Excellent GQ article about a Christian Rock festival

[VodouDoll]

I just finished reading this article and it was superb. I'd be interested to talk about it here.

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/2 ... usic-jesus

[justlurking]

For some reason this topic reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Ned Flanders went to a "Chris"tian "Rock" concert--he'd never heard a preacher use the M-F word so many times in a sermon.

[Guest Anonymous]

I don't remember what Baldwin said, because Busey was saying shit so weird the host got nervous. Busey's into "generational curses." If you're wondering what those are, too bad. I was born-again, not raised on meth.

I think this is my favorite bit. Take that, Bill Gothard!

[MissSeptember]

I had my first kiss at Creation back in the 90's.

[contrary]

that really was an excellent article. thanks for sharing!

i thought this bit was very good...accurate, succinct:

Belief and nonbelief are two giant planets, the orbits of which don't touch. Everything about Christianity can be justified within the context of Christian belief. That is, if you accept its terms. Once you do, your belief starts modifying the data (in ways that are themselves defensible, see?), until eventually the data begin to reinforce belief. The precise moment of illogic can never be isolated and may not exist.

also, (emphasis mine)

Statistically speaking, my bout with Evangelicalism was probably unremarkable. For white Americans with my socioeconomic background (middle to upper-middle class), it's an experience commonly linked to one's teens and moved beyond before one reaches 20. These kids around me at Creation—a lot of them were like that. How many even knew who Darwin was? They'd learn. At least once a year since college, I'll be getting to know someone, and it comes out that we have in common a high school "Jesus phase." That's always an excellent laugh. Except a phase is supposed to end—or at least give way to other phases—not simply expand into a long preoccupation.

and here, for zsu zsu and stevie:

His breakthrough was the aestheticization of weakness. Not in what conquers, not in glory, but in what's fragile and what suffers—there lies sanity. And salvation. "Let anyone who has power renounce it," he said. "Your father is compassionate to all, as you should be." That's how He talked, to those who knew Him.

[Guest Anonymous]

I had my first kiss at Creation back in the 90's.

tsk tsk you mean you weren't saving your first kiss for your wedding ceremony. Tsk tsk such a brazen hussy.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Crackedeggs]

That was a really good article. Really good.

[DamnPrecious]

I really tried to read it, but my god he was wordy and around page 4 of not having a fucking clue where the article was going; I gave up. Can I get cliff notes version?

[FloraDoraDolly]

I really tried to read it, but my god he was wordy and around page 4 of not having a fucking clue where the article was going; I gave up. Can I get cliff notes version?

I couldn't make it through the whole thing either. I wanted to hear more about the music, but after a few lines about Jars Of Clay he said he wasn't going to write anymore about the music.

[Guest Anonymous]

That was long-winded, but interesting! To make it brief: he goes back and forth between talking about what he got up to with some guys he met at the festival (mostly eating frogs and playing music) and reflecting on his own "born-again" phase.

He seemed sort of snarky at the beginning, but at the end, not so much... like he got pulled back into the memories of his good-times religious days. I almost feel like he felt bad about his original intentions to snark it, or something.

When he says:

they were accepting of every kind of weirdness, and they had that light that people who are pursuing something higher give off. It's attractive, to say the least

That struck a chord with me--that's about how I felt when I met my first group of hard-core Christians. (I got sucked in for a bit.)

[julie paradox]

DamnPrecious: you got as far as page 4?

[Caxpax]

I remember reading this article years ago- my best friend is a writer and always would share with me articles she finds particularly compelling. We are both equally godless and were raised that way, so both of us found this article a total mindfuck. I then shared it with my new boyfriend, who I knew was raised Christian but since we hadn't been dating long didn't know the full extent of his background. Imagine my surprise when he kind of laughed nervously before telling me he had actually BEEN to the festival the author attended. I had just started exploring my fundie obsession at that time so it was jarring to be dating a real-live one. Who I'm now married to. He HATED Creation, he only went because his best friend was going, and now our big joke when planning summer vacations is "make sure we leave time to go to Creation!" and mock his FB friends who attend EVERY freaking year. To see bands like Skillet. WTH kind of name is Skillet? And thousand foot crutch? Please someone explain THAT name to me.

[debrand]

I forced myself to read the entire article because I assumed that there was a point. It would have been a much better article if he hadn't been so long winded.

He was very fair to the people at the festival. In some ways, I thought he was too fair. For example, he said that it was nonviolent, yet the men that he hung out with seemed on the verge of becoming violent.

He spent most of the articles talking about the three or four men that he camped with and so there really wasn't anything about the music, the bands or anything else.

[debrand]

In the three days I spent at Creation, I saw not one fight, heard not one word spoken in anger, felt at no time even mildly harassed, and in fact met many people who were exceptionally kind. I realize they were all of the same race, all believed the same stuff, and weren't drinking, but there were also 100,000 of them.

Apparently everyone at Creation is the same race,the same religion and no alcohol is allowed. It would be surprising if there was violence. Put some difference in there or some competition and the event would be no different than any nonreligion event. Imagine if a gay pride event occurred in the field over.

It was late, and the jews had sown discord. What Bub had said was true: There were Jews at Creation. These were Jews for Jesus, it emerged, two startlingly pretty high school girls from Richmond. They'd been sitting by the fire—one of them mingling fingers with Pee Wee—when Bub and Ritter and I returned from seeing Jars of Clay. Pee Wee was younger than the other guys, and cute, and he gazed at the girls admiringly when they spoke. At a certain point, they mentioned to Ritter that he would writhe in hell for having tattoos (he had a couple); it was what their people believed. Ritter had not taken the news all that well. He was fairly confident about his position among the elect. There was debate; Pee Wee was forced to escort the girls back to their tents, while Darius worked to calm Ritter. "They may have weird ideas," he said, "but we worship the same God."

This doesn't sound peaceful but maybe no violence was threatened. Still, one of the men had to be calmed and Pee Wee was forced to escort the girls back over a tattoo.