From: burley@apple-gunkies.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Craig Burley)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage,rec.music.newage
Subject: Religion and Snickering Friends (was Re: 'Newage' music)
Date: 25 Dec 92 22:12:43
Organization: Free Software Foundation 545 Tech Square Cambridge, MA 02139
NNTP-Posting-Host: apple-gunkies.gnu.ai.mit.edu
In-reply-to: lllowen@netcom.com's message of Fri, 25 Dec 1992 00:10:59 GMT

In article <1992Dec25.001059.3109@netcom.com> lllowen@netcom.com (lllowen) writes:

   [btw, I myself am impartial to the 'newage' religion.  I am not
   defending 'newage' nor against it.  If any of your Christian friends
   snicker at you because you listen to 'newage' music, then your friends
   needs to be educated on the music.

Not to mention Christianity!

   Music does not make a person follow
   any religion-- that only comes from inside you.]

Well, among people who permit peer pressure and other social forces
to make them follow any religion (such as Christianity, being in
the majority of recognized-religion-followers in the US, or medicinal
sciences, being in the majority of nonrecognized...), it's not
surprising that music (newage, Michael Oldfield, Alice Cooper,
Judas Priest, etc) is seen as something "dangerous" -- it might actually
cause someone to be motivated by something other than peer pressure,
one's parents, etc.

I find that the people who truly value their religion/belief-system most
highly and give it the most respect also are those who are least offended
by music and other media.  Probably that's because they _do_ follow their
religion due to "internal" guidance rather than temporal social forces,
and expect others to do so, else be "a house built on the sand", as it were.

And the religion itself seems not to be important in this regard -- I've
known Christians who are this way (many, in fact, though Christian-bashers
in the US might find that hard to believe, and sometimes I think for
good reason), of course, but also Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists (actually
lots of atheists/agnostics -- hope I'm correct in not capitalizing the
terms here), and others.  (Not new-agers, but that's probably just because
I've encountered very few of them, if any, to a sufficient degree.)

The great thing about music and other forms of media is that, despite the
penchant for abuse of varying types, it _does_ have the ability to reach
out to someone and communicate with them (as music has done for me ever
since I was in my teens), perhaps giving them another point of view than
is expressed in their community at the time.  As a lifelong practicing
Christian, I think that's great, but for some reason many other Christians
are afraid of it and/or willing to attack it (or various forms of music,
such as newage, rock, jazz, &c; funny to think that once upon a time,
"good Christians" attacked things like harmony and, later, open sixths
or something as "Satan's work").

Kind of funny, really.  I don't know much about the history of other
religions, but Christianity's first leader was crucified, and its
early leaders hunted, tortured, and killed for several centuries
afterwards.  And today people think the electric guitar is somehow a
threat to Christianity.  (Me, I happen to think that "the only thing to
fear is fear itself".)  But then I realize that when people say they're
defending Christianity against the onslaught of whatever, they often
really mean they're defending the status quo, and Christianity doesn't
fit in the equation except as the current label for those defenders.
(See Iraq, Iran, and many other nations having "leaders" that trash
their religion in the name of "protecting" or "purifying" it.)

I mean, even though I don't exactly hold Scientology in high esteem,
I'm not exactly going to stop buying Chick Corea recordings, even if he
does claim continued inspiration from L. Ron Hubbard!  Now, maybe if he
converted to "Islam" and calls for the death of Salmon Rushdie (as did
Cat Stevens), I might.... :-)  (FYI, I put "Islam" in quotes there because
from what little I know of it, true followers of Islam no more call
for the murder of one no longer a follower just for his writings than
true followers of Christianity do.  There are, of course, less-well-known
examples of modern murderous "Christians"; see the Middle East.  Of course,
they're succeeding at their murderous goals and not attacking Europeans,
so they don't get quite the same hysterical press here in the States.)
--

James Craig Burley, Software Craftsperson    burley@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Member of the League for Programming Freedom (LPF) lpf@uunet.uu.net
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