Christy loves hip-hop now. I’m not sure how to explain it, except that perhaps she started listening to it when we got our new van simply because KIIS FM is the only station where (and this is a pretty cool feature on our van) the radio actually tells you the song and the artist that is currently playing. It shows up on the little display instead of just seeing the station frequency. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason she’s listening to that station, and because she is listening to hip-hop constantly I think she’s grown to love it. Seriously, the other day I put on the Weird Al Yankovic album that just came out and her and Nathaniel start singing along with one of his parodies of a rap song, except they start singing the real lyrics. It only got weirder when Nathaniel yells out from the backseat, “Hey! This isn’t the right song!” He was all disturbed that it was “White and Nerdy” instead of “Riding Dirty” or whatever…it was pretty hilarious.
On a similar note, I downloaded two Eminem songs on Friday. Five years ago when I first started hearing about this dude I would have never believed that later I would download and like one or two of his songs, but I did, and I do. The first one was the one from the movie 8Mile, and they had a clean version of it, so I got that one (who needs all those F words anyways?). The second was the only video that iTunes had of his, a song called “When I’m Gone”. It is a sort of confessional (appropriate especially since in the video he is telling this story at what looks like an A.A. meeting, but is probably for some other recovery group) that talks about being too busy for family and a dream he has where his daughter confronts him about not being around enough for their family. It is just as good a message for workaholic dads as American Dream (Casting Crowns) or that Steven Curtis Chapman song about being too busy for your family. Kudos to a guy that normally sends a horrible message to the general public for penning a song with a great message. I get great joy out of seeing people that are wealthy and have influence use those things for good. Yay Eminem…
I like my Pastor, a lot. We meet weekly to plan and brainstorm for the next week, and I have been enjoying our time more and more lately. Something interesting about him is that he has hearing loss. He wears hearing aids in both ears, so you have to talk pretty loudly to have him hear you. I just found myself yelling at him today at lunch, and I was thinking, “Man, I wonder if I’m disturbing anyone with all of my yelling about hymns…” “Don’t you think TO GOD BE THE GLORY WOULD FIT WELL HERE?” Hahaha…all that to say, I’m definitely connecting with him more–and that is a big deal to me.
I watched a very interesting “New Adventures of Old Christine” tonight. It’s that show with Julia Louis Dreyfuss (you know, Elaine from Seinfeld). It was all about church, but in an interesting way. The dad takes the kid to church and she gets mad about it because she doesn’t like church because–get this–people that go to church never like people that don’t go to church, and they also hate gays. Now, there was a lot more to the episode, and it was all done in a great way (they end up going and she has a great time AND it turns out that she doesn’t like church because when she was little someone forgot to call her name at her confirmation and it scarred her) but here’s the point–I might be mad about this IF IT WEREN’T TRUE, but it is. Look around, how many unchurched friends do you have (if you go to church). Really. Do you have any? Do you hang out with them often? Socially, outside of work or whatever?
The sad thing about all of the negative stuff coming out of Hollywood about Christianity lately is that 98% of the time it is correct. The stereotypes and all of that…it’s mostly correct, and there’s always somebody there to gripe about it and confirm their position. Ugh. It’s time to change, people. This world is not what it used to be, and unfortunately, most of the time, the church is pretty much dead to it.
