Red Mountain Music
June 26, 2007
Let me encourage you to sample and purchase CDs from the website of Red Mountain Music, a ministry of Red Mountain Church (PCA) in Birmingham, Alabama. Red Mountain has made a number of worthy contributions to the ‘hymn-rewrite’ movement, in which many great hymns forgotten over time or locked away in unsingable or obsolete tunes have been set to newer, simpler music. They call it ‘traditional text with truly contemporary music.’ Groups such as Red Mountain and Indelible Grace, along with individuals such as Chris Miner, are like restorers of antique furniture, who can bring out the true loveliness in an old piece and restore its usefulness.
Brian T. Murphy (who was a student at Auburn University while I was assistant pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Auburn–and he also helped us tremendously by playing piano for our worship services back then) writes on their web site:
…hymns ring true in a way that many modern songs simply do not. At times, it seems our ancestors had a stronger command of the language than we do. Their words drip with truth and paint pictures of the kingdom that make believers long for heaven. I cannot begin to describe what reading through these old hymnals has done to encourage the spirits of the musicians that play here. We find ourselves continually able to rest in the truth of these great lyrics, always with a sense that we are part of something much bigger than us or our little church. We are excited about this time in the church, and we are thrilled about this music.
The peculiar contribution of Red Mountain Music has been the The Gadsby Project, a reworking of 14 hymns from Gadsby’s Hymns, published in several stages during the 19th century. The Gadsby hymnal contains the text of 1,156 settings of psalms and hymns, most of which were penned during the 17th and 18th centuries. A goodly number of lesser-known hymns by masters such as Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Joseph Hart and John Newton have been mined from this hymnal, and Red Mountain Music has done the Church a great service by reacquainting us with these songs of Zion.
I would also recommend their 2006 release Help My Unbelief, which continues in the spirit of The Gadsby Project by drawing from that vast resource. What is remarkable about Help My Unbelief is that it is a collection of hymns on the theme of doubt, struggle, longing, and crying out to God for help. These songs give expression to Christian struggles and laments in a brutally honest way in the biblical expectation that Christ meets us in the midst of the mess of our lives, and he does so as one who ‘will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax.’ Help My Unbelief is a collection ‘for God’s prodigals and sojourners as they wait patiently for the Kingdom to come.’
And now for something completely different…or not
June 20, 2007
In stark contrast to the previous blog post about the Episcopal priest from Washington who has declared herself 100% Christian and 100% Muslim is this from The Boston Globe about Lina Joy. Here’s an extended quote to cut to the chase:
Malaysia’s best known Christian convert, Lina Joy, lost a six-year battle on Wednesday to have the word “Islam” removed from her identity card, after the country’s highest court rejected the change.
The ruling threatens to further polarize Malaysian society between non-Muslims who feel that their constitutional right to religious freedom is being eroded, and Muslims who believe that civil courts have no right to meddle in Islamic affairs.
“You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in delivering judgment in the case, which has stirred religious tensions in the mainly Muslim nation.
He said the civil court had no jurisdiction in the case and that it should be dealt with by the country’s Islamic courts.”The issue of apostasy is related to Islamic law, so it’s under the sharia court. The civil court cannot intervene.”
…Lina Joy, 43, was born Azlina Jailani and was brought up as a Muslim, but at the age of 26 decided to become a Christian. She wants to marry her Christian boyfriend, a cook, but she cannot do so while her identity card declares her to be Muslim.
In 1999, the registration department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the entry for her religion remained “Islam.”
Malaysia, like neighboring Indonesia, practices a moderate brand of Islam, but Muslims account for only a bare majority of Malaysia’s population and are very sensitive to any perceived threats to Islam’s special status as the official religion.
Malaysia has been under Islamic influence since the 15th century, but big waves of Chinese and Indian immigrants over the last 150 years has dramatically changed its racial and religious make-up. Now, about 40 percent of Malaysians are non-Muslim.
How about the line from the Chief Justice: “You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” about a conversion that took place over a decade ago!
In 1 Corinthians 10:21-22 the Apostle Paul declares in no uncertain terms, You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? In short, you can’t live a double life. Can you imagine the apostle’s reaction to a Corinthian elder (and yes, this is assuming Paul would not first question why he is talking to female elder!) who said, “I am 100% Christian and 100% a devotee of Aphrodite. At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need. I look through Jesus and I see Aphrodite”? You don’t have to imagine his reaction. You just read it in the first sentence of the paragraph.
The story of the Rev. Ann Holmes in Washington and the story of Lina Joy in Malaysia provide a remarkable lesson about religion. For the former, religion is like a fashion accessory, putting a Muslim prayer scarf on the head five times a day and wearing an Episcopal clerical collar in between times. And it all feels good inside. For the latter, religion is a question of basic identity—under whose law will I live, whom shall I marry, where will I go, will I put myself and my family in jeopardy by standing for my faith against powers opposed to that faith, will I live or die?
In stating the issue this way, I do not doubt Rev. Holmes’ sincerity in her beliefs, but I do question whether she has any understanding of Christianity or Islam that does justice to either religion. She speaks of her “conversion” as a matter of identity, but that identity seems to boil down to the idea that you can be Muslim at breakfast, Episcopalian at dinner (in the South this is the meal eaten around noon), and Muslim again by happy hour (but I think you’d want to be Episcopalian at happy hour).
Call me when the New York Times reports on the imam who adopts Judaism as a supplemental faith.
“I am both Muslim and Christian.”
June 18, 2007
These are the words of the Rev. Ann Holmes, ordained as an Episcopal priest more than 20 years ago and, until recently, director for faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle. According to a recent article in the Seattle Times,
…for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved…Redding doesn’t feel she has to resolve all the contradictions. People within one religion can’t even agree on all the details, she said. “So why would I spend time to try to reconcile all of Christian belief with all of Islam? At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need.”
She says she felt an inexplicable call to become Muslim, and to surrender to God — the meaning of the word “Islam.” “It wasn’t about intellect,” she said. “All I know is the calling of my heart to Islam was very much something about my identity and who I am supposed to be. I could not not be a Muslim…I look through Jesus and see Allah.”
Let me suggest that the Rev. Holmes, who has just been hired by Seattle University as a visiting lecturer in New Testament (!?!?!), might find the welcome and acceptance she experiences in western Washington a bit less friendly should she do any traveling in the Middle East.
