Loyal Traitor

Lyle Only Knows

Hey Now, Hey Now, Don't Dream It's Over

I've been toying with the idea of reviving my blog life.  It's been pathetic and suffering for quite some time.  There's all sorts of goodness floating around in my head and journals from the last year or two.  I've been letting them "marinate in my head" to quote a less than stellar metaphor from a Bible study teacher I know.  I'll put those on the grill later.

Today, as I sit alone at my house watching college football games, my blog life is gonna go all Frankenstein.  Today, I deliver what was for me the Best of 2007.

One note: I began working on this back when my friend Ian first sent me his list.  There were several albums when I compiled my list of 2007 albums that I felt deserved a bit more attention than I'd given them.   Actually, there are still a few that deserve similar treatment, but time has expired for 2007.  The list must be finalized.

Top 15
1 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
2 Radiohead - In Rainbows
3 Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
4 The National - Boxer
5 Waterdeep - Heart Attack Time Machine
6 Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
7 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
8 Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature
9 Feist - The Reminder
10 Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
11 Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
12 Lyle Lovett - It's Not Big It's Large
13 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
14 The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
15 The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse

The OK (and may have deserved more PT) But Not Top 15 Material, At Least Not Tonight (alphabetical)
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Andrew Osenga - Letters To The Editor, Volume I (The only EP on my list and only because my name's in the liner notes.)
Andy Gullahorn - Reinventing The Wheel
Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
Caedmon's Call - Overdressed
The Cobalt Season - In Search Of A Unified Theory
Eluvium - Copia
Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday
Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
Lost In The Trees - Time Taunts Me
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Over The Rhine - The Trumpet Child
Pela - Anytown Graffiti
The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army
Rickie Lee Jones - Sermon On Exposition Boulevard
Robbie Seay Band - Give Yourself Away
Travis - The Boy With No Name

The One Album I Heard and Didn't Like And Probably Never Will
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

That's it.  2007 summed up in a blog post.  The interweb is an amazing thing.  You can take an entire year and sum it up just like that.  2008 has some big shoes to fill.  I honestly don't think it's possible.   Especially after seeing Stereogum's list of 2008 albums. 

2007, I hope it was as good for you as it was for me. 

This Just In (sort of): Doug Pagitt Loves Yoga, But Not Poorly Worded Questions and John MacArthur Loves Knowledge, But Not Doug Pagitt So Much

In case you missed it, a while back Doug Pagitt and John MacArthur had a good 'ole fashioned duel on CNN(?) about Yoga and its implications for Christianity.  MacArthur sounded like a Gnostic.  A soft one, but a Gnostic nonetheless.  Pagitt got distracted about what Jesus would do. 

Shortly thereafter Tony Jones spoke at University Baptist Church in Waco about the video and the apparent Gnosticism coming from Dr. John. 

Today, Pagitt posted quotes from a Crosswalk.com blog that quoted MacArthur speaking about Pagitt.  Apparently, MacArthur is responding to this interview (part 2) where Pagitt and Todd Friel discuss the idea of Hell.  And by discuss I mean that Friel seems to invite Pagitt on the show to discuss how the Emergents can address the disconnection between "profession" and "possession" of faith and then seems to jump the track and ambush Pagitt. 

I'm not defending Pagitt on either issue, although, I think Yoga's not such a bad thing.  I guess MacArthur wouldn't care much for Karate or Tae Kwon Do, either, although neither of those activities have gotten much negative press from the Christian community.  It could be that Pagitt ends up a heretic.  I don't bank on him or his theology so that's no big deal in my book.  I like the guy and like his thoughts most of the time.  And I feel similarly about Dr. John.  I think he follows Jesus and I think he handles and teaches the Scriptures well.  His commentaries are top notch as far as I've interacted with them.  I think he loves the knowledge more than he should and I think declaring that Pagitt is not a pastor, or even a Christian, and that Solomon's Porch is not a church is among the nastiest of things.  And to say that a pastor and a church has to be "defined" biblically seems slightly Pharisaical and the sort of comments that were made to Jesus.  Granted, Jesus was making all things new and Pagitt is not.  I also take major issue with MacArthur's definition or declaration of the church's function.  Not that he's wrong.  Paul clearly stated that we're to guard the truth.  But Jesus said the only cause for which we're to live is loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ouselves.  Nothing about guarding the truth.  That may be part of what it is to love God and our neighbors, but it seems to me that to stray from the wording of Jesus here is to stray from the truth we're to be defending. 

A Note on the Title

I really like the idea of "a loyal traitor".  Or rather, I identify with "a loyal traitor."  To be honest, I'm not crazy about the idea.  I wish i wasn't one.  But I am.  So in some sense I like the idea because it gives me insight and knowledge of myself.  I like it and hate it because it takes me deeper into the cavernous depths that are inside and makes me face the demon-me that lives down there, but it also reminds me that the demon-me isn't the only me. 

I first discovered the phrase in the summer of 2004 in Philip Yancey's book, Reaching for the Invisible God.  Truth be told, though, I was intimately familiar with the concept long before I read it in Yancey's book.  I had embodied the concept for nearly twenty-one years after all.  Beginning with my parents and family as a child and on to friends and Jesus and all of creation.  One moment I am loyal and willing to follow to the death.  The next I shrink in fear and trade the best I have for a bag of cash that won't even cover dinner.  I have yet to find another term that more closely expresses the condition of my spirituality and humanity. Anytime I start looking for ideas to capture myself in a quick phrase, I always fall back to this one as I have done here.