Friday Pick of the Week

This past Saturday night, several friends and I navigated the dark streets of Lipscomb, Alabama in search of Gip's Place. The trek was well worth it. If you've never heard of Gip's, take five minutes and watch this:



As you can tell, it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in Birmingham. Without further ado, Earl Williams has got his mojo working.

Friday Pick of the Week

Happy Friday, friends. You know what they say about Friday Pick of the Week? You can never have enough Kiwis. It has been a year since Brooke Frasier graced us with her lovely vocals, and so the time has come to head back to New Zealand. When this track from The Naked and Famous's debut album Passive Me, Aggressive You comes on the shuffle, we dance. So get to dancing.

On Being Right

In addition to, or perhaps at the root of, Dan Kinnaman's reasons young Christians are leaving the church, I would like to add rightness. We are a religion obsessed with the answers, and those answers have driven divisions, from congregational splits to denominational schisms to bloody wars. Last week, Cathleen Falsani at Sojourners published a great piece on the prevalence and divisiveness of smugness in the Church. I argue that young people, who tend to be more open to "living in the question," find the certitude of the Church particularly difficult to handle. From issues of science to sexuality to politics, Christians have no qualms claiming to be on God's side, as though they have transcended the difficulties posed in scripture and culture to arrive as the Lord's mouthpiece. Increasingly influenced by a globalizing world, in which varied worldviews and perspectives collide to recreate one another, young Christians are acutely aware that anyone declaring to have everything figured out is unquestionably full of it. Call it post-modernism or call it a cop-out, but Millennial Christians are increasingly cautious about the unquestionable Word of God, particularly when interpreted and disseminated by a remarkably homogenous group of individuals. Or at least that's what I think... Thoughts?

Friday Pick of the Week

Happy Friday, friends. If you like the Polyphonic Spree, I think you'll quickly realize my affection for today's choice. If you don't like the Polyphonic Spree, you need to lighten up.
As I've mentioned, lately I've been listening to a good bit of folk and bluegrass, with an appreciation for trends that harken back to artists like Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros pull the sound off well, particularly on their second album Here, which debuted this week. While I was hoping to include a song from that album, I couldn't resist choosing this rendition of "Home." I'm not sure they are even aware of the audience, which makes it even more beautiful.  Enjoy.