If you saw Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago when Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) hosted you might have noticed that night's musical guest, The Arcade Fire.
The Arcade Fire is one of my favorite bands. Their latest album is called Neon Bible and I really like it a lot. On stage they look a bit like they're Amish. I like the incongruity of a rock band dressing like they're from the 19th century and on their way to a barn raising. I recently talked to Greg Chandler about their performance on SNL and in his words, he "just wasn't feeling it, dog."
Okay, I added the "dog," myself.
Aaaanyway....
I recently read a quote from Win Butler, a member of The Arcade Fire in Paste magazine. It went like this:
"There are two kinds of fear: The Bible talks a lot about fear of God--fear in the face of something awesome. That kind of fear is the type of fear that makes someone want to change. But a fear of other people makes you want to stay the same, to protect what you have. It's a stagnant fear; and it's paralyzing."
Now, I have no idea if any of the members of The Arcade Fire are Christians or not. I kind of doubt they are just because if they were some Christian music magazine would have publicized the crap out of them by now. Whatever their religious leanings, though, I was really struck by this quote. What a perfect summation of what the Bible means when it says to "fear" God.
Fear seems like such a negative emotion. Nobody wants to be "afraid" of anything. But here, "fear" is a realization. Fear is recognizing how much bigger God is than us - and being motivated by the realization to make changes in our life for the better. Not because we think he might punish us if we don't - but because seeing him in his goodness makes us want to strive to imitate him.
So that's today's little lesson from the seedy, sinful world of popular music. Come back tomorrow for a lesson from Justin Timberlake on how to get the most out of your devotional time.
Okay, not really.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The Arcade Fire speaks the truth
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6 comments:
I wanna say that The Arcade Fire was mentioned in Relevant mag. or their podcast... BUT i could need to check my facts first. I was compelled to post this maybe true point anyway.
Don't sweat it. If people started worrying whether or not something was true before they typed it out there wouldn't be anything on the internet.
Sarah--I think you're right...I feel I've seen them in the Relevant music review edition...
Yes, yes...the March/April '06 Relevant...page 74--listed under the "Nursery School Pyschedelia" portion of the 2006 music guide...
I was feeling it, dog.
The Arcade Fire's performance on SNL was awesome, up until the apathetic guitar smash. However, the new album is quite good. While I don't think the band members are "Christians", judging from the content of their past two album, I think they are people who take spirituality very seriously.
In a side note, there seems to be a couple of Relevant Magazine subscribers on the blog....I just subscribed and got my first issue a week or so ago.
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