Some Say “God Saved the World”

Over at Killing the Buddha, we’ve just published our first-ever video—the music video for my song “God Saved the World” (previously published on The Row Boat last May).

A conversation about it with Jeff Sharlet today made me think I should explain the role of theological imagery in my little songs a bit—not that they should be taken too, too seriously. Obviously, these days, Christian music is in a pretty terrible rut. The task, as I see it, is to combine heartfelt piety with honest uncertainty. “God Saved the World” begins with the words, “Some say…” in order to cast the only certainty about theology into sociology. That doesn’t mean they’re any less real or true, and I sing them with conviction. And then the theology is practicable. After the instrumental interlude, verses about Bible stories give way to stories about worldly things, though clothed in the same tropes of creation and salvation. I am grateful for those tropes because they give me the language to speak of two aspects of worldly life: love is the first, then the act of growing up into oneself.

I don’t know what to say about the cows. They happened to be who I encountered on the road to visit my friend Brother Benedict.

And sorry about the lousy quality. I filmed it on my tiny digital photo camera.

We’d like to do a lot more audio and video over at KtB, so if you’ve got any good stuff somehow related to religion lying around, send it along to us. Writing, of course, is always welcome too!