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You can find the list and comments over at Sabbath Manifesto. That “avoid technology” one might be the hardest.
1) Avoid technology.
2) Connect with loved ones.
3) Nurture your health.
4) Get outside.
5) Avoid commerce.
6) Light candles.
7) Drink wine.
8) Eat bread.
9) Find silence.
10) Give back.
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Much has been made of the Katy Perry interview and cover over at Rolling Stone magazine recently, partly because of all of the “faith” issues it brings up. See, Katy was raised by some dynamic youth ministers in an evangelical Christian church, she had a short-lived Christian Music Career, and now she’s engaged to Russel Brand (hard-living/hard-talking comedian) and is a pop princess.
There’s a preview of the article, entitled “Sex, God, and Katy Perry” over here at Rolling Stone.
You can see a video here where she talks about her parents.
And there’s a whole lot out there about the revealing outfits she’s worn.
But it’s the transition between that upbringing to what she reveals, in word and action, now that are of interest to myself and others.
MTV talks about her upbringing:
In fact, while she appreciates having fiancé Russell Brand in her life, she just can’t bring herself to say she feels lucky. Why? “I wasn’t ever able to say I was ‘lucky’ because my mother would rather us say that we were blessed, and she also didn’t like that lucky sounded like Lucifer,” she told the magazine, which hits newsstands Friday. “Deviled eggs were called ‘angelled’ eggs. I wasn’t allowed to eat Lucky Charms, but I think that was the sugar. I think my mom lied to me about that one.”
Perry, who has the word “Jesus” tattooed on her wrist, admits that her parents channeled God regularly. “Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as ‘Pass the salt.’ It’s a secret, direct prayer language to God,” she explained, adding that her father is the one who can speak in tongues with her mother acting as translator. “That’s their gift,” she said.
So…no “lucky”…no “Deviled eggs”…no problem with speaking in tongues…
And we see this in the New York Daily News:
Katy Perry may be cool with stripping down to her skivvies for Rolling Stone, but the pop star says she takes her religion very seriously.
“I am sensitive to Russell taking the Lord’s name in vain and to Lady Gaga putting a rosary in her mouth,” the pop star, 25, told Rolling Stone about her fiancé Russell Brand’s often dirty mouth and Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” video. “I think when you put sex and spirituality in the same bottle and shake it up, bad things happen.”
So…sexually revealing stuff is OK…but blasphemy she still has a problem with.
What I have found interesting, outside of the pop-culture news of all of this, is the questions surrounding Katy Perry’s salvation. Is she going to heaven or hell? Is she a believer anymore?
“It’s surprising to hear Perry talk about God in this way, because one would think her religious past is behind her, but she says she still considers herself a Christian. She shows me the tattoo of the word JESUS that she got on her wrist, just like her dad. ‘God is very much still a part of my life,’ she says. ‘But the way the details are told in the Bible—that’s very fuzzy for me. And I want to throw up when I say that. But that’s the truth.’
“‘I still believe that Jesus is the son of God… But I also believe in extraterrestrials, and that there are people who are sent from God to be messengers, and all sorts of crazy stuff… Every time I look up, I know that I’m nothing and there’s something way beyond me. I don’t think it’s as simple as heaven and hell.’”
“Perry started to question the path she was on. Her Christian label shut down, and, she says, ‘My gospel career was going nowhere.’ She started to write songs about love—and boys—on her guitar. And those weren’t gospel songs. ‘Letting go was a process,’ she says. ‘Meeting gay people, or Jewish people, and realizing that they were fine was a big part of it. Once I stopped being chaperoned, and realized I had a choice in life, I was like, “Wow, there are a lot of choices.” I began to become a sponge for all that I had missed—the music, the movies. I was as curious as the cat.’”
So…we have more info here. She still considers herself a Christian, believing Jesus to be the Son of God, she has some doubts about the Bible. It appears that she had been taught (or at least she learned) that gay people and Jewish people were not “fine.” (My assumption is that she had been taught that gays and Jews, because of their sinful ways or lack of belief could barely function in this world out of need for the salvation that Christ offers. But, when she actually met homosexuals and Jewish persons she found they functioned surprisingly well in society and didn’t seem like they were crying out for much assistance anyway).
Burk goes on to say:
The article is as sad as it is revealing. I hope and pray that perhaps there is a flicker of gospel still alive in Perry and that she will heed it soon. Pray for her. The Lord’s arm is not too short to save.
I don’t want to say that Katy’s journey from Christian gospel singer to pop-princess with doubts isn’t troubling. The comments on Burk’s post read as if her comments should lead us to question her life…is she going to hell or to heaven…is she really a Christian (and many of the comments clearly believe that she’s not.)
“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”
Look, I’m not sending Katy Perry to heaven or to hell here. I question why we don’t celebrate the spirituality that she does express and pray for a continued strengthening of her faith…as well as our own.
I’m typing this blog post from the relative comfort of my new office. I say “relative” because there’s very little in my office at this point. I have a nice chair. I have a desk. There’s a phone and a copier. The walls are painted and I have ann empty bookshelf. I did move a couple extra chairs in…just in case I have to have a meeting anytime soon. It’s mostly “relative” comfort because there’s no heat and, with these overcast, rainy days we’ve had it’s pretty cool in here. The hot coffee I have is nice, but I could really use a portable heater about now. (The picture with this post was taken as started to hold onto the coffee cup for warmth.)
Something momentous happened as I sat here late this afternoon, besides getting work done on our worship service for this week. I had my first interruption. It was so awesome. I was just in my office getting ready to sit down and feel like I could accomplish something and a person pulled up. He was here to pick up something from the old church and he saw me through the window. Yes, saw me through the window actually working in my office. There were some waves and I made my way out onto the front walk of the church to chat…you know…just for a while.
This was “just” a conversation. It was mostly small talk about construction and our church and some of the hurdles we’ve had to jump through over the last six years. He had seen our new doors and wanted to comment on them. We sat and talked. And, at a couple of points during the conversation, my mind wandered to the little bit of work I was hoping to accomplish sitting in my cold office this afternoon. But instead I had been INTERRUPTED. (Don’t get me wrong. I was enjoying the conversation I was having. I truly was. But the drive to get something “more important” accomplished was bugging me…”at a couple of points during the conversation.”)
This reminded me of a sermon I heard about 11 years ago down in Kenai when, over Christmas break, we had one of the college students preach. This was a smart girl who took college life quite seriously and her main illustration was how, living in a dorm, there are always so many interruptions. There’s always someone coming by who wants a piece of your time, to ask a question, to play a game, to go on a road trip, to study together, to go to dinner, to take a break from studying, to chat, to bear their soul, to complain, or just to check in. Our college preacher that day said that she tried to view these interruptions as “holy” times…”holy interruptions.”
After all, look how Jesus dealt with the interruptions that came his way. Notably, see how he treated the woman who touched the hem of his garment on the road. He stopped everything and addressed her and made it a holy interruption of his journey. Perhaps that’s how we should view those interruptions that come our way.
Well, that got me thinking as I sat back down and finished some of the things I was hoping to get done in the “relative comfort” of my office. Today I can thank God for my first (of many) holy interruptions I’ll have in ministry in this space.
May there be many more.
And may be they be holy.
Jim Doepken 