Thursday, October 29, 2015

Having It All

Within my faith there is a popular heretical offshoot known to as The Prosperity Gospel. You may have heard it referred to with other terminology, Health/Wealth, Name It/Claim It, The Gospel of Success, what have you. Basically, it is a warped understanding of Christian doctrine that teaches that as long as you do the right things, believe the right things, say the right words, and check the right boxes (which usually involves sending some guy on TV in a suit a check), God will hop to and begin to make you wildly successful in every area of your life. It promises prosperity in finances, good health, and security in all things worldly and temporal. It defines the love of God as wanting only the best for His people in this world (if only they would demonstrate enough faith to lay hold of what He's all-too-ready to give them).

It is a lie. Christianity is about far more than earthly wealth and good fortune. But, the Prosperity Gospel has made a lot of its proponents very rich both because people are gullible and because it's very tempting to believe that God doesn't exist for any higher purpose other than to fulfill one's every wish.

There is a non-religious version of this idea, as well. The only real twist is that the source of the successful, perfect life resides in each one of us and not in God. Just yesterday I was skimming around social media (I don't recommend it) when I happened upon a lady who captioned one of her pictures with something along the lines of, "The one thing I want everyone to know is that they can have it all: the job, the body, the spouse, the life..." Of course, what she means (and what she no doubt spends the majority of her time on social media espousing) is that you can have the best/perfect/greatest version of all of those things.

...as long as you do what she tells you do, stay plugged into her social media networks, buy her products, and listen to her advice, presumably forever.

Now, I'm not calling into question the motivations of people who want to spend their time trying to help others live better lives. There's nothing wrong with that. What I do have a problem with, however, is attempting to sell people - through religion or empowerment or self-esteem or whatever - on the idea that life is completely malleable, within our control, and up to us. That life is what we make it. That we, regardless of circumstances, have the ability to turn each and every one of our dreams into absolute reality.

Now, again, please don't get me wrong: I am definitely not trying to say that we have no responsibility in our lives to work hard, pursue our dreams, and be willing to do what it takes to go after what we believe our purpose to be. I absolutely believe in each and every one of those things (anyone who has spent any amount of time reading this blog already knows this). But, there is a huge difference between encouraging people to follow their dreams and telling them that anything at all that they can imagine can be theirs. Let me first make a few salient points:

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Adventures in iTunes: New Discoveries

One of the massive benefits of going out on the road with a group of really talented people who dig music is that I always seem to come home with some fantastic recommendations for new music to listen to. There are few things I enjoy as much as sharing the stuff I love with other people who will love it, too, so when people return the favor and pass things along my way, I quite naturally get all giddy about it.

Alex G's Share Your Story Tour was no different. So, I'd like to take the next few moments and pass along to all of you some of the great music I've been turned on to by the people who joined me out on the road.

~

Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect
Perhaps more well-known as the lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers put out a record just this year that fits really, really nicely into that revival of '80s synth-pop I wrote about a few months ago. To simply describe it as such is probably too much of an over-simplification, though. On this record, Flowers is, more than anything else, a great songwriter. But, he did manage to get the word "gravitron" into a song, so I guess the '80s thing fits pretty nicely, too:

  


The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
This record's a few years old now and The Gaslight Anthem has been around for longer than that, but someone finally had the wherewithal to suggest that I listen to them. What a record Handwritten is. This band just drips east coast rock 'n' roll - you won't have to listen too closely to hear the Springsteen influence - and in this day & age, that is a wonderful thing. It might seem like solid, dependable, well-written rock records are a thing of the past, but these guys prove that notion dead wrong. I can't wait to dig into some more from these cats.




LANY - I Loved You.
LANY's a new-ish band, once again hearkening back to that '80s thing everybody knows they love. This stuff is just so good & easy to listen to: singable, dance-y, memorable. It sticks in your head in the best way. LANY (along with the other artists mentioned here, really) is showing people what pop music could be again. Maybe it's even better to say they're showing people what music can be. There is great new music happening out there, folks. It's just waiting for you to get your ears on it. 


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