some words about music, religion, and G-d.

by julio d. anta

it's nights like tonight where i find my self lost in thought. rummaging through cases and cases of cd’s fuel these long nights of idealism. listening to my current favorites (copeland and the manchester orchestra) and personal “classics” (blink 182 and the rocket summer) are the main source of fuel tonight.

copeland’s beneath medicine tree bring thoughts of love and relationship - that which i have yet to experience, but hope to G-d i get the chance to someday and forever. on the song “brightest,” aaron marsh sings my favorite lines of the entire record: “i just know that she warms my heart and knows what all my imperfections are. she says that i was the brightest little firefly in her jar.” call it cliche, call it beautiful - i choose the latter. i mean, wouldn’t it be amazing to have that sort of relationship? to have that one person who knows your every imperfection but loves you regardless... and in some odd and beautiful way, finds comfort in that.

with the manchester orchestra, thoughts of spirituality and religion come into play. for those who’ve ever had a “religious” conversation with me know how much i hateeeee religion and everything it stands for. in my opinion and from what i’ve seen, religion conforms a persons heart into habit and prevents from real worship. it takes minds away from G-d and engages it on traditions that hold absolutely no stock in the kingdom of G-d. i say all that to say... maybe some good has come of it: the manchester orchestra. i don’t know andy hull’s (singer/ songwriter) complete background, but from what i’ve read and understand from his lyrics, he was raised in the church and did everything a “good christian” should, but still doubts his own faith and whether or not he’ll end up in heaven if it even exists. one of my favorite lines on their album i’m like a virgin losing a child is “and if seeing is believing, then i believe that we have lost our eyes.” i’m still not completely sure on what it means, but it sounds pretty meaningful.

now, blink 182... the band that made me fall in love with music the summer before the 6th grade. i look back at the lyric booklets, filled with songs that have had the biggest influence on my life and reminisce. reflect on those long school days counting down the seconds till that faithful bell rang at 3:40 and released us to skateboard the afternoons away. “give me on good reason” was my anthem for those three years. the chorus sang “so give me one good reason, why we need to be like them. kids will have fun and offend. they don't want to and don't fit in.” as a little punk rock skater kid i lived by those words, and to a certain extent still do. instead now, its not in the vein of “hey lets be cool and not fit in on purpose” like it used to, but “lets be the change, the light of the world that G-d calls us to be.”

listening to bands like blink 182 curse up a storm and sing about f***ing dogs has helped me realize that G-d is everywhere. just because something isn’t “christian” or “religious” doesn’t mean you can’t find relevance for your spiritual walk in it. it goes both ways too. just because something is “christian” or “religious” doesn’t mean it’s Christ-like or G-d centered.

and finally, the rocket summer. though i mentioned it as a personal “classic,” i think i can safely say the rocket summer is my favorite band. i found the rocket summer a year and a half ago through an ex-girlfriend of mine and like a fish, i was caught in its net... literally. “bless your heart you’ve made me happy again, it’s been so long and i’m sick of pretending” are probably my favorite words sung in any trs song. they found me with perfect timing and were my “therapy.” i put it in quotes because therapy is a word people love to use for the way music helps them, but i’m not too sure i like that word. to me, therapy sounds like i’m using something for my own intentions of relief rather than a relationship which is what i believe i have with music.

hopefully i don’t come off as pretentious by saying that, but i truly believe what i have with music is a relationship. we take long drives together, and short drives across the street. spend long nights getting to know each other, and share memories. to almost every memory i have, music is in someway attached. either directly (music was playing during the event in my memory) or indirectly (the music i was listening to or was popular around the time-frame), music has been committed to my memory.

coming back to the rocket summer for a second, i think i get most of my idealistic thoughts (which are most of my thoughts) from listening to trs. my thoughts of changing the world to something G-d would be proud of. not to sound self-righteous or better than anyone else, but i truly believe that G-d would not be proud of us (followers of Christ) for (a) the way we’ve treated the world He’s created and (b) for the way we’ve portrayed Him to His world.

i feel as “christians” we have all falsely represented G-d to the people we should be exposing Him too. here are a few of the most notable examples:

the nine major crusades dating between 1095 and 1272, not to mention to countless minor crusades in between.
the medieval, spanish, portuguese, and roman inquisitions.
the killing of “suspected” witches in 1692 (salem witch trials).

you’re probably thinking, “well, look at the years, those happened a longggg time ago.” yeah, you’re right they did, but history doesn’t forget. but, let’s pretend for a second that recorded history does forget and lets remember all the things we do every day to falsely represent G-d. the bad attitudes, the lies, the hypocrisy, the list goes on and on. at the end of the day, we all do millions of crappy things... but thats what i believe is one of the most beautiful things about Jesus. even though we’re all broken, He still loves us. he still loves us every time we feel Him tugging at our hearts but refuse to tell someone about Him. He still loves us every time we use His name in vein and every time we sin.

i think love is what we should be preaching to the world. i mean, what in the world is more important than love. G-d is love, Jesus is love, and the Holy Spirit is love... love is every where, at all times. thats what the world should be hearing... not “if you don’t accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior you will be eternally damned to hell.”

that gives people a false impression of our savior and brings probably the most negative connotations to the word “Christian”.

i’m not too sure what the point of this blog was. it started with me having too many thoughts in my head three nights ago while listening to old cd’s and turned into a full-fledged essay.

i know it was longwinded, but i hope those of you who had the guts to read this all the way through found home in it and were inspired in some way.

thanks for reading and goodnight.