071 Give Peace a Chance

While browsing for a more reliable source of recommendations for edifying movies than Christianity Today last night (any site rating “Pan’s Labyrinth” higher than “Amazing Grace” must be about as “Christian” as George Bush, any we all ought to know by now how far his “Christianity” really goes), I finally came upon “Crosswalk,” a site not free of the hyper-patriotic and warmongering mindset of US-Insanity Today, either, but at least not as mind-warped & pseudo-intellectually twisted. So, if you’re looking for edifying movies, that’s the site, we’d presently recommend, rather than CT.

Before we found Crosswalk, there were a few other sites, recommending what they considered the “best” movies, say, of 2006, and one recommendation that caught my eye was “Shut Up and Sing,” the documentary with and about the Dixie Chicks, and particularly what happened after their statement in London in 2003, that they were ashamed of Bush being from Texas.

Being a big-mouth-afflicted artist myself, who has refused to go the way of all flesh for the sake of popularity, naturally my heart went out for the girls, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching their metamorphosis from “merely a Country band” into a “furious voice for the truth.”

Even though it becomes clear during the course of the film that the Chicks are not promoting Christian values or view points, it’s almost as if God winked an eye and anointed them to a somewhat prophetic voice against the insanity and hypocrisy that so many people have the audacity to actually call “Christianity.”

Of course, the whole incident reminds one of the episode with John Lennon and the Beatles in the 60s, after John’s prognosis that Christianity would vanish, and, after all, they were more famous than Jesus.

I ran a Google check recently, ”Beatles” vs. “Jesus,” and while the Beatles yielded a whopping 54.000.000 results, Jesus took the cake with 180.000.000. So, this just shows how fleeting fame and popularity are in this world. You may be more famous than Jesus one day, but then, never underestimate immortality: it’s got something that’s going to catch up with you sooner or later.

So, in the long run, John was wrong about that one. Nevertheless, he was right about a lot of other things he said. For instance, that New York is like the Rome of today. Or “All You Need Is Love” (providing you truly believe that God IS love, and that He’s capable of supplying all your needs, that is). Or “Give peace a chance!” (Remember, it was the time of the Vietnam war, a situation very similar to the present rape of Iraq).

We Christians have a saying, “There is no peace without the Prince of Peace,” but I also believe that it works the other way around: “Where there’s no peace, there the Prince of Peace isn’t, either,” no matter how ardently one may profess to believe in Him, or claim to have exclusive rights as His representatives on earth.

What people don’t realize is that He Himself prophesied that there would be many speaking and acting in His name, whom He would not recognize as His, but whom He will tell at the end of the world, “Depart from Me; I never knew you!”

Personally, I can’t blame folks for not buying into the kind of “Christianity” most people are selling as such, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if what Jesus said comes true, and there will be many from the East and the West, who will enter into His Kingdom before those who call themselves the children of the Kingdom.

As far as I’m concerned, I’d much rather see the Dixie Chicks there than pseudo-pious mass murderers.

I don’t know about you…