Faith Based Prog

Snow Dog wrote: Dean wrote: Snow Dog wrote: Roman Gods are Jupiter and Mars and Venus etc... Too literal Ian - many of the festivals of the Roman gods were adopted into the christian calendar, for example Saturnalia, the festival of Saturn became the Christmas even though there was no evidence that Jesus was born in December - Morse's lyric is (poetically) accurate... they took the gods' (festivals) and changed the names. You could produce similar arguments for the saints too - such as Baccus and St. Vincent both being the "patrons" of wine and winemakers. Literal maybe, but true nevertheless. To be honest I'm not sure what point your making. Christianity has only one god so "Roman Gods" equals Mars and his cohorts to most of us.

Dean wrote: Snow Dog wrote: Dean wrote: Snow Dog wrote: Roman Gods are Jupiter and Mars and Venus etc... Too literal Ian - many of the festivals of the Roman gods were adopted into the christian calendar, for example Saturnalia, the festival of Saturn became the Christmas even though there was no evidence that Jesus was born in December - Morse's lyric is (poetically) accurate... they took the gods' (festivals) and changed the names. You could produce similar arguments for the saints too - such as Baccus and St. Vincent both being the "patrons" of wine and winemakers. Literal maybe, but true nevertheless. To be honest I'm not sure what point your making. Christianity has only one god so "Roman Gods" equals Mars and his cohorts to most of us. I have no real point and your point doesn't mean a lot either. The christian religion venerates many as being holy without going as far as calling them gods or demigods, Ivan suggests that Morse (via Luther) equates the saints to the lesser Roman gods. Also, the Roman's (at that time) worshipped a triad of three supreme gods (eg Jupiter, Juno & Minerva) bringing in another similarity with the monotheistic christians that appeared in Paul's letter to the... erm... Romans.

Edited by Snow Dog - March 11 2012 at 18:11

I got listen, 1777!

lucas wrote: Adrian Snell Fireflake (1975) is a prog rock album.

progresssaurus wrote: Do you know some prog-rock author, which lyrics are religious, but not controversial potentially for nobody?

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Ambient Hurricanes wrote: progresssaurus wrote: Do you know some prog-rock author, which lyrics are religious, but not controversial potentially for nobody?    No.  No matter how gentle you are about it, some people are going to be offended to see the slightest bit of religion creeping into the public sphere. I don't believe that's the problem. Most of us are offended when attacked, that's all. BTW: Kerry Livegren Iván

I'm offended by the notion that we don't already have religion all over the public sphere.  Most people would just like to be free to believe or not to believe.


Edited by Slartibartfast - March 12 2012 at 19:24

cstack3 wrote: .    Otherwise, I tend to stay clear of Christianity and music.  Being raised in the Catholic faith was bad enough!   I still have nightmares from what the nuns showed to us as youngsters.  Fire & Brimstone stuff.

Ambient Hurricanes wrote:  Freedom of religion =/= freedom from religion (meaning that everyone should have the right to their own beliefs but should not have the right to isolate everyone else's.)

Adequate secularism of public sphere (state institutions etc.) in some countries seems to be coherent product  of historical evolution from many-sided religious intolerance (I'm atheist, so I must to say: include militant atheists)  over simply tolerance to another believers  (=no criminalization minorities) into fully equal coexistence.  But world is in globalizing process now. Old problems revival again and reactions are allergic sometimes - excessive exaggerated secularism.

In the world of prog-rock we have all in our hands. I can listen any religious lyrics in spite of the fact that some texts are  polemical or committed for some vision of the world.

I can paraphrase  words of Jesus by  Matthew 15,11:

Not that which goeth into the [ears] defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

Edited by progresssaurus - March 13 2012 at 07:00

Dean's posting of the "warning" sticker reminded me of my time spend working in a CD store (remember those?).  What I found was that young kids were drawn to albums with those stickers like moths to the flame (so to speak).  They would come to the counter to confirm that what they were buying was NOT the censored version of the album (labels would put out alternate versions of albums with the bad words bleeped out).  Those stickers were what told these kids what albums they really needed to get.  So in that sense, it was a completely stupid and counterproductive thing to fight to have them put on albums.  Also, there is no law that prevented us from selling them to anybody of any age.  Our store had a policy that if someone appeared to be under the age of 17, we would not sell the album to them without parental approval (either in person or over the phone).  If we were busy, that policy would be conveniently forgotten.  Anyway, for me, it was a lesson that those who feel the need to censor words or ideas they find offensive or don't approve of would do well to learn.............forbidden fruit is the most tempting, especially for young people.


As to Sola Scriptura, this in not the first time I've heard a Catholic express offense and dislike of Morse for creating the album.  To me, the strangest thing is that these Christians can't tolerate Morse's lyrics, but that I as a non-believer and therefore arguably the biggest target of Morse's lyrics, have no problem whatsoever with his attempts to "preach" to me (I don't really think he is trying to do that though, but for the sake of argument let's assume he is).  To me it simply points out how belief can so easily be turned into "truth" and then into rigid dogma.  I am quite thankful that artists are, for the moment, able to express whatever they wish in their music and lyrics and that I, as an active listener, can take it or leave it.

I appreciate the positive message and intent of most Christian prog, even if I don't believe or relate to any of the actual messages in the lyrics.
 

brainstormer wrote: Did you guys forget to mention some of Rick Wakeman's solo albums? Starting back to "No Earthly Connection" there is definitely a strong spiritual message.  Some of them use direct Biblical passages.