Présente: Remembering Romero

March 24, 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of the martyr-ship of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated while giving Mass on March 24, 1980. Romero:

As an archbishop who witnessed ongoing violations of human rights, Romero initiated and gave his status to a group which spoke out on behalf of the poor and the victims of the Salvadoran civil war. In many ways Romero was closely associated with Liberation Theology and openly condemned both Marxism and Capitalism.[2] In 1980, as he finished giving his homily during Mass, Romero was assassinated by a group headed by former major Roberto D'Aubuisson.

Romero was a champion for the Poor all the way up to his assassination.



Some of his last few words spoke directly to the violent conflict and bloody civil war that shattered families and the country of El Salvador. On March 23, 1980 these stinging words of condemnation by Archbishop Romero rang out from radio airwaves hitting the ears of El Salvadorans on both sides of the conflict including those who shot Romero the next day:

Archbishop Romero made the following appeal to the men of the armed forces:

"Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. ...In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression"

The day following this speech, Archbishop Romero was murdered. -- Archbishop Oscar Romero - Caracen

Here is a video of Romero's actual last words:

And here is the English translation of his last words:

God's reign is already present on our earth in mystery. When the Lord comes, it will be brought to perfection.

That is the hope that inspires Christians.
We know that every effort to better society,
especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained,
is an effort that God blesses,
that God wants,
that God demands of us.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, March 24 1980

Archbishop Romero is not only a Salvadoran National hero but a true Christian hero who spoke out on behalf of the Poor, the marginalized, the defenseless and the voiceless. His commitment to justice against injustice, dignity against human rights violations, pacifism/non-violence against violence, the way of the Cross and suffering against materialism are commendable. This is why every March 24th Christians everywhere remember and pay respect to the great man and great Christian soul Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez. His legacy lives on---Viva Romero!---Présente!

I'll leave you with one last video to contemplate Romero's legacy---U2's Bullet The Blue Sky:

September 11th Around The Blogosphere

Shuck and Jive: September 11:

Inhabitatio Dei: A Real 9/11 Reflection---

Dan has what I’d consider to be a reflection on 9/11 that really has some substance:

As today, is September 11th, I thought I would engage in a bit of remembering — it is, after all, important to recall moments of our history, for this is the story in which we live.

On this day in 1973, Augusto Pinochet’s American-backed coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. This resulted in seventeen years of torture, terror, and disappearances in Chile, and (according to people like Milton Friedman, who saw Chile as a textbook example of the type of world he wished to create) set a precedent for the way in which the United States acted in Latin America (particularly in the ’70s and ’80s… although they are at it again, as Obama’s government backed the Honduran coup which overthrew the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya in June of this year).

Sponsoring terror, imposing military rule, depriving local populations of their rights, their food, their land, their livelihood, their health, their children and their lives… this is the way that the US continues to engage with the world at large. It is enough to make some people want to fly planes into buildings. Which, not altogether surprisingly, is what happened on another September 11th.

Posted in American Politics, Peacemaking.

8 comments
By Halden – September 11, 2009

Threads from Henry's Web: The Problem with Revenge---preview:

It’s 9/11 and the events eight years ago are on most people’s minds. Many Christians will be praying today, as my wife wrote in her devotional. What will those prayers consist of? What is a Christian response?

Shortly before the second gulf war began, I wrote an essay simply titled Revenge! I want to quote from it here:

As a nation, we have been living in the role of Michael Palin’s character. We see the bad guys in our sights and we shout “Revenge!” in the hope that when revenge has taken place we will be safer, life will return to pre-9/11 normalcy, and we can forget all about this extra security. Most of us know this won’t be the case, but that doesn’t stop the wishful thinking.

This was illustrated during the bombing of Afghanistan, and later during the ground war. Repeatedly the reporters would ask various military spokesmen whether they had caught or killed Osama bin Laden yet. The answer? Nobody knew. But why was that the question? Did we really think that a bombing campaign could be so targeted as to kill a single individual? Sure, he might die, but bombs are not weapons of assassination in the normal course of events. Did we think that if Osama were caught or killed that the terrorism would end? Surely we aren’t that naive!

But there is that little program in our brains that wants to yell “Revenge!” and expects that life will be a little sweeter when it is accomplished.

In some ways we face a similar situation with Iraq. I know there is a powerful motivation for revenge. I am a veteran of the 1991-1992 gulf war. It annoys me every time I see Saddam Hussein expressing himself on television. I confess I wouldn’t mind having the driver’s seat of a steam roller with Saddam’s feet stuck in setting cement. I’d yell “Revenge!” and “Take that!” and roll over him, and on the other side I’d feel good!

But then would my family be any safer? Would my country be more secure? Would anything be more normal when all was said and done? Very likely not.

I need to let that resentment go. I need to tone down the shout “Revenge!” I need to consider what will actually make things more secure.

Finally here are 2 posts of mine on the subject from last year: TheoPoetic Musings: 9-11 Remembered and TheoPoetic Musings: 9-11 Continued.

Living With (Mild) Cerebral Palsy

Sorry for the infrequent posting for awhile, but I got sidetracked with my dad and I playing Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube. It's a good game, but anyways, back to Blogging---I still have 2 movies to Blog about from our Wed. night sessions, which ended before Easter. One of those movies was The Elephant Man but before I get to that---here is a good lead in post:

As I've stated before in my profile and other posts, I have mild cerebral palsy. Lately my tremors have gotten a little bit worse, but funny thing is they only effect certain actions like eating and lifting light-weight things. I'm also having more trouble serving cookies at the Soup Kitchen. However, typing isn't too much trouble, lifting heavier things is easy and playing videogames and riding a bike, etc. Anyways, I'm relatively lucky that I only have a mild case of cerebral palsy which only effects my speech and a few years ago my arm movements---which is something I just live with and lucky to have friends and family to help out like my friends that help me with the little communion cups when we have communion at church. Recently in Feb. an Irish author who had full blown cerebral palsy and was confined to a wheelchair all his life died---here is an article about it:

Christopher Nolan
Feb 26th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Christopher Nolan, the voice of the crippled, died on February 20th, aged 43

YOU wouldn’t have wanted to be Christy Nolan. His two arms looked normal, but they would fly out randomly, like a clockwork doll’s. “Dreadful deadly spasms” of cerebral palsy shot their way from his cranium to his spine and into his feet. He needed carrying to the bath, to the toilet, to bed; his long legs were good for nothing, collapsing under him like a deck of cards. When he tried to talk, nothing came out but “dull looks, dribbles and senseless sounds”. He could not even wipe the saliva from his own face.

In bed at night, when he was as able-bodied as anyone, he would rehearse what his “drunken, drooling body” could do, and what it couldn’t:

Can’t chew, can’t swallow, so why chew? Can’t call—can call, a famished moan maybe yet it suffices...can’t cry—can cry, can cry, can cry wet pillows full but who cares…can’t laugh—can laugh, can can can

At birth, at the County Hospital at Mullingar in Ireland, he had been deprived of oxygen for two hours. He should have died, but instead “sagaciously he dolefully held on”. People pitied him, stroked his head and said God was good, but even as a boy he was not so sure. The “closeted cossetted certainty of Christ” could always calm him, as could communion when Father Flynn was able to sneak the host between his spasming, locking jaws. But once, in St John the Baptist’s, he had himself wheeled to the life-size crucifix with its grey bloodied face and threw out his left arm in a great arc to give Christ two fingers, because he was to blame.

And yet, despite it all, he could use words. At the age of 13, he could write this:

Among firs, a cone high-flown,
Winged, popped,
Hied, foraying, embalming,
Sembling tomb
Among coy, conged fir needles,
A migratory off-spring
Embarks on life’s green film.

For a long time, no one knew. He could communicate: yes with upshot eyes, a neck-bow for affirmation, a drubbing of feet on his wheelchair for attention. The IQ tests always went well, well enough for him to go to “ordinary” school at Mount Temple in Dublin. His blue eyes blazed with intelligence. But no one suspected that in his head were stored millions of words, “nutshelled” and ready. They included all the songs and stories he had heard from his father, the poems recited by his teachers, the alphabet-words stuck up round the kitchen by his mother, glittering fragments of Hopkins and Joyce and Yeats. His overriding ambition was how to “best his body” and get them out.

At the age of 11 he learned how. With a rubber-tipped stick strapped like a unicorn’s horn to his forehead, and dosed with a new pill that calmed his neck muscles a little, he picked out one letter, then another, on a typewriter, “by a bent, nursed, and crudely given nod of his stubborn head”:

His own mother cradled his head but he mentally gadded here and there in fields of swishing grass and pursed wildness. His mind was darting under beech copper-mulled, along streams calling out his name, he hised and frolicked but his mother called it spasms. Delirious with the words plopping onto his path he made youth reel where youth was meant to stagnate. Such were [his] powers as he gimleted his words onto white sheets of life.

Sometimes one word would take 15 minutes to write. It never got faster; his last work, “The Banyan Tree”, a novel based on his family’s farming history in Westmeath, took a decade. But as soon as he began to get the “beautiful words” on paper, he won competitions. Weidenfeld & Nicholson published his poems and writings when he was 15. The book was called “Dam-Burst of Dreams”, as it was. He could speak, and not just for himself, but for all the other, silent, damaged boys of the world.

Insults ran off him. Forgetfulness, he wrote, “fugues tongues and balms words”. He called himself a cripple unsparingly in his autobiography, “Under the Eye of the Clock”, which won the 1988 Whitbread Book of the Year. Some said disability got the prize for him, but what won it was the language, uncorralled and fresh as though the words had never been tried before. He made words do everything his body could not. Among his favourites were “frolicking” and “rollicking”; “hollyberries”, meaning compensations among the sharp things of life; and “crested”, meaning glorious, as though he lifted his head to say it.

Nothing could have happened without his parents. To the end, his mother gripped his chin as he wrote. They carried him on their shoulders, held him, one on each side, to let him ride a pony, steadied him in a stream to feel the icy water on the rocks beneath his feet. His mother had told him, when he was three and crying with frustration, that she liked him just as he was. From that point, “he [fanned] the only spark he saw, his being alive”.

Once, on holiday on the Burren, his family buried him standing up in sand, just his head and shoulders showing. He knew then what it felt like to be able-bodied and straight. But his head was at the level of people’s feet; so he asked to be returned to his wheelchair. He might loll and flop in it, “zoo-caged” as he was. But it was also his proud podium and his throne.

See also: Christopher Nolan.

Interestingly enough:

Rock band U2, who attended school with Nolan, wrote their song "Miracle Drug" (from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb) about him. [3]

Bono said of Nolan:

“ We all went to the same school and just as we were leaving, a fellow called Christopher Nolan arrived. He had been deprived of oxygen for two hours when he was born, so he was paraplegic. But his mother believed he could understand what was going on and used to teach him at home. Eventually, they discovered a drug that allowed him to move one muscle in his neck. So they attached this unicorn device to his forehead and he learned to type. And out of him came all these poems that he'd been storing up in his head. Then he put out a collection called Dam-Burst of Dreams, which won a load of awards and he went off to university and became a genius. All because of a mother's love and a medical breakthrough.

I believe Bono's song extends from his Christian beliefs despite what the heresy police think. Also, here's a little CP humor for you from Josh Blue:

U2's New Easter-ish Song

White As Snow is from U2's new and recent album, No Line On The Horizon---here is the story of the composition of the song from Wikipedia:

[edit] Composition

In an interview with The Guardian Bono revealed that he became tired of writing in the first-person, noting that "I'd just worn myself out as a subject matter"; as a result he created several characters, including a traffic cop, a junkie, and a soldier serving in Afghanistan.[4] The soldier's character appears in "White as Snow", which focuses on the soldier's last thoughts as he dies from the wounds caused by an improvised explosive device.[2] Bono came up with the idea after reading Pincher Martin, written by William Golding.[1]

"White as Snow" was recorded in one take during two weeks of recording sessions in Fez, Morocco in 2007, though it received some minor editing in the final sessions in December 2008.[5] At this time, it was taken out of the 'Maybe' pile to balance out the rockier tunes present earlier on, with Adam Clayton noting that "it gave the listener a break."[6] Original plans were for the track to start with an explosion, though this was later scrapped.[1] Richard Watkins played the French horn in the song.[7] The melody of the song is based on that of the traditional Advent hymn "Veni, veni Emmanuel".[2] Bono noted that, with the exception of "White as Snow", the band had tried to keep the theme of war out of the album.[8]

"White as Snow" appears as the fourth track in the Anton Corbijn film Linear, based on a story by Corbijn and Bono where a Parisian traffic cop travels across France and the Mediterranian Sea to visit his girlfriend in Tripoli.[9]

And here are the full lyrics to the song hyperlinked by myself:

White As Snow
(U2)

Where I came from there were no hills at all
The land was flat, the highway straight and wide
My brother and I would drive for hours
Like we had years instead of days
Our faces as pale as the dirty snow

Once I knew there was a love divine
Then came a time I thought it knew me not
Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not
Only the lamb as white as snow

And the water, it was icy
As it washed over me
And the moon shone above me

Now this dry ground it bears no fruit at all
Only poppies laugh under the crescent moon
The road refuses strangers
The land the seeds we sow
Where might we find the lamb as white as snow

As boys we would go hunting in the woods
To sleep the night shooting out the stars
Now the wolves are every passing stranger
Every face we cannot know
If only a heart could be as white as snow
If only a heart could be as white as snow

See also: White As Snow: U2's most intimate song.

U2, John Lennon And Sunday Bloody Sunday

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."---John 14:27 (ESV).

First the main event which inspired these songs:

Bloody Sunday (Irish: Domhnach na Fola)[1] is the term used to describe an incident in Derry,[2] Northern Ireland, on 30 January 1972 in which 27 civil rights protesters were shot by members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the Bogside area of the city.[3] Thirteen people, seven of whom were teenagers, died immediately, while the death of another person 4½ months later has been attributed to the injuries he received on the day. Two protesters were injured when they were run down by army vehicles.[4] Many witnesses, including bystanders and journalists, testify that all those shot were unarmed. Five of those wounded were shot in the back.[5]

Two investigations have been held by the British Government. The Widgery Tribunal, held in the immediate aftermath of the event, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame, but was criticised by many as a "whitewash"[6][7][8] including former chief of staff to Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell.[9] The Saville Inquiry, established in 1998 to look at the events again (chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate), is expected to report in late 2009.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) campaign to extend Irish rule to Northern Ireland had begun in the two years prior to Bloody Sunday, but perceptions of the day boosted the status of and recruitment into the organisation enormously.[10] Bloody Sunday remains among the most significant events in the Troubles of Northern Ireland, chiefly due to the fact that it was carried out by the army and not paramilitaries, and in full public and press view.[11]

Other Bloody Sundays.

Here is John Lennon's song based on Bloody Sunday 1972:


And here are the full lyrics:

Sunday Bloody Sunday
(John Lennon)

Well it was sunday
bloody sunday
When they shot the people there
The crys of thirteen marty martyrs
Filled the free derry air.
Is there any one among you
Dare to blame it on the kids?
Not a soldier boy was
bleeding

When they nailed the
coffin lidds!

Sunday bloody sunday
Bloody sunday's the day!

You claim to be majority
Well you know that it's a lie
You're really a minority
Oh this sweet emerald asle.
When Stormont bans
our marchers

They've got a lot to learn
Internment is no answer
It's those mother's turn
to burn!

Sunday bloody sunday
Bloody sunday's the day!

You anglo pigs and scotties
Sent to colonize the north
You wave your bloody
Union Jacks
And you know what it's worth!
How dare you hold on to ransom
A people proud and free
Keep ireland for the irish
Put the english back to sea!

Sunday bloody sunday
Bloody sunday's the day!

Yes it's always bloody sunday
In the concentration camps
Keep Falls and roads free forever
From the bloody english hands

Repatriate to britain
All of you who call it home
Leave ireland to the irish
Not for London or for Rome!

Sunday bloody sunday
Bloody sunday's the day!

I must say I like the U2 version better and here is my favorite version of the U2 version:


And here's another good version of it:

And here are the full lyrics to U2's version:

Sunday Bloody Sunday
(U2)

I can't believe the news today,
I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long? Tonight we can be as one.

Broken bottles under children's feet,
Bodies strewn across a dead end street,
But I won't heed the battle call,
It puts my back up, puts my back up
against the wall.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

And the battle's just begun,
There's many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trenches dug within our hearts,
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn
apart.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, Tonight we can be as one.
Tonight, tonight.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

Wipe the tears from your eyes,
Wipe your tears away,
Wipe your blood shot eyes.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

And it's true we are immune.
When fact is fiction and T.V. is reality,
And today the millions cry,
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.
The real battle just begun.
To claim the victory Jesus won,
On a Sunday bloody Sunday,
Sunday bloody Sunday.

So what's your favorite version?

The Edge's Hymn To The Irish Diaspora

Here is a folk song written by U2's The Edge on the Irish Diaspora to Van Diemen's Land :


And here are the full lyrics:

Van Diemen's Land
(The Edge)

Hold me now, oh hold me now
'til this hour has gone around
And I'm gone on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen's land

It's a bitter pill I swallow here
To be rent from one so dear
We fought for justice and not for gain
But the magistrate sent me away

Now kings will rule and th poor will toil
And tear their hands as they tear the soil
But a day will come in this dawning age
When an honest man sees an honest wage

Hold me now, oh hold me now
'til this hour has gone around
And I'm gone on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen's land

Together We Can Make A Difference: Song Lyrics About Poverty

Continuing from my previous post: TheoPoetic Musings: Blog Action Day 2008 : Increasing Poverty Awareness---here are some of my song lyrics on the issue of poverty---

Here are some Bob Dylan influenced lyrics:

THE LOST, THE HUNGRY AND THE DYING
(Currin)

Gather round me, listen to a story I’ve to tell
It’s a story that you should already know so well
There’re hypocrites seeping into our fair churches and steeples
And they’re tearing our churches apart and splitting up our fair peoples
And taking them down to the valley of shame
Where the leaders in charge forget their names
But there is nothing to blame
But the ulterior motives of a higher power’s game
Which comes down to these cultic death-like conventions setup to cause them pain

Now, there’s people dying everywhere as sure as those churches’ sidewalks are paved
But the heads in those churches don’t care a bit
They don’t give a flip, they don’t wanna do anything about it
Because all they care about is whether the lost are saved
While those poor countries are dying of hunger pains
Getting killed in the pouring down acid rain
In the raging hypocritical religious diseases coming on just like a hurricane
The winds of the powers that be are blowing fast like a freight train
Stamping numbers on the dying souls and leaving them without a name
They just won’t to forget those who aren’t saved, for they are just a universal drain

There’s a war going on and it’s hidden underneath the robes of your preachers and priests
Stealing money to go save the lost and dying, who just want something to eat first
But your priests, they just want to save them and leave them to be cursed
Now’s not the time for political missionaries to leave hungered folks in the tides that be
While the priests sit on golden thrones with plenty of food to eat and fill up their brains
With trash by not practicing what they preach and not having any shame
And getting caught up in these conventional political games
To leave the lost without a name, and from their unholy crusades earn all that they can gain
Those who philosophize disgrace and politicize grace are the only ones to blame

And those who wield the arrows of gossip’s sudden dust are the ones that cause the fall of man
While putting the unbelievers down for believing in all that they really can
And leaving them starving and naked, left to the wind of deceitful blazes
Of these conventions that turn their hateful gazes
Onto the ones who really know the Truth of the world and everything in life
But the religious leaders, they are just the ones that criticize with their knifes
And cause those who are really seeking to lose their life and die
And get stuck in the label of being misunderstood and the ones that hold the lies
Because to our church leaders, they aren’t worth anything in their eyes

And the ones whom think that they have God on their side are the only ones that misunderstand
They disrespect other cultures and the people they are trying to save by telling them that they are damned
For not believing in the Pope, the political church leaders and the law and order
For they think anyone who doesn’t is a savage, so they run them out of their own borders
While filling the people they have in their control heads full of lies
And telling them to go out and murder in the name of religion and claim their prize
And to not give the hungry and the dying food, unless they except their own way of life
You know that’s just what the ancient people did when they crucified Jesus Christ
It’s because that He didn’t change to their way of life that He died
But it’s not up to you or me, you know it’s up to them to decide

But the leaders hiding behind the Cross are the ones that wanna force a decision on the dying
By lying to them and scaring them even more into hiding
It was those who brainwashed souls that killed the Jews, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi
Too, and many others besides them, for being just whom they were called to be
While breeding more religiously hateful tools to plant more lies
To take away food from those who need it, to blow them right between the eyes
They are only pawns in the hands of the greedy power mad devils in disguise
Who are taking over our churches and brainwashing the innocent lives
Into believing all that they say and never giving them a chance to decide
They just tell them to not feed those lost souls and just to let them die

Yes, and there is nothing to blame
But the ulterior motives of a higher power’s game
Which comes down to these cultic death-like conventions setup to cause them pain
Now, is not the time for rejoicing and arguments, which cause men to fall
And now, is not the time for deciding whom is lost enough to save, now
And now, is not the time to go pushing religion on people and all and all
Now, is just the time for tears to stop the war from going on any further down the line
And now, is the time to wake up any eyes that are still left blind
And now, is just the right time to stop all this bullshit going on all around, right now
So stop all the bullshit, already, right now.............

© 2002 T/H Songs, Inc.
© 2002 GB Lyrics, C.O.

And here are some Bruce Springsteen influenced lyrics:

THESE EMPTY STREETS
(Currin)

These streets are empty
Everybody is down at the factory
And so am I
We hear them lonesome bells
Gonna keep on working, till the day we die

Down at the factory-we’re making dogs of war
We’re crafting tools of destruction, we’re raising steel
We’ve got to beat that steel down, we got to keep on ringing that drill
Down at the factory, we keep on going for 12 hours or more
In this place is the rich man’s paradise, but for us it’s the gates of hell

Forming scrap metal can be quite hard, but for soldiers we must provide
We want them to kill more people, so that we can stay alive
And with that smoke that comes out that smokestack, another dream has died
Been doing this kind of work for about ten years or more
Yes, and it’s true this factory, during a time of war

Always keeps these streets empty
And those trains we forever ride down to the factory
We’re selling our hearts and souls, because we’re Union men
As we hear them same ole lonesome bells
We ease ourselves back into our familiar stations

On the floor, we have the look of death in our eyes
Gotta keep on working till we retire or die
Whichever comes first, any way
We know that if we die, the only place we’ll go is to hell
In that factory of the great beyond for blasting a hundred men away

And another hundred more straight back to their Maker in the sky
Now, I use to have a girl that I’d keep right by my side
But she left me here with a little boy and a Union card
Now, that little boy and I, we just sit here working the factory drill hard
Yeah, we’re working off debts, cos everything fell apart in this factory cell

And these streets keep on staying empty
Cos everybody is down at the factory
And so am I
We hear them lonesome bells
Gonna keep on working, till the day we die

Gotta work that drill, gotta beat that steel down
We gotta lay down the line, cos everything we have the Union owns
We ain’t got no possessions, we ain’t got no home
Unless it belongs to the company and we’re sailing around
Main Street, you know we are bound to wind up dead quicker than the rest

We’re breathing smoke, we’re breathing steel fumes, can’t get no clean breath
And the rags we wear, we clench in our hands, but they get ground up in the dirt
Our guts they are raging with the dust on our backs and the fire of company hurt
The economy, well it carves it’s valleys into our minds as we burn through the day
Through the night as we keep on working to light this country’s way

Through the war--always keeps these streets empty
And those trains we forever ride down to the factory
We’re selling our hearts and souls, because we’re Union men
As we hear them same ole lonesome bells
We ease ourselves back into our familiar stations

And down at the factory-we keep on making them dogs of war
And we’re crafting tools of destruction, we’re raising steel
We’ve got to beat that steel down, we got to keep on ringing that drill
Down at the factory, we keep on going for 12 hours or more
In this place is the rich man’s paradise, but for us it’s the gates of hell
Yeah, in this place is the rich man’s paradise, but for us it’s just the gates of hell
Cos us, poor folks, keep on working as we die out little by little, piece by piece
And leave behind us the dogs of war and these empty streets

© 2002 T/H Songs, Inc.
© 2002 GB Lyrics, C.O.

Some other things to mention:





Bono And Poverty Relief:

THE 2008 CAMPAIGN; Bono's Poverty-Fighting Plan Promoted by Two Ex-Senators
By JEFF ZELENY
Published: June 12, 2007

Two former Senate leaders who were once fierce adversaries, Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, joined together Monday to promote a bipartisan effort to make global poverty a central issue of the 2008 presidential race.

The antipoverty drive, called the One Campaign, which was founded by the rock star Bono to combat hunger and draw attention to the plight of children in African countries, is pledging to invest $30 million to persuade presidential candidates to address the issue.

''It is in the strategic and national interest of the United States of America,'' said Mr. Frist, a Republican and former Senate majority leader from Tennessee. ''People do not go to war with people who save their children's lives.''

Both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will be asked to sign a pledge in the fall saying they will offer proposals to fight H.I.V./AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, improve children's health in other ways, increase access to education, provide access to clean water and reduce by half the number of people who suffer from hunger.

''Through the extraordinary challenge we now have, it is incumbent upon all of us to recognize that this must be a key part of American foreign policy,'' said Mr. Daschle, a Democrat and former Senate majority leader from South Dakota.

Mr. Frist and Mr. Daschle, co-chairmen of the One Vote '08 effort, began the lobbying campaign Monday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church here on Capitol Hill, with supporters joining by satellite from Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

While dozens of interest groups have formed coalitions to influence presidential candidates, the One Campaign stands apart because of its bipartisan leadership and a $22 million investment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which will be invested in mobilizing supporters across the country.

The Republican and Democratic National Committees endorsed the effort Monday, saying presidential contenders should include proposals to combat global poverty in their campaign agendas. Organizers have hired experienced political strategists to work on the One Campaign, educating and urging voters to hold presidential candidates accountable.

''It is an idea where global poverty and disease transcend partisan politics,'' said Susan McCue, the president of the One Campaign.

Together we can make a difference and help eliminate poverty.
Thoughts? Comments? Questions?

Blog Action Day 2008 : Increasing Poverty Awareness

See: A Noggin' Full Of Noodles: Below The Line, Blog Action Day 2008 Round-up and Blog Action Day: Poverty and Biblical Economics and rlp's blog for starters.


Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.---thanks, Justin for the link to this video---I found it on your Blog post.

-Appropriate Scripture Verses To Read Over:

Matthew 6:24-34-NRSV

24“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

And: Mark 14:7
7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me

And: Luke 18:22
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

And here are some of my earlier posts on poverty:
TheoPoetic Musings: Relationships needed to break poverty cycle

TheoPoetic Musings: Justice of jubilee in Luke

TheoPoetic Musings: Thousands turn to online prayer during economic crisis

TheoPoetic Musings: Increase In Homeless Families

Here are some more of my offerings for Blog Action Day 2008:

Here is an article about the CBF's contribution to poverty relief.

Anyways, I like Dr. Queen and the New Baptist Covenant believe that relationships are needed to break the poverty cycle. Secondly, education is key as in:

Mentors, who build relationships with and help guide those seeking to improve their lives, are an essential part of the decade-old Christian Women's Job Corps and its counterpart, Christian Men's Job Corps, said Cara Lynn Vogel of Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina.

The job-training ministry sites are separate by gender and vary in emphasis by location, Vogel said of the WMU ministry efforts in which "women mentor women and men mentor men."

"The issue of poverty can be overwhelming," said Vogel. "But more importantly, we need to talk about solutions."

The solutions found in the Christian Jobs Corps efforts are built on mentors encouraging and enabling participants to develop through spiritual nurture, health and nutrition, education and job skills training. (See my post: Relationships needed to break poverty cycle---for full context).

Another thing that is needed is farming/gardening/technical agricultural skills need to be taught as a way of self-providing food. Affordable land for growing goes along with that.

Here are some thoughts from an interesting article:

THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY

With the saying in the Bible that the love of money is the root of all evil…and many strong words against the rich and powerful, it may seem strange to some that God would be concerned about economics.

But the evil is not in the money or wealth itself. As with many other things, it is the way that money is used that causes it to be productive or destructive. One writer said it this way:

When we choose the Lord as our sole master, He does not remove our money. In fact, He takes the money and transforms it into an ally. The same dollar that places a bet, pays a prostitute, or purchases "crack" cocaine also buys a Bible, digs a well, or supports a missionary. The same dollar the shrewd manager uses to pave his way into a golden future, a shrewd disciple uses to invest in eternal friendships. But the difference is the product of a choice of masters.

I have written in my e-mail list some about the extreme unfair trade policies among nations currently and issues that are similar. I said economic principles are an integral part of the Bible. This article shows in some detail some of the Biblical principals of economics and why they are critically relevant for us here and now today. They are NOT just ancient ideas that were a nice idea at one time. They are the ONLY way to solve many of the serious problems that our world has today!!

Unfortunately, many people and even some Christians and Christian leaders don’t think that these principles can work today. To answer this doubt, I have collected quotes and thoughts from philosophers and thinkers of many persuasions ranging from the Bible and Christians, to atheists to people like Confucius to show as clearly as possible why the Bible’s economic principles are part of the most basic human rights that each person on this planet deserves and why they will resolve the problems that we face. There are very few other concepts that have such wide acceptance among people of such differing philosophies. This makes it all the more critical to understand and implement these principles.

When God’s principles are ignored the serious problems that we have today such as terrorism, crime, starvation and others are inevitable. After you read these, you will no longer be ignorant about the main cause (but by no means the only cause) of some of the most serious problems in our world.

Today, poverty is at one of the worst points in history. There are a very few extremely rich people and millions of extremely poor. And some of us who are the privileged wrongly in a way live in a “matrix” of our own way of life and we cannot or do not wish to see the extreme suffering that is going on worldwide to the majority of the world’s people. This little thought is illuminating:

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore ... you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

It is doubtful if the gap between the rich and poor in the world has ever been larger than it is now on a world wide scale. And this is not at all by accident. It is inevitable because of the rejection of God’s economic principles outlined in the Bible and practiced to some extant by many ancient cultures which did not have the destitute poverty like we see so commonly today.

Here are some songs which speak to the issue of poverty:

---This Land Is Your Land-Bruce Springsteen

---Only A Pawn In Their Game-Bob Dylan

---The Boxer-Simon And Garfunkel

---Badlands-Bruce Springsteen

---The Ghost Of Tom Joad-Bruce Springsteen

---I Wish We'd All Been Ready-Larry Norman

---Camel Through A Needle's Eye-Larry Norman

---Letter to the Church-Larry Norman

---The Great American Novel-Larry Norman

---Where The Street Have No Name-U2

Continued in next post: TheoPoetic Musings: Together We Can Make A Difference: Song Lyrics About Poverty#links#links.

Christian Ministries

Ben Currin
Intro. to Church Ministry
Dr. Jonas
Dec. 2, 2002

WHAT I LEARNT THIS SEMESTER ABOUT MINISTRIES

I learnt a lot about ministries this semester, especially about God’s call to people to partake in an area of ministry in which they feel comfortable. It is hard to adjust to the fact that God could call any mortal being to do anything, but after all we are His creation so it takes everyone to make the world go round and to help share in God’s work here on earth. It may take some people a longer time to accept their calling than other people. Sometimes a person can be unsure of why they were called in the first place and what they were called for. I’ve struggled with this for years, because I was basically called in high school to some kind of ministry, but I didn’t take it seriously until my Freshmen year here at Campbell in 1998---so it didn’t take that long to understand that I had definitely had been called, though I am still struggling with it.
When I felt called in high school, I had read a kiddy biography of Billy Graham (I think it was my brother’s) because our Youth group was going to His Crusade at the time and I wanted to know more about him and not have to read so much. (Side note: I think I read it after the Crusade actually...I don’t remember for sure though...it’s a sign that I’m getting too old. I can tell that because in one of the section that Dr. Whitley taught he asked if anyone had used a record player and one other person besides myself raised their hand. Next year I’ll have 6 more years to go till I’m 30...oh how time flies). Anyways, I read that book and remember thinking that I could do something like that, because I liked to help other people. We went to Billy Graham’s Crusade in Charlotte and I enjoyed it so much that I went back the next night when it was the senior citizens’ turn to go.
After I had the thought that I could do something like Billy Graham, I thought that God was calling me to be a preacher, but I felt like how could that be---I mean I’m shy, so how can a shy person who finds it hard to talk to even persons he is close to---be a preacher. Me! Be a preacher! Ha, God must be joking! I wasn’t quick to ignore it totally though, because one night I went outside and preached out loud whatever was on my mind and let it disappear into the darkness of the night. It must’ve been a funny sight to anyone who saw me yelling about God, Heaven and Hell, Jesus and this, that and the other. I later thought that I’d wait and see what God wants me to do, because I was unsure that that was the direction.
So my Freshman year here at Campbell, I came into school as a History major, because I decided I wanted to be an archaeologist. I’ve always loved history anyways, because it always was my favorite subject in school, so I thought great be an archaeologist like Indiana Jones. (I have the jacket, hat and bullwhip, so that makes me Indiana Jones to some degree)! I then had a rough time with my history classes here and Dr. Martin (Jim Martin) wasn’t much help. He put me in some of the hardest classes at the same time, so I did well my first semester here but by my second semester here I wasn’t doing as well. Before I even came, my mom suggested that I should major in Religion, but I was still trying to figure out my call at that time. I had Dr. Ballard my first semester for Intro. To Christianity and enjoyed that class so much that it planted another seed of interest in me. I then asked Dr. Martin if I could take another Religion class instead of Government my second semester and it just so happened that I got Dr. Ballard again. He is responsible for my changing majors, but before that I went through a lot of thinking. I think a lot, especially in the shower, when there’s time and at night before bed.
Not only did I have to struggle with these decisions but I also had to go from having a single room my first semester here to having a roommate my second semester here. It was hard enough to cope with these struggles, but then my roommate turned out to be a pot head and he got arrested and kicked out of my room. He blamed his getting kicked out on me. He said that I ‘kicked him out for being too loud,’ which was untrue because if anyone was loud it was me with my late night Rock & Roll listening. I didn’t even care what he did, because I understand why people use drugs and they do them for different reasons. Anyways, he spread a lot of “Rumours” (Fleetwood Mac reference) about me, when it was his on fault for getting kicked out of my room. So for me that was a very weird year for me, but I got through it with thinking and a lot of prayer, of course, I got through it just fine as well.
I thought about my Religion classes that I had that year a lot and every night I seemed to have discovered something new and so I’d write my discoveries down in song format---both secular and sacred. I didn’t mention it before, but I have been writing song lyrics since high school, but I was making up stuff before then in my head but paid little mind to it. I wish I had written them down. I actually remember one that my sis and I made up together while walking on the beach---we were staying at a neighbor of ours beach house at Myrtle Beach---we have a place at Wrightsville Beach but we were at Myrtle Beach that time, because we were offered the place and took the opportunity. I must have been around 5 or so, because my sister was still in a stroller and I don’t think my brother was born yet, but I can’t recall if that is accurate or not.
Anyways, we made up this short little ditty: I was semi-singing: “Sarah Reese’s Pieces, walking down the street/Sarah Reese’s Pieces, walking down the street” and my sister joint in with: “La, la, la, amiga/La, la, la, amiga” and that was our little song! Not much too it on surface value but now that I’m older I understand what I was doing. It is about being homesick to some extent because I was thinking about Sarah, our babysitter at the time (she still comes to our house, but now she’s more or less just the housekeeper). So that explains the Sarah part, the Reese’s Pieces part was because I like Reese’s Pieces and I guess Sarah did too, also, I may have just eaten Reese’s Pieces as well. The walking down the street part is easier to explain, we were walking down the beach, so that was that. My sister’s part is basically explained as her trying to copy me, but she was too little then to comprehend many words, but I’m not sure I’d have to ask her what her part means. Our song could also be about a made walking down the street. I was thinking about Sarah, because my dad was playing with a mop earlier so it made Sarah come to mind.
These were just a few of the pieces of the puzzle that I’m just beginning to see. By my Sophomore year here, I began to see how God was leading me to being a writer, because I wrote and still write all the time, so I put two and two together and began to realize that maybe writing is what I should pursue. God gave me the talent, so why not use it for Him---besides English is one of my favorite subjects. I’ve enjoyed all my English classes here, except for Dr. Shelly’s class. Dr. Tate has been the most helpful to me in the English department here and he is like the Dr. Ballard figure for me here in that department.
This semester has taught me a lot more about God’s call and I am still discovering new things and writing up a storm though sometimes I still question things. I have yet a lot more to learn about my life, but I have been through so much already. I often wonder if life really matters, because I’ve been at death’s door more than once and you can die anytime, so why bother with life---this is one of many spiritual frustrations that I’ve had, along with trying to get out of school but finding I haven’t accomplished much. This is my fifth year here and I’m tired of school, but I keep pressing on. However, it seems the more I keep going, the more it seems that I’m gone to be stuck here. I did a forty-three page research paper for Senior Seminar this year, but it was all in vain. These are the kind of things that add to my spiritual frustrations.
You see, I had missed two classes of Senior Seminar already for being sick and I was trying to print up my research paper for that class, but was having printer problems, so I was faced with a lose-lose situation. Either way I would fail, if I should up without my paper or if I skipped. I hadn’t planned on these problems, but it happened. I was editing my paper and needed to re-edit some more and so I started trying to print my paper at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on the Thursday that it was due, which gave me plenty of time to print it, if it worked right. But it didn’t work right, first, my printer wouldn’t print the page numbers and then it wouldn’t print the pictures for my presentation. It finally printed right at 3 am on Friday. I had printed copies for everyone in my class as part of my presentation and in all that time I wasted two packs of computer paper, so just about 1,000 sheets of computer paper were wasted and thrown all over my room. I wanted to just lay there in die and bury myself under all that paper.
I went to explain my absence from class to Dr. Greene that Friday, in hopes that he would understand, but to no avail---he failed me, so I wasted a lot of money, time and effort on that class. Oh well, I guess, I’ll just have to retake Senior Seminar with you next semester, Dr. J. Anyways, these Cat Stevens like lyrics seem to best describe my feelings at the time when I was dealing with that situation and what all I went through with Dr. Greene:

I MAY DIE, TONIGHT
(Currin)

He said: “you’ve missed one day---over the line,
You’ve fouled it up pretty well, this time.”
So what’s the use of working hard, anyway,
Day after day, only to end up in an early grave?
Why must useless bureaucratic rules count for anything,
Just because you say they should, say they should?

Well, I’ve been out looking for the meaning
Of that one myself and still you keep saying: “the boy’s done no good,”
“The boy’s no good.” I wish you would realize
That life doesn’t go on to be classified
By matters of whether or not you’re absent just one measly time,
Over the line, over the line, you stepped over the line.

‘Cause I know for sure that what’s fair isn’t measured by time,
It’s measured by how well you use your mind.
He said: “work hard and you’ll get behind
A desk like mine, a desk like mine.”
But why work to sink low, to lose your wealth and become poor
Then lose your health and sink further down in life for sure?

Because I don’t want to fade away, I don’t want to be that kind of man
To make so many plans, when no one really gives a damn,
Anyway, anyway---where nothing really matters what you’ve done,
The further down you go along, the harder it is to get out of where you’ve come
Through the gray snow descending in your brain, wherever you may go---
There’ll be thunder pounding on your head about to explode, so row your boat

Anywhere. I’ve found it hard to turn back time, to seek comfort in my mind,
Because for what it’s worth, the more I think, the more pain
It brings, so what does it matter anyway, when all my thoughts are in vain, they’re in vain.
He said: “you don’t know what you did, you shouldn’t have missed, this time.”
But why face the wrath of society, when I was bound to lose, either way,
Whether or not I made it across the finishing line that day?

He said: “you’ve missed one day---over the line,
You’ve fouled it up pretty well, this time.
I wish you the best, I wish you success,
But what’s done is done; you missed, you failed the test.”
But why make that the reason why I’m still searching for the purpose of my life?
For I may die, tonight....

© 2002T/H Songs, Inc.
© 2002 GB Lyrics, C.O.

As I mentioned before, sometimes I wonder if everything is worth all the effort, especially school, because you can put so much into something and go so little out of it either that or no one pays any interest. I get things out of school, mind you, it’s just that I’ve done so much with little reward for what I’ve done. Oh yeah, this summer I sent some lyrics into this place and at least got a letter of interest back, but it was too expensive to have that person set my lyrics to music. I have been getting into music composition myself lately and have composed some pretty nice things for a beginner. I, also, did set some lyrics to one of my compositions, but I’m still pretty much in an experimental phase. Anyways, I’ve learned a lot and I’m still learning a lot.
I’ve learnt that God can use me in any way he wants with my writing abilities, I don’t have to be tied down to just sacred stuff, I can write secular stuff as well and end up in a U2 type deal. An example of how I’ve applied what I’ve learnt in school and of my faith can be shown best in these two songs that I wrote:

TALKIN’ RELIGIOUS TROUBLE BLUES
(Currin)

The night was looming quietly over the land as everyone prepared for the fall
The church folks were all drilling through a doctrinal wall
Now, I was standing there assessing the scene, must have been a hazy dream
All of a sudden someone spoke said: “the devil is in humanity”
Told me I must be gone, back on across that waterfall

I took my boat, I drew a moat, drew up some of that water stream
Thinking about all those hypocrites falling over to foreign countries
While those foreigners are starving and begging on the streets
The evangelists are getting fat off of feed and all their collected money
And those poor hungered foreign souls die unsaved at their feet

Well, religion is a funny thing, causes so many people to fight
Over everything, now, what’s dark and what’s light
And what’s wrong and what’s right
Evil is a mystery, how could something so bad come from something so good
Someone said to me: “the devil’s got his hold on you” I dunno, but evil would

So I ran out of that room, my clothes, all tattered and torn
Cast out into religion’s ill blowing storm
Like a child that never even had a chance of being born
Oh, what causes people to do the things that they do
Must be some kind of other god-like force outside of creation breaking thru

Well, if there is one and only God and He creates all things
Then where did that other force come from, from heaven falling
Into our world, well God is good and all that He creates is good
So where did the devil come from if he causes bad in the neighborhood
Did he create himself or did God create bad all along from nothing

Then someone said: “all these questions in your mind are a sign
That you’ve already been damned to burn in hell for all times”
Well, who said hell was even fire or below, deep inside the dirt
And who said heaven was in the sky above the earth
And who said that either one was even a place outside of time

Well, I walked on down that road to Jerusalem, the road was hard
And weary like all those spiritual pains in my heart
Well, I know it was all those preachers and lawyers of the world
That nailed Jesus up on that heavy cross as the clouds whirled
Around in the sky and that holy veil ripped and split apart

Well, I hurt easy, I can’t even swallow my pride
I’m cast adrift, right here amongst the Great Divide
Then someone said: “you can’t be human, because you’re a Religion
Major, you can’t even have bitterness and ill feelings
Religion majors aren’t suppose to feel like humans” then all the tides

Of humanity fell all around me and choked me around the neck
Swallowed me up inside, it’s to other people, I can’t connect
So I kept on going through that river of life
Thinking ‘bout all the world’s miseries, all the world’s strife
And all those things that people keep hidden up inside

You know the devil is the world’s scapegoat, an excuse to use
Whenever they don’t want to admit when they’re wrong and untrue
Someone said: “the devil made me do it,” when it was they, themselves
Whom did what they did all along, because they couldn’t pull through
And handle their life being pushed up on someone else’s shelve

Then some philosophical misogynist gynecologist stood up
Said: “I’ve got the Truth” but all those people stoned him to death, because
They didn’t want to hear it, the Truth hurts worse than all the pains
The world could ever bring inside our bones, brains and our veins
Well, there’s too many hateful people without love, it’s insane

Someone else said: “Adam and Eve were real” but if incest is a sin
Then what about them, how could they bear all the world’s men
All the world’s races and if Jesus is the only righteous person ever
Then what about Job, how could he be righteous too, no he never
Could be, unless the Bible contradicts itself just like all persons

Do---well, some people said the devil made Hitler kill all those Jews
But I think it was religious brainwashing, I dunno about you
Even Luther, Protestantism’s patron saint, hated Jewish people
And he was another man of the fair church, of the fair steeple
I dunno what his problem was, unless it was religious untruth

Others claim that Catholics aren’t even Christians
But Catholic people were Christians, way before them
Then some people claim to live in our skin and bones is a sin
But skin and bones is the mark of being human
Well, everyone is human too, but even so you can have religion

Whatever religion you want too, to get you by
Until the day, whatever date it is, that you may die
Well, you haven’t felt anything till you’ve walked in someone else’s shoes
Felt all their pains, seen through all the different sides of their Blues
Well, Jesus did just that and He gave all His life

© 2001 T/H Songs, Inc.
© 2001 GB Lyrics, C.O.

ELECTRIC GHOST-LAND
(Currin)

My love is like the grave, I want to enter in
And rise above it, when we begin a-new
So my love, let me die in you, tonight, in your eyes of blue
So that I may become alive, once again
Let me in your temple to taste the wine
For it’s there that I’ve been seeking for to find

Eyes like rain and lips like smoke
In you lies my only hope
Building up and destroying time
Is the only way to make up your mind
In this electric ghost land, where we wander and fall

My colors have all gone gray from trying to find my way
The more you push me away, the harder I’ll try
To reach you with my intimate prayer inside
For you can kick the darkness outta the night, until it bleeds like the day
In this electric ghost land, where we wander and fall

It’s a little too much for me, a simple touch helps me to feel
For in your eyes like wine, I have found what is real
There the Truth and the Light shine
In the colors of your mind like a sacred sunshine
In this electric ghost land, where we wander and fall

My love is like the grave, I want to enter in
And rise above it, when we begin a new life
So my love, let me die in you, in your arms, tonight
So that I may become alive, once again
Let me in your temple to taste the wine
For it’s there that I’ve been seeking for to find

In you, I’ve found my salvation, my celebration
My benediction, my conviction, my holiday
My first aid, my secret dreams, my convocation
For in you all my fears and pains are taken away
In this electric ghost land, where we stumble and fall

In you, I’ve found the shelter over my head
The comforter for my bed, my broken piece of bread
In you, there’s a communion of faith that tears away all doubt
In you, I’ve found my exit, my only way out
In this electric ghost land, where we stumble and fall

In you, my candle can be set a-glow through an icy winter rain, through snow
Selfless deliverer, fill up my flask with your soul’s wine
Self-full giver, I’m standing at your bars, save me from dying
For you are the only one that I really want to know
In this electric ghost land, where we stumble and fall

My love is like the grave, yeah, my love is like the grave, I want to enter in
And rise above it, rise above it, when we begin once more
So my love, let me die in you, die in you, tonight, it’s all I’m living for
(To be tied down to you, so that I may be truly free)
So that I may become alive, become alive, once again
(And so that we can become what we were made to be)
Let me in your temple to taste the wine, your sweetly divine wine
For it’s there that I’ve been seeking for to find, seeking for to find..............

© 2002 T/H Songs, Inc.
© 2002 GB Lyrics, C.O.

The first song is a Woody Guthriesque song that should be the anthem for every Religion Major who deals with sharing what they’ve learned in school with people in their church, but they find out that those people don’t have as free of a mind as they do. The second song is one I wrote for my Senior Seminar presentation and uses the Lazarus theme and the Christian theme of resurrection in a way to illustrate symbolically the spirituality of love and sex.
In conclusion, this is just a long brief summary of what I’ve learnt this semester and semesters before about ministries and God’s call and how I’ve applied some of what I’ve learnt to my life.


-------------------------------
Forgive the typos---this was a rough draft.