Terrapin Worship
I have a hard time with most aspects of hippie culture. That said, I used […]
I have a hard time with most aspects of hippie culture. That said, I used to be one. I have a solid resume in that department, multiple Grateful Dead concerts included, and still drive an Hybrid (which gives me some street cred in the Whole Foods parking lot), but that’s not really what this post is about…
Have you already come across the video footage (below) of a recent Rainbow Gathering? Watching it made me both laugh and cry. Then it made me wonder. You only need to watch a few seconds of it at random to understand this post, btw. The entire clip features 101 minutes of pure, unadulterated, modern-day “pagan worship.” Therein we find humanism, pantheism, secularism, antinomianism, atheism, romanticism, sentimentality, and mysticism, among others. It epitomizes the type of stuff that turns my stomach (in a human sense), but it also intrigues me (i.e., in a Christian sense).
What to say about it? If you prefer a more traditional form of worship to that of contemporary stuff, you may feel affirmed in watching this. The reason has to do with the obvious fact that, in some ways, this material resembles (at least in style) a huge percentage of contemporary Christian worship. Yet it could not be less Christian. I don’t necessarily think there is a connection between contemporary styles of worship and the loss of faith, but there there may be. Tangent: the band Joy Electric simultaneously present a strong argument for and against such a stance.
Either way, it is also worth noting that worship is not a uniquely Christian phenomenon. These people are indeed doing the same kind of thing Christians do on a Sunday, yet the theological material that governs the two philosophies could not be more divergent.
If you were to suggest that, on an ideological level, sound Christian doctrine is just the opposite of whatever it is that these people believe, I would be inclined to agree with you, even without a detailed analysis. Perhaps I should be more careful. But these are the kinds of thoughts that come to mind as I watch these folks doing their thing.
Similarly, if the Gospel can be defined at all apaphatically (i.e., through opposites) by looking at all the things that it is not, then this video may even be an avant-garde form of preaching the Gospel. Now I’m really out in left-field. (Note: these are just thoughts, meditations, not doctrinal statements ripe for confession.)
But does the Lutheran notion of
subcontrario, have any relevancy when dealing with/making sense of this material? I do think opposing forces have an impact upon much of our inner life (see also: Romans 7,
Gal 5:17). Does being repulsed by the opposite of Christianity drive a person into the cross of Christ? If nothing else, it seems to help move things along in that direction.
It is material that begs the question: does riding in a VW Bus make you want to buy a Volvo? Does it inspire a new-found open-mindedness where yachting is concerned? How many former deadheads now wear Weejuns? And how many of them now put their faith in Christ? And, for that matter, what is to be said about jam bands who try to reconcile the two extremes into a popped-collar-hippie hybrid? Is that the most secular position of all, uniting hippie theology with materialistic instinct? For what it’s worth, my band in college, Three-Way, once opened for
Moe, and my return to church involvement at that point was imminent. For that reason, I associate jam bands with the prevenient grace of God. Don’t you?
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Yes, this is an interesting pattern. I think your father has observed that this device is at work in those who move from high church <–to–> low church, and vice versa.
Interestingly, Aristotle and Hegel pushed for a mean/synthesis between the extremes, which some might argue represents Anglican liturgy. I wonder if folks just get burned out, and feel the need to jump to the other side of the fence for a while (Anne Rice, perhaps?).
I would still like to have that VW bus, a cooler full of cheap beer, and as many of you guys as would fit (without scrimping on the beer) crammed in for a cross-country road trip, arguing theology all the way.
I doubt seriously that anybody who "prefers traditional worship" would make the mistake of "feeling affirmed" by this video or thinking it had anything to do with Christian worship.
And it's hard to believe that this is a "recent" gathering; it looks at least 40 years old….
(In fact, I would suspect that people who prefer traditional worship could soon be won over to contemporary Christian worship after viewing this video….)
Glad to see you find this to be thought-provoking too. From your second comment, I infer that we don't have the same reaction to this type of music, but I guess there's no accounting for taste, and I appreciate your engaging with it too.
Btw, my favorite album by the Dead, these days, is probably Blues for Allah, and I still love "Fire on the Mountain", an incredibly catchy song about a long-distance runner in the 1970s:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3419/3720112784_efd85dac7a.jpg
Fire on the Mountain is good…Franklin's Tower is dynamite as well.
Cornell 77
Not sure if you were talking to me, John Zahl, but if you were: I was pointing out that this video allows Christians to realize how much they have in common with each other, even though we disagree about many things.
That, in other words, it could make people who like traditional worship (I'm one of them, actually) realize that contemporary Christian worship really isn't that bad after all! At least contempory Christian worship speaks a language I understand, whatever my problems with the church might be….
"Cornell 77"? Is that where and when the video was made, are you saying? I'm not surprised, if so.
(And if the comment was just random letters and numbers, I think it's a really interesting coincidence and probably right….)
Hi BLS, yes, now I see what you mean. We have a lot in common indeed (e.g., shared hope, shared need, etc.).
Josh is referring to a legendary Grateful Dead bootleg from Ithica, NY at Cornell in May of 1977. It's a classic among Grateful Dead fans, and we used to listen to it together years ago, when Josh and I were roommates. Fond memories!
Cornell 77 from Josh:
Precious Memories!
Fire into What?
My sister is a pagan priestess in one of those religions. She was probably in this video. She knows some of the people in the video for sure. She is on a three week festival tour right now.
Watch out, John, to quote the narrator, people aren't so "foul" and they're going to "turn this thing around." If our hippie friend can sell that anthropology to our brothers in Sudan and Rwanda, then i'm on board….
Hey, I go to Rainbow Gatherings all the time, and I'm a plain old atheist. None of the stuff you listed means anything to me at all. Couldn't care less. I'm not there to worship anything any one way or another.
The Gathering is not a religious event in any sense. If it was, I wouldn't attend.
A VW bus with a Porsche engine ??? Those prep school guys are all elitist snobs, and for good reason, they even do "hippie" better!!! đŸ˜‰