Another brick in the wall, part 2

[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Back in my earliest days, there was this concept, based on Lee's previous teachings about building up, that we were like "bricks in a wall," and that the fellowship we had was the "mortar" that held us together. Gene Gruhler did not just dream up that metaphor about the building of God, he got it from Lee, but alas ... poor Gene was not up-to-date, and thus needed correction by our abusive "headmaster." .

Pink Floyd's "The Wall" album was hugely successful. I think it was the Number One album on the charts for something like 21 weeks.

I found the irony of the album and movie to be on two fronts. First, that the protagonist "Pink" had his father killed in the War fighting against fascism, then he gets disillusioned with the liberal post-war political/social/economic system and he himself becomes a fascist leader.

The second irony, a little more hidden, was that the "Allies", particularly the U.S and Great Britain, had successfully thwarted a violent power grab by Hirohito, Hitler et al, but the children of the supposedly sacrificial "greatest generation", we who were known as the post-war "baby boomers", were so disaffected. The album was about despair, isolation, anger, shame, frustration, and violence. So I wonder, if we had "won the war" why were the kids so unhappy? Why were we taking benzos and smoking reefer and cursing the "pigs" (police)?

Again, this wasn't some marginal album on the fringes of popular culture. It absolutely dominated the popular culture when it came out.

What does that have to do with local church discussions? Well, this former disaffected dope smoker used to love the meetings of the local church. As I said, we would all talk about what total losers we all were; all our failures with our parents and children and husbands and wives and bosses and subordinates, and how the mercy of God could penetrate any mess we got into. Every meeting turned into a celebration of redemption. I loved it. Here were people just as screwed up as I was, and it was okay. It felt like I was back at the keg party, only instead of plastic cups of beer they were passing around the Holy Spirit.

Eventually things changed. Big Brother kept showing up with a master program, and we all kept trying to line up with it, and failing. Eventually I left. I didn't see the connection at the time. I just felt, "Okay, back to Christianity". But looking back I can definitely see the dark clouds gathering... I have already written about being with the FTTA and hearing the "trainer" tell us, "Don't waste your time" with the poor, the sick, the crippled, the old; with those who have no way to repay us in this age. Just focus on the "good material". I was like, "Whaaaa?" Stuff like that kept surfacing, and it went from being the exception to being the rule.

Originally Posted by Ohio

That old nun, who looked just like the wicked witch of the west, just exploded all over me. My right arm had welts up and down from her tirade. Thankfully I remained silent and motionless during the beating, probably thinking that it will only get worse if my dad got wind of it.

The meetings of the local churches used to be a place where we could all tell our stories. And God's mercy would eventually shine through, in all of them. Nobody was beyond God's reach. It was awsome. It was like this great, collective, "Take that, Satan!" moment, from us all who had been abused by "the system". We really felt like we were stepping on the serpent's head.

But eventually "the system" took control. And so here we are, on a website called Local Church Discussions. See my point?

[awareness]

Living stones don't need no mind control. Bricks in the wall is group-think, and bewitching of minds.

[aron]

Originally Posted by awareness

Living stones don't need no mind control. Bricks in the wall is group-think, and bewitching of minds.

Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' is a good cultural reference point; I used to think, after becoming a Christian, how that band laid the groundwork for the gospel. They had a song on another album called "Welcome to the Machine". It played in my house constantly, for years and years.

Pink Floyd's lyrics were about isolation, alienation, despair, frustration, anger. You listen to that music and it seems as if you have two choices: either commit suicide and end the pain (see e.g. their song "Goodbye Cruel World"), or do more drugs and tune out (see e.g. "Comfortably Numb"). Thankfully you could also choose to believe into Jesus Christ, repent and obey the Gospel of God's heavenly kingdom, and leave the earthly madness machine behind.

Of course, the gospel road is not without its own perils (see e.g. the Witness Lee Mind Control Church)

http://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/about/

But it is good to have your mind controlled (sorry awareness), but by whom? By the Holy Spirit of God?

Psalm 143:10 "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground."

John 16:13 "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."

John 14:16,17 "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth."

Or should we be controlled by something else? Should we believe that some human in the flesh today is capable of personifying the Spirit of truth? Go to one of the LSM apologist blogs or web sites like the one above and you will get a verse followed by "so we can see that"; the so-called 'apostle of the age' has determined what that verse signifies for every believer at all times. It seems as though God is now speaking to us through His apostle, so what need for the Spirit? Or, what need for discussion? Or is this supposed 'apostle' in fact the sole manifestation of what the Spirit is speaking to the churches today - God's lonely oracle?

Welcome my son/welcome to the machine/
Where have you been/it's all right, we know just where you've been.
So welcome to the machine.

[Ohio]

Since we have launched into some of the music that affected us in our youth, the continued emphasis on the New Jerusalem at LSM reminds of the final segment of that old Genesis showstopper Supper's Ready ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upi6wpANBh4

There's an Angel standing in the sun
And He's crying with a loud voice
"This is the supper of the mighty One"
The Lord of Lords, King of Kings
Has returned to lead His children home
To take them to the new Jerusalem

Seeing Gabriel in his many costumes, finishing a 33 minute encore, I just thought the reference to the New Jerusalem was neat. "Hey look at this nifty 'supper' I found in the Bible." Unlike aron, I rarely paid attention to the hidden meaning of lyrics. As a kid hooked on Yes, I'd have to be crazy to search for understanding in Anderson's lyrics. Vocals were just another instrument to me. It was all about the music, the energy, the creativity, the complexity of prog-rock.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

As a kid hooked on Yes, I'd have to be crazy to search for understanding in Anderson's lyrics. Vocals were just another instrument to me. It was all about the music, the energy, the creativity, the complexity of prog-rock.

I was one of those loners who sat in his bedroom with the album cover, morosely obsessing on the lyrics. Yes was too happy for me, anyway. It made me feel that I was missing life, to hear upbeat music.

But Pink Floyd was great. Mope rock supreme. And they arguably reigned in the 1970s so I was not the only moper.

Brings to mind another great '70s dystopian prog-rock masterpiece. 2112 by Rush.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZqSVTyYIkI

I can also hear echoes of Big Brother in Anaheim at the end of the side 1's Grand Finale:

"Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control. We have assumed control."

[aron]

Oh, and don't forget the minstrels of woe called the "Rolling Stones", who would sing dirges for a fee:

"19th nervous breakdown"

"Paint it black"

"Can't get no satisfaction"

"Get off of my cloud"

"Under my thumb"

"Heart of stone"

And so forth.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by aron

I was one of those loners who sat in his bedroom with the album cover, morosely obsessing on the lyrics. Yes was too happy for me, anyway. It made me feel that I was missing life, to hear upbeat music.

That is too funny, since I had such a reputation, before I was saved, as being such a downer. I was widely labeled a pessimist. One of my favorite Yes classics had these lyrics ...

Close to the edge, down by the river.
Down at the end, round by the corner.
Seasons will pass you by,
Now that it's all over and done,
Called to the seed, right to the sun.
Now that you find, now that you're whole.
Seasons will pass you by,
I get up, I get down.
I get up, I get down.
I get up, I get down.
I get up.

Before (and after) I was saved, I seriously thought that all happy people were Christians. Probably I arrived at that conclusion since all the contented folks in my life were still involved with the Catholic church, while all my closest friends were miserable like me and were all backsliding Catholics.

After I was incredibly saved, I told everyone about finding Jesus. To my dismay, all my "happy" acquaintances seemed to care little for what happened to me, while most of my miserable friends listened intently.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by aron

I was one of those loners who sat in his bedroom with the album cover, morosely obsessing on the lyrics. Yes was too happy for me, anyway. It made me feel that I was missing life, to hear upbeat music.

But Pink Floyd was great. Mope rock supreme. And they arguably reigned in the 1970s so I was not the only moper.

Brings to mind another great '70s dystopian prog-rock masterpiece. 2112 by Rush.

We can't be talking great dystopian prog-rock masterpieces without my nomination of King Crimson's Epitaph.

That ballad embodied the generation's anti-political downer mood. Anyone "morosely obsessing lyrics in his bedroom" has to have had long sessions with that album and a set of headphones.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by aron

What does that have to do with local church discussions? Well, this former disaffected dope smoker used to love the meetings of the local church. As I said, we would all talk about what total losers we all were; all our failures with our parents and children and husbands and wives and bosses and subordinates, and how the mercy of God could penetrate any mess we got into. Every meeting turned into a celebration of redemption. I loved it. Here were people just as screwed up as I was, and it was okay. It felt like I was back at the keg party, only instead of plastic cups of beer they were passing around the Holy Spirit.

Eventually things changed. Big Brother kept showing up with a master program, and we all kept trying to line up with it, and failing.

The meetings of the local churches used to be a place where we could all tell our stories. And God's mercy would eventually shine through, in all of them. Nobody was beyond God's reach. It was awesome. It was like this great, collective, "Take that, Satan!" moment, from us all who had been abused by "the system". We really felt like we were stepping on the serpent's head.

But eventually "the system" took control.

There was absolutely no way to compare the "thrill" of those early gatherings with the oppressive indoctrination sessions which later evolved. And it was not the natural progression of the Spirit of God growing within God's "messed up" children. We were continually subjected to ever changing mandates from headquarters where "Big Brother," the one who can "see" things we cannot, issued his regular decrees.

I can still remember my bewilderment upon learning that our testimony time, after the time of ministry, would be ending. "Too many sea-stories." What's a sea-story? "Brudder Lee feels the testimony time is dragging on." What does Brother Lee know about our testimony times? "The church is taking a new direction in the meetings." What do you mean? That's the best time of the meeting. "Trust the Lord; you'll see how the Lord will bless us from following Brudder Lee."

Eventually I learned that the only testimonies that were officially approved were the ones cheerleading the ministry. Personal testimonies by the saints would often be abruptly concluded with "thank you brother, very good, thank you brother." It was all a part of Big Brother's master plan. He called it "God's economy," but actually it was "Lee's economy."

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Eventually I learned that the only testimonies that were officially approved were the ones cheerleading the ministry. Personal testimonies by the saints would often be abruptly concluded with "thank you brother, very good, thank you brother." It was all a part of Big Brother's master plan. He called it "God's economy," but actually it was "Lee's economy."

I found personal testimonies more helpful than that of "cheerleading the ministry". Ministry cheerleaders were spiritually "clanging cymbals". While personal testimonies were products of a sister's or brother's daily experience of Christ during the week.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Terry

I found personal testimonies more helpful than that of "cheerleading the ministry". Ministry cheerleaders were spiritually "clanging cymbals". While personal testimonies were products of a sister's or brother's daily experience of Christ during the week.

I met before the HWMR dominated the meeting. In my local church we met "on the local ground", but other than that anything goes. You could bring a tuba to a meeting if you wanted. Sometimes we'd have visitors drop in, and we'd let them take over. If they wanted to talk, hey, go for it. Christians, agnostics, confused philosophers, whatever; go for it. We felt the Spirit was in charge. Some of the meetings were absolutely amazing.

And yes, many of the saints had "slow speech and halting tongue", as Moses complained before God. But we all felt what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 12:22-24, that "...the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,…"

The "members that lacked" would get up and stammer out something and we could sense the "more abundant honor". Of course sometimes it seemed tedious to hear someone prattle on, but it really was an encouragement to all. Because you would hear the most pathetic speaker and go, "Gee, even I can do that". It really was an encouragement.

Just standing up and reciting a bullet point, or what you "got" from this week's HWMR, became a different meeting entirely. It became a "ministry meeting", not a local church meeting.

[aron]

Originally Posted by aron

I met before the HWMR dominated the meeting. In my local church we met "on the local ground", but other than that anything goes. You could bring a tuba to a meeting if you wanted..

I had some comments to make, but wanted to spare the "Lily Hsu/Dana Roberts" thread from further extraneous commentary. So I'll move some posts over here.

Originally Posted by HERn

In the early 1970s I heard a preacher say that syncopated music was the devil's music. Preachers say a lot of things.

Originally Posted by awareness

I remember when rock was called Satan's music. Well he must no longer be a fan of rock and is now into Rap ...

Oh how we use Satan to put people and their ways down.

Originally Posted by OBW

The style might be. But in the churches that reject it currently as being "of the present evil age" when it is otherwise part of their culture. For us WASPs, hip hop is probably not going to be coming any time soon. Just as songs written to Beatles tunes is not likely coming to African American churches. Nothing wrong with either set of churches or their music — new or old.

And the issues is primarily among the kind of fundamentalism that does (did) things like preach against toilets and bathtubs inside of houses decades ago, but all allow them in today. Who decry songs in the "current" style, but now have songs from the popular styles of a generation or two past (that they were busy preaching against back then).

That was the point.

At the beginning of this thread, I mentioned how I liked the downer music of Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and the Who. Disaffected youth.

Then I got saved and got a "new song", and shortly thereafter was in the LC meetings singing not only the venerable Christian hymns and the Witness Lee knock-offs of those hymns, but also spiritual songs of every type and stripe.

As I said, you'd go to a Lord's Table meeting and whatever instruments were brought in, we'd make a racket. We had a guy who used to play piano in saloons, and someone else played violin at the conservatory. Everyone would chip in. And you never knew who might walk in the door, and what song would be called. It was better than a Grateful Dead concert, I felt.

"The bus came by and I got on/That's when it all began". It made this ex-hippie truly reborn. All the freaks and weirdos were now in the Local Church. As I said, it was "anything goes", and that uncertainty really made the music seem like a "new song."

[aron]

Originally Posted by Terry

I've come to receive hymns composed by Chris Tomlin and other contemporary Christian composers as being God inspired. Though I know in the Local Churches, their God-inspired songwriting is criticized, ridiculed, etc as being "wordly", "fleshly", etc.

I've been out of the LC for a while now, and wanted to share something of my journey. I went straight into fallen Christianity, into a Pentacostal-flavored church with a Worship team up front and drums and bass and electric guitar, with several female singers swaying and clapping and the song lyrics projected on a scrim in front of the congregation. I hated it. I still do. But it was where the Christians were, and I refused to segregate myself because their music was awful.

What I can't stand: the banging drums. Modern P&W music is worst: "Bang-bang-bang" monotone. Trying to agitate me into some altered state. I don't like people deliberately tampering with my nervous system. (ironic, I know, that I once loved Rush, Black Sabbath and the Doors). I don't mind drums, but banging on them like a child in the kitchen with pots and pans makes me instantly grate my teeth. Thump-thump-thump, over and over again. Please, stop.

Maudlin, emotional, sappy lyrics. Can't stand them. Self-absorbed, not Jesus-absorbed. Also, Jesus-absorbed lyrics which are completely unrelated to the Bible. The narrator imagines this or that, all the while oblivious to what actually was written. Or totally misapplied what was written. The Bible contains pronouns: "you" and "we" and "them" and "my" and so forth. All these designate various parties. Some are holy, some are struggling to get there. But all of this objective, expressly-stated truth is ignored in a sappy musical mishmash of adolescent treacle. I can't stand it. I feel like I'm being punished and sent back to 10th grade in high school.

Yes, I am a sneering, holier-than-thou hypocrite. I was well-trained in the LC. Which is why I went resolutely back into Christianity, and remained there. Now I want to tell what happened.

I still hate 99.6% of CCM. But the 0.4% that I like, I absolutely love. I really had to do a lot of searching, and rejecting, but what I liked became the proverbial "new song" that Revelation 5:9 references*. The song's composer finds an accessible melodic line, and the words direct me to the Word, who Himself ushers me to the Father. The Holy Spirit breathes life into the song, and I'm forced to reconsider everything.

My latest find, the other day, had a refrain that referenced verses I was somewhat familiar with, but it lit them up in blazing glory I'd never considered. It was like being Martin Luther, long-indoctrinated in the RCC, one day reading the Epistle to the Romans and suddenly the light goes on. Our experience with the Word can be like that, still: brilliant light pours in, and we blink uncomprehendingly; we're in the presence of something wonderful, but exactly what we aren't yet sure.** But the Spirit is breathing into us the breath of life. The Spirit is here. The Shepherd is speaking, and the sheep can hear His voice. We may not understand it, fully; but we hear it.

Good music is worth the search. Seek and ye shall find. To all you LC expatriates out there: seek and ye shall find. There is, indeed, a new song. If we are willing, God is able.

*See also Psa 33:3, 40:3, 98:1, 149:1; also Isa 42:10
** See Mark 10:26, "They were astonished beyond measure"; also Mark 7:37. Cf John 20:9, "... but they did not yet comprehend".