CraigsList
Note: I've been lurking for a while. Thanks for the invite to join the blog!
Most of you are probably familiar with CraigsList. Well, I don't have the money to sign up for eHarmony, so I tried posting an ad on CraigsList instead (without a photo....). I wasn't expecting terribly much (I swear most of the posters are older white men with Asian fetish, older men looking to be sugar daddies, or twenty-something men who just want sex). But it's free, so I wrote a very detailed post and waited. I got back around 60 replies, most of them reasonably well-written. But one I got came from a man who must be crazy. In addition to his strange email, I recognized him. He'd posted an ad with a photo a little while ago in broken English looking for an Asian woman (yeah, I usually read through the ads for amusement) . And it's clear that he can write fluently, so I was actually pretty offended. (What, he needs to "relate" to Asians by writing incomprehensible English?) Now, I don't get offended easily in general. But he has to be in his mid-forties. And I wrote in my post that I'm 25. (Can't blame him for trying?) Here are the more interesting parts of what he wrote to me (his typos/errors are amusing):
I think he missed my point about music entirely. I wrote that the majority of so-called Christian music sucks. Not that we have to protect ourselves from inappropriate ("secular"?) music.
Most of you are probably familiar with CraigsList. Well, I don't have the money to sign up for eHarmony, so I tried posting an ad on CraigsList instead (without a photo....). I wasn't expecting terribly much (I swear most of the posters are older white men with Asian fetish, older men looking to be sugar daddies, or twenty-something men who just want sex). But it's free, so I wrote a very detailed post and waited. I got back around 60 replies, most of them reasonably well-written. But one I got came from a man who must be crazy. In addition to his strange email, I recognized him. He'd posted an ad with a photo a little while ago in broken English looking for an Asian woman (yeah, I usually read through the ads for amusement) . And it's clear that he can write fluently, so I was actually pretty offended. (What, he needs to "relate" to Asians by writing incomprehensible English?) Now, I don't get offended easily in general. But he has to be in his mid-forties. And I wrote in my post that I'm 25. (Can't blame him for trying?) Here are the more interesting parts of what he wrote to me (his typos/errors are amusing):
My taste in music changed dramatically after receiving our Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
Yet, what an eye-opening surprise it was to find worldly music creeping into the churches.
3 years ago I stopped watching hellivision altogether with very few exceptions, Sci-fi (haha!) being one of them.
I have a healthy dislike for being manipulated and I know TV viewers are offering themselves up to be brainwashed, tempted, socially engineered and seduced by the programmers of the TV networks.
I too, do not worship the Shrub from Washington D Ceive us.
Shrub's grand daddy was caught trading with and supporting Hitler during WW2.
W's daddy, announced we are in a New Word Odor while he pretended to be our president.
'W' and John Kerry both admitted on TV on the very same Sunday that they are members of Skull 'n' Bones, the most Satanical organization on earth.
When asked the very same questions, word for word, both admitted Skull 'n' Bones is a "secret" society and both refused to divulge what that secret is to the American people as they both snickered and laughed in the faces of the American people....
We know what the foundation of the problem is and Jesus instructed us in Mt 24 that "many" shall come saying that I am the Christ and shall deceive "many."
The word "many" is key. I now understand that real Churches with real pastors that teach the real truth will be more and more unpopular and the Main Stream so-called churches will continue to grow teaching false doctrines, tickling the ears of the hearers.
Me. I write poetry, publish a local business directory, entrepreneur, jurist, researcher, truth-movement activist and I'm a single pastor of a New Testament Church.
I'm highly interested in talking to you about God honoring music.
It's a very challenging subject. I do listen to a wide variety of music presented as "Christian", however, as a pastor I error on the safe side with my heart well focused on protecting the Church from inappropriate music.
One family we affiliate with loves my preaching and I have opened this brother's eyes on a number of things pertaining to the Word of God and the Church, but, his family singing group uses taped music that is the kind of music I do not allow in our Church.
So, it's very refreshing to me to read in your ad about how particular you are about music you deem to be Christian.
I think he missed my point about music entirely. I wrote that the majority of so-called Christian music sucks. Not that we have to protect ourselves from inappropriate ("secular"?) music.
posted by UrgentSound @ 4:40 AM
3 Comments:
At 9:01 AM, January 30, 2007,
The Prufroquette said…
Oh. my. word.
Obviously he's one of those Christians who doesn't understand the purpose of art.
As I come from a Baptist tradition, I heard all through my upbringing (but not from my parents) how TV and movies are evil, how good Christians shouldn't watch them, and how music that isn't straight from the mouth of Steven Curtis Chapman is of the devil, too.
My family has always understood that as bunk. For some people, I suppose exposure to the world is a dangerous experience that they ought to avoid; but for others, art is how we understand the world around us -- literature, drama, television, film, the visual arts, and music all celebrate something, and it's valuable for learning, and there are strong seeds of good in them.
I'm not talking about porn, of course, but most other art forms have something valuable to say, and for Christians to lift the hems of their skirts and tiptoe over the mud puddles of society is to hide from the world in a way Christ never did; and, well, to quote Caedmon's Call (with whom I have a love-hate relationship):
Lack of interest leads to
lack of knowledge leads to
lack of perspective leads to
lack of communication leads to
lack of understanding leads to
lack of concern leads to
this complacency denotes
this approval denies the truth.
You can't love the world in the way it needs to be loved if you don't know what's going on in it. It's part of that delicate balance of living in, but not of, the world.
And besides, anyone who would say Sufjan Stevens writes evil music...well, that's just piffle.
At 8:29 PM, January 30, 2007,
Dawn said…
The Church's recent disengagement with the arts except as propaganda frustrates me. Christians used to be the leaders in art. But that's another rant.
Note: Porn isn't art. It's closer in relation to propaganda.
At 9:42 PM, January 30, 2007,
The Prufroquette said…
I'm in total and complete agreement, as in the discussion of air-brushing techniques for the advertisement of makeup and clothes.
I merely mentioned porn in the anticipation of that voice of my background in my head -- the voice of that kind of Christian trying to come up with something visual that's purely evil. I discount it as art entirely; but I've heard people drag it into artistic discussions.
Blah.
And amen, I am upset by the Church's running away from artistic expression. "Beowulf" was written by some nameless Anglo-Saxon monk, and it concerned a pagan hero. The Church used to use art to preserve other cultures, and examine other values, and shed the light of Christianity on them, not stuff them in a closet and stick a chair under the doorknob and run away to call the thought police.
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