Monday, November 06, 2006

I'm Crying Again

As a follow-up to my previous post, I thought of a song by Mark Heard that expresses my feeling about how modern Christianity focuses all of their energy into the very thing that Jesus himself seemed to warn against -- while ignoring the very problems (people in need) that he said his followers should look after.

Evangelical Christians seem to be turning into modern day Pharisees. Some day I am going to do a post that spells out the similarities line by line.

I don't know if Christians getting involved in politics must become hypocrites by necessity, but it sure seems like those who preached piety in public life the loudest and attained the greatest amount of political power have been exposed to be the biggest hypocrites -- preaching discrimination against sinners, while committing the same sins in private. I remember hearing something about "don't point out the splinter in your neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in your own."

As I posted before, there are four basic corrupting influences. Politicians -- even Christian ones -- are susceptible to the corruption of power. Jesus said "you cannot serve God and money." You can say the same about power.

I'M CRYING AGAIN
by Mark Heard.

The headlines in the dailies are the horses in a race
They lead you to believe that life and death are commonplace
Some believe it
And I'm crying again

I heard some good intentions and not all were second-hand
But bravado and pretension will not feed a hungry man
It's been said before
And I'm crying again

Very quietly
The world loses blood overnight
Without a fight
In the morning
The sickness will hide in the light
Out of sight

Running from a world that they will never understand
The masses ride their passions with the throttle in their hands
Nobody knows
What is waiting around the bend

Now and then the criminal in my skin lets out a sigh
He'd like to think he's innocent
But he cannot tell a lie
Truth is like a knife
And I'm crying again

From Stop the Dominoes Thanks to the Mark Heard Lyric Project

2 comments:

jasonk said...

OH BUDDY.
You are singing my song now. I love Mark Heard. He is a sorely missed voice for Christianity, a man way ahead of his time.
I just came across your site, and see myself adding it to my favorites already.
Thanks!

OkieLawyer said...

Jason:

You said it. He was way ahead of his time. He was truly underappreciated as an artist.

You will be glad to know that I am far from finished in posting interpretations of his songs in relation to current events.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to add anything regarding Mark's songs that you think have some relevance to anything said on this board.