An Update, A Rave, and a Rant

[tealin]

Update on the Update:
Once I work out some technical glitches, the updated Discworld page will be up. I didn't realize how much I'd drawn since October ... holy smokes. Pottery updates will come later as there are fewer of them and I'm going to have to figure out how to categorize some of the odder doodles from last year's end-of-the-year sketchbook fill-'er-up. Wheee.

I've managed to catch up on about half the BBC shows I usually listen to [sob] ... Of course, Small Gods had to be one, and even though I only got to hear it in little five minute chunks (many reasons, won't go into them here) it was darn good.
I am most appreciative of how they're keeping it dark and funny at the same time ... so many people would try taking it in either one direction or the other but they're doing it right! It almost makes me forgive them for not casting Andy Hamilton as Om. ;) Anyway, what I was most glad to hear was the little bit about why Om is where he is, the thing about ... well, here, I'll just copy it out of the book.

'I am your God, right?'
'Yes.'
'And you'll obey me.'
'Yes.'
'Good. Now take a rock and go and kill Vorbis.'
Brutha didn't move.
'I'm sure you heard me,' said Om.
'But he'll ... he's ... the Quisition would –'
'Now you know what I mean,' said the tortoise. 'You're more afraid of him than you are of me, now. Abraxas says here: "Around the Godde there forms a Shelle of prayers and Ceremonies and Buildings and Priestes and Authority, until at Last the Godde Dies. Ande this maye notte be noticed."'
'That can't be true!'
'I think it is. Abraxas says there's a kind of shellfish that lives in the same way. It makes a bigger and bigger shell until it can't move around any more, and so it dies.'

Okay, when I first read that, it bowled me over – there it was, in one simple statement, something my mind might skate around (indeed already had a little, or at least seen it over the horizon) for my entire life, but I'd never ever be able to put it in such a simple, strong, compelling image as that. It's probably not the effect our dear Mr Secular-Humanist Pratchett would have wanted, but this image has had a profound effect on my own faith in a good way. It's so easy to get caught up in the rituals and costumes and traditions and forms (especially as a Catholic) that you lose touch with what it's really all about; because of this analogy being presented to me in such a clear and simple image, I make a conscious effort to get through the shell.

Now I shall set out to prove myself an utter hypocrite and rant about one aspect of that shell, the ruddy annoying music our choir director is so fond of. I know I've gone off on this song before but every time it gets performed* I have to vent.

It starts out with the accompaniment that is the same sort of nauseatingly major-key tinkly piano that you get on the credits to anime movies and in the Asian supermarket near my work, and then – then! – come the lyrics. I've quoted a few of them before but for the full effect you really need to read the whole thing:

We believe in God
And we all need Jesus
'Cause life is hard
And it might not get easier

But don't be afraid
To know who you are
Don't be afraid to show it

If you believe in God
If you say you need Jesus
He'll be where you are
And he never will leave you

Sing to me now words that are true
So all in this place can know it...

We believe in God
And we all need Jesus
We believe in God
And we all need Jesus
We believe in God
And we all need Jesus

Sing to me now words that are true
So all in this place can know it...

We believe in God
And we all need Jesus
We believe in God
And we all need Jesus
We believe in God
And we all need Jesus

[and because the original two repetitions weren't enough:]

Sing to me now words that are true
So all in this place can know it...

We believe in God
And we all need Jesus
We believe in God
And we all need Jesus
We believe in God
And we all need Jesus

WHAT THE CRAP?!? It doesn't mean anything! 'Cause life is hard/And it might not get easier? Not only does this not even rhyme, but it simplifies the tremendous power and mystery of a supreme cosmic being into a snuggly teddy bear and/or water wings! What does knowing and showing who you are have to do with the rest of the song? It's only a marginally spiritual sentiment as it is! And, hmm, maybe if we repeat 'We believe in God/And we all need Jesus' enough times, that'll replace the utter gaping lack of depth and meaning! AAARGH! If you want to listen to Amy Grant in your car or at home or blare her out at some Youth Group meeting or something then fine, but IN CHURCH? We're not supposed to be there for shallow platitudes! It's like if the sermon was 'God is nice,' or, as Bananabasket so succinctly observed, the way religious education from grades 1-11 is dumbed down to 'You are special. God loves you.'

ARGH.

* And yes, it is performed: the choir is supposed to lead the congregation, not 'perform,' but this song isn't in any of the congregation's books so they can't sing along, hence it is a performance, and not a very good one at that.

Well, I have to wake up in the actual morning so I'd better take some deep breaths and go to bed.

Comments

[octaveleap.livejournal.com]

You know what I do when I hear a bad song? I try to write a better one.

Maybe what you should do is try your hand at some lyrics about how YOU feel about your faith. Or a drawing, but I think writing would be more of a cool creative challenge.If it seems too complex a subject, then try writing a haiku, and keep it even if it's crappy and then try again!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I don't need to write a song! There are literally hundreds of really really good ones out there already! She just refuses to learn anything new, has a personal attachment to this one, and is both mind-numbingly stubborn* and takes everything personally.

And knows almost nothing about music, but that's only partly related.

*

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

I can totally sympathize with this. I actually stopped going to church because I was so sick of the way they did things (and because the priest made me mad by being a complete bigoted ass, but let's not go into that).

It finally occurred to me, after about eighteen years of Catholic mass, that because every mass is almost exactly the same, every prayer is learned by rote in Sunday School, and most of the texts are texts you've grown up hearing repeated over and over again, that none of it means anything any more. Worse, not only does it not mean anything, it is also completely tedious and boring.

Anyway, I decided I'd probably be better off going my own way, so I stopped going to church. There are a lot more productive things I can do with my time.

Of course, that's not to say church is wrong for everybody. It just isn't right for me. I'm glad other people can get something out of it even if I can't.

look up 'For the Beauty of the Earth'

[(Anonymous)]

wow, so im not the only one. Except our church is an open dictatorship with a seemingly superfluous budget, and is always advertising for new choir recruits.

[tannhaeuser.livejournal.com]

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I get the feeling that you're being critical of something but you're being too vague for it to have any effect...

[jesskat.livejournal.com]

When I read the first verse, I actually thought you were joking and this was a parody of the real song. Ouch.

"It's probably not the effect our dear Mr Secular-Humanist Pratchett would have wanted, but this image has had a profound effect on my own faith in a good way."

I don't see why not. To me the whole book basically seemed like an effort to make people see why it's so much better to build their own relationship with the deity of their choice rather than trust other people to know what's really true and what isn't. It pokes fun at religion, but not so much at faith itself. As far as I know, Pratchett is an atheist, but at least in his books he has sympathy for those who believe.

[veronikamg.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy everytime I hear somebody back up the "think for yourself" approach. I've come to the conclution that since everybody seem to disagree on what it means to be a believing Christian, the only way is to make up your own mind. Seing what the results of blindly following religious leaders and their teachings may be (in the worst cases: murder, mass suicide, incest, in less extremes: guilt, anxiety, loss of faith) you really have to ask yourself if the religion you practice really reflects your beliefs.

And that song... What age is the congregation? Is this song performed on "family" services where the majority of the people attending are children aged 12 and younger? Because in that case that kind of simplistic lyrics can be excused. If the congregation is mainly adults I really think that choir leader should show more respect for their ability to understand the depths of their religion.

May I recommend an interesting site? If anybody is interested, go check out http://www.justchance.com Even if you don't agree with him on everything he does have some interesting articles. You don't need to be registered to comment.

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the tip - just browsed a couple of articles - liked his commentary on war and thought he got quite a lively discussion going on Jesus' claim to divinity.

[demonliverwurst.livejournal.com]

Eeew. How saccharine.

[lepitot.livejournal.com]

That IS a very bad song.

I don't go to Church, but I used to go to Youth Group after school with one of our teachers. For the most part the songs were really good. But there were always the ones that repeated over and over and over again for absolutely no reason. We sang a really good one called Our God is an Awesome God. At least, I think that was the name...

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

(reduced, embarassingly, to incomprehensible spasms of sputtering, tittering, and something resembling giggles)...no (mmff) disrespect intended, really, but"...unlike YOUR God, who is, like, so BOGUS" hee hee hee HA HA HAH AHA HA (I'm GONE again...)

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to take such unfettered delight in your suffering, but your entire story about the STUPID song was SO FUNNY that I was seized with increasingly hysterical laughter, and, had there been any bare floor space in my toxic dump of a cube, I would have been rolling around on it! I am (HA HA) really, REALLY sorry for you! No(snork) seriously, I totally sympathize - I have been the victim of some pretty awful music myself (hearing and performing) by choir directors that should have known better!

As for that memorable passage (that totally leapt out at me) from Small Gods (I owe you the world, again, for turning me on to that thankyouthankyou such pitch-perfect performances and overall tone, as you said): well, that is the great struggle, isn't it? To disentangle the great and true principles that the religion was founded upon, as well as your own personal relationship with God, from an organization administrated and peopled by imperfect humans who make a LOT of mistakes, and from all the ordinances and formalities (yes, as a Mormon, even if it all makes sense to ME I know I live in a comlplex glass house myself and shoudn't throw stones, even in jest). Not always easy, and sometimes I find myself wishing to escape the darkness and the weight of the shell, forgetting or even doubting what's inside, which is why I no longer tut disapprovingly at others who choose to leave organized religion - I may think they're missing out, but I understand better why they might make that choice.
I didn't know you sung in a choir.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Usually I play the violin, but the pastor suggested that for Lent we just have the piano. Usually when this song gets done I can just go into a happy place in my head and wait for it to finish (not having the music written out means I don't have to play along) but because I had to sing this time there was no excuse. So far I have agreed with every single musical decision the new pastor has made, so I'm curious to hear what he thought of this song, as this is the first time he's heard it since taking a hand in the music ministry. He had requested that we might sing a little Chant and when the choir director related this to us, she grimaced and shook her head as if he had asked for Britney Spears.

Sigh.

Yeah.

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear someone discussing "Small Gods" from the view of religion. I like to think I am religious, too (I am Catholic) and the story has some spot on points about religion being made of people and their beliefs not the rituals, but the rituals sometimes become the religion itself. Brutha is one of my favorite Discworld characters for his silliness but also how he grows wiser and wiser through the story. I think there was another line in the story that I loved- something like (I don't have the book with me) "No god should be worth dying for. A god should be worth living for."

As for music- actually one of my regrets about the radio show (and the only one since it is just brilliant) is that they don't seem to have very clear renditions of Brutha singing Omnian hymns. I was kind of hoping for that since the names of the songs are so utterly hideously funny and inappropriate as church songs= it would have been a nice way to make a statement against all trite and banal, meaningless church hymns. Another antidote is to listen to the hymns sung in the movie "The Meaning of Life."

Sorry you are having misery with bad choir directors and meaningless music. I have gone through that as well. The best antidote was that I ended up going to campus churches because the student bands were much more interesting with a bizarre combination of instruments and sounds more like jazz and blues- I wound up playing mandolin in a couple of them. I liked those because the songs really seemed to evoke what the service was about, and people sang along which is good.

Nowadays I go to a Byzantine Catholic church where we sing the whole mass in plaint chant in English and Slavonic. It is very beautiful and historical- then again, there is not much room for new creativity. But it does sound pretty.

Thanks for the commentary. It is good to share your views and good for us to think about insights too.

[wicked-warrior.livejournal.com]

I sang something similar when I was in my last school ( an English school) , it wasnt that "repetitive" ( but fluffier).We sang it every friday, I don't know how I survived, I guess I sing so badly in English that my mind didn't absorve the lyrics :P
Yay for "small gods"! I listened to the first part some days ago and found it hilarious! I'll try to listen to the second part before it's taken out of the web. ( Now, thanks to YOU, I'll have to read the Discworld books this summer before college. I wish I could start NOW, but blegh... I'll stop the ranting now)

[just-curious.livejournal.com]

I'd have to agree with you. I was discussing this very subject with my father the other day - Christian music is awful. I think people have begun to forget what Christianity in general means, and then forget what the point of Praise is in the body of Christ. According to Psalm 18:3, we praise God because he is worthy of it, " I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised..." But for what purpose? To edify the body, to minister to one another! Col 3:16-17: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Eph 5:18-21 and 1 Cor 14:26 also backs up that is it administering to one another.)

So, when we sing to God (because he is worthy of it) we teach ourselves! At least, we would if the songs we sang these days were half decent. A song I heard at another church the other evening had lyrics that went: "I'm gonna make you famous, tell the whole world". That's right. I will make God famous. Because he needs my help. He does! He can't do it on His own! Pfft! That is not edifying the body, it's just making us feel more powerful and better about ourselves. At what point is God praised in worship, rather than me?

All right-io then, gonna hop off my soap box now before I terrify the public.

Singing

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Something along the lines of "He who sings prays twice" (St. Augustine)

In terms of good singing voices, a fellow parishioner said "It is the voice God gave you. Make Him PAY!"

As for me, I often break into song . . . mostly because I cannot find the key.

A²

[wizardelfgirl.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that religious songs have to have some MEANING, not just say how nice is God, but really tell you why he's nice. Many people stop going to church because they don't understand the meaning of so many words and stuff, it's hard to find good priests that know how to explain things.
There's this singer, I think he's called Martín Valverde, he writes religious pop songs and they're really cool, there's one that almost makes me cry, and that is very rare indeed.

Oh and Small Gods, well, being my first encounter with the book I think it's really great, funy and eye-opening at the same time, I dunno how to explain, it's a bit like thefordmustang said, the rituals become the religion and people lose the real meaning of it.

[okiwan.livejournal.com]

Boy! What a CRAP song!

Also, I must start reading some Pratchett. Which would you recommend I start with?

Also, I don't know if I say this often enough, but... Tealin**, to quote Dolly Parton, you are "just too cha-cha for words."


** You do love your footnotes!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Really it's easier to say which ones not to start with, and those are Night Watch, Thud!, and any of the first four or five because he hasn't got in his groove yet. I usually start people off with Pyramids, Guards! Guards!, Reaper Man, Wyrd Sisters, Small Gods, or Men at Arms.

As for the footnotes, when I start writing about something, trains of thought branch off in all directions, so in order to say all I want to say and still make sense (without the use of thousands of confusing little parenthetical phrases like this) I just plop the digressions into footnotes. Blame/credit Mr P – his footnotism freed me from endles parentheses and sub-parentheses.

What it's all about

[darthdylanblue.livejournal.com]

This particular passage struck home with me, as it agrees with my observations of various religious movements since the inception of Christianity. However, I do not necessarily equate ritual with empty self-service, though I acknowledge it is reduced to such in many cases. I once had this explained to me with the following illustration:


Faith, belief, and love of God are like a precious stone, freshly mined and uncut. Expert hands shape the stone, removing flaws and impurities until what is left is in fact enhanced for what was discarded. The stone, however, is vulnerable as is - thus, it is set into gold, which is shaped to further accentuate the stone's intrinsic beauty while protecting it from being lost to the elements. Properly maintained, the gold will never rust or tarnish, the stone will never be marked or broken. (The expert hands being the early fathers of the Church, ranging from Peter to Augustine; the action of shaping the stone is a specific reference to the Council of Nicaea in which the issue of the Aryan heresy is resolved - said heresy being one of the flaws and deformations of the stone which detract from it's natural beauty - and the most basic tenets of Christian faith are laid out in the Nicene Creed - which gives final shape to the stone.)


The gold (amulet, ring, or necklace - I've heard 'em all, and they're symbolically interchangeable) is the figurative representation of the Church and clergy, an intrinsically valuable treasury for the even more valuable treasure. The gold serves it's purpose when it is shaped to accentuate the stone's natural beauty; however, it's possible that the smelter will become too focused on the gold, so that it obscures the stone. The natural beauty of the stone is lost to the gaudiness of the gold, and is eventually forgotten. (This refers specifically to the "dark age of Catholicism" spanning from sometime after it's politicization following the end of Christian persecution in the late Roman Empire through to the Great Schism and eventually the Reformation, when the structure and organization of the Church began to be abused for the service of more temporal interests rather than those of the soul.)


On the other hand, the owner of the gold-encrusted jewel may let the gold tarnish by neglect, until it is ugly to look at. Instead of cleaning and polishing the gold, they smash it away in an attempt to separate it's ugliness from the stone, in the process letting the stone slip through their fingers and be dashed upon the ground, marred, shattered, or lost forever. When marred, they will cut away the surface they damaged, and perhaps reset it in a new configuration of gold they find pleasing; maybe it will even reflect the jewel's former beauty, but something of it is forever lost as well. (The tarnish refers to the decidedly un-Christian practices of certain members of the clergy prior to Luther's Reformation; the smashing of the gold refers to the separatist movement within the Church that eventually formed the nucleus of the various protestant movements. The re-cutting of the jewel represents the various protestant-intellectualist attempts at re-interpreting Christianity. The part that is lost typically represents the loss of Christian solidarity, though it probably also referred to several perceived losses in the translation of the Faith into said protestant/intellectual terms - in other words, so-called Fundamentalism.)


There may have been more to it, but that's all I remember off the top of my head; the point is, the traditions, customs, and infrastructure of the Church *do* serve a purpose - the preservation of the apostolic vision of Christianity. Pterry was on to something when he wrote the aforementioned passage, but I think it is more accurate to say that it is our faith that dies under the suffocating mass of unquestioning tradition. I would venture to say, though, that only the most radical would suggest that tradition - and, by extension, the structure and form of the Church - has no intrinsic value. To further extend the allegory, it is up to us to keep the gold properly maintained so that it continues to serve it's original function of protecting and re-emphasizing our most valued gem.

Re: What it's all about

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

You bring up a very important point I had intended to mention earlier but totally forgot: tradition, ritual, memorization are all crucial for helping a mortal mind to give comprehensible, concrete form to spiritual concepts, covenants, principles, etc. - it makes them "real", it helps us understand and remember them. There's a reason we make such a fuss about a baptism or a wedding or a graduation or a funeral - ritual can have transformative power over the minds and lives of the participants - power to improve, to take a promise seriously (especially if there were witnesses!), to remember a spiritual feeling or insight with a physical activity or a song, etc. And at their best, rituals bind the community closer together. I mean, I love Christmas! I love looking forward to the reliable, the stable, the unchanging traditions that come, year after year, in an unsteady, deteriorating world. I knew non-religious kids who would flee their parents sterile homes (like the neighbors in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, one friend's dad actually decorated a "Christmas jade plant" as a halfhearted effort to be festive!)around Christmas to find a relative or a friend with an actual Christmas tree, who celebrated Christmas! I believe the soul craves and needs ritual throughout life, as long as it doesn't become misdirected or an end to itself (the original meaning forgotten).

[dried-frog-pill.livejournal.com]

I love that you've posted the links to the Small Gods radio show (I got my friend addicted, and I went out and bought her Small Gods to read because she missed last week). As to the quote, I definitely agree that you can get wrapped up in the pomp and circumstance. It happened to me. I was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic grade school and high school, where it felt like we were just mouthing the words and no one really believed. Now, I am no longer Catholic (to the great woe of my grandmother) although I do still feel Christian in some of my beliefs. Kudos to you for trying to get through to the message behind it, though.

And that song is awful. I hate it when people fixate on the simplistic view of God. God is not simple, and faith is not something that should be dumbed down unless it's for children. Gah, that drives me mad when people do that.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

You know, I have known only two people to go through Catholic School and remain Catholic when they leave. It's like a vast factory for turning people against the church.

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ. And that's a smaller blasphemy than that song, methinks.

I mean, really. Some church music is fantastic - I don't think there's much that's better than belting ou 'O Come, All Ye Faithful' (my favourite hymn of all time, just ahead of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen', if that's a hymn as well as a Christmas carol), and a church organ is a truly awesome instrument - the one in St. Giles' cathedral has to be one of the most impressive man-made things I've ever seen. But, well, for lack of a better word that song is pathetic.

[jume.livejournal.com]

I think those are my two favorite carols too.

[jume.livejournal.com]

Back in June, when I was staying with a friend's friend in Louisiana, I attended her semimega baptist church, which had a choir. Back at home, the congregation sang to the piano and or organ looking off of the pew hymnals. It was so strange not being able to read the music off and having to look all the way down on the first story (we were sitting in a balcony sorta thing) off a projector screen.

That might be nice for people who can't read music :/

anyways, I wouldn't've ever taken you for a religious person~

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

...I wouldn't've ever taken you for a religious person

It's funny how much I get that. Maybe it's the whole rational, independent thinker thing I have going on. Just proving that people who think that makes me an atheist really don't know that much about religion.