Where the Streets Have No Name". It's not flashy or fake, but real and intimate and you feel like you are onstage with U2 because you really are onstage with U2 during one of the more amazing performances of their lives. No one, not even them, understood then how big it all was.

...clearly, I am in love with this film. And hearing people criticize it can be downright painful. My music snob friend sneers at Bono's outfit, gawks at the band's seeming self-inflation, and laughs at every stage antic. He actually likes some of U2's music (snobs say that about almost any band), but this he just doesn't get. No matter what I tell him: and sometimes I struggle not to punch him in the face.

I cherish this thing so much, and one of the reasons (as I said before) was that it spiritually connects with me very, very strongly. If you're an extremely conservative Christian, this might be going off the deep end a bit, but it's something I realized makes life so beautiful: truth, beauty, and spirituality can (and does) exist outside of Christianity. Not outside of God, outside of Christianity.

U2 is not a "Christian" band. Rattle and Hum is not a Christian movie. There are moments in it which would make many Christians I know shudder: twice the band uses profanity (when Adam states that the idea of not mixing music and politics is bullshit, and when Bono famously goes off on his anti-IRA speech in the middle of Sunday Bloody Sunday, finally shouting "Fuck the revolution!"). Neither of those, to me anyways, are a big deal though: frankly, I think it highlights people's willingness to take a profanity out of context of why it was stated. Should they have cursed? I really don't know, but since some people probably wouldn't even like seeing the words written here on this blog (which is taking it way out of context), I assume some people would object.

...I meant to write about something else. We'll return to the profanity discussion another time.

The point is, I had a spiritual moment, in which I think God worked and moved through something not explicitly "Christian". I found God somewhere else. Lots of Christians get hung up on only looking for God in the same places...but if you accept that God is living and moving, and accept that all people have a spiritual side to them, then it makes perfect sense that you could have a spiritual moment outside of Christianity, just as a non-Christian can have a spiritual moment at all. Is it a "complete" moment? The way I see it, a Christian experiencing a spiritual moment is just like a non-Christian experiencing a spiritual moment, except the Christian knows where to trace it back to. The non-Christian still gets the full experience, but unless they know God they can't thank anyone for it, and they can't find the ultimate source of it.

A lot of this, if I'm honest, is mostly just theory to back up an existing fact - why I have so many spiritual moments out in nature, at rock concerts, in movies, and with friends at not-Christian events. It always left distaste in my mouth when Christians simply disregarded non-Christian's spiritual moments as something not connected to God, or non-existent. Just watch an Arcade Fire concert and tell me there's not some sort of spiritual happening taking place.

God is everywhere. And sometimes, we don't realize that he can appear to any person however he wants. Through a secular album, through nature, through the Bible and through Rattle and Hum. To be clear, this isn't universalism - you shouldn't put faith in Nature anymore than you should trust the cell phone to call you when you're lonely. This is general revelation and omnipresence: God is everywhere, and God reveals himself in many ways. Ultimately, God reveals himself through his Word and through his Son, but we can't discount the existence of general revelation.

Anyways...I recognize this might be really controversial, and I pray you all understood what I wrote the way I intended. If you disagree, though, leave a comment! There's a 99% chance I'll answer and a .5% chance I'll bring you tea because of it...what's there to lose?

(: Thanks for reading...until some other time...