Brian McLaren–the songwriter?

I recently stumbled upon a site that informed me that Brian McLaren had recently created a cd of music that he had created in order to, inspire people of faith to live as agents of God’s love and justice in our world, in the way of Jesus. This cd is entitled Songs for a Revolution of Hope, Vol.1. (Meaning we have more fun to come with vol. 2) I, of course, decided to look at some of his lyrics, and have decided to share my comments on some his songs here on my humble blog. As a whole, his album reeks of emergentness, but I will limit my comments to individual songs.

In “11-57″ (a song that talks about our “suicidal system,”), McLaren says, It must be redirected and we must be retrained…to reclaim our true identity in harmony and care with saving love for everyone to free all creatures everywhere from the suicidal system. Hmm. Where to begin. First this implies, that we (as humans) have the power to make things right in the world (without God?). Saving love for everyone. If we could all just learn to love each other, that would solve every problem this world has ever had. To free all creatures. Like not just humans, but free the trees? and the squirrels? and the termites? Cause that doesn’t sound like panentheism at all. Also, in this song, McLaren rhymes defection…direction…reconnection…resurrection all in one line. And that just really bugs me.

Then there’s “Canticle of the Sun.” I’m just gonna let you read the words.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Sun,

Who brings the light of day;

He’s beautiful and radiant, like you!

Be praised, my lord, through Sister Moon,

Through all her sister stars

They’re luminous and wonderful, like you!

 

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Wind

And Sister Cloud and Storm,

They bring flowers from Mother Earth for you.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Bird,

You gave him wings to fly

He sings with joy and soars up high for you.

Through Sister Water, Lord, be praised,

She’s humble, useful, too

She’s precious, clear and pure, O Lord, like you.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

Whose beauty glows at night

He’s cheerful, powerful, and strong, like you.

 Creepy. It sounds very…naturey. Don’t get me wrong, God should be praised due to his amazing creation, but I’m not about to start calling Lake Michigan, Sister Water.

“Lets Confess It”– Now I’ll confess that I haven’t listened to this song, but there are enough words in it to be a rap song. Just to give you some comparison, I feel that hymns tend to be rather wordy. The word count of all 5 verses of “Be Thou My Vision” is 168 words. “Let’s Confess It” has 397 words. Perhaps he should learn to summarize.

“Chant”–I’d like to say that I’ve always found chants (as in the Gregorian type) to be kinda scary and not super pleasant to listen to. But, you know, whatever floats your boat. However, this “Chant” by McLaren comes with the following directions:

You can use this chant form by putting a passage of Scripture in singable lines. Any line that is printed or projected at the left margin is sung on a single tone until the last word, where melody goes down a full note and then back up to the original note. Any line that is printed or projected with indentation (or perhaps with a different color) is sung on a single tone, but then at the last word, the voices rise by a minor third interval and then back to the original note. Of course, there are many other forms of simple Scripture-singing too – and new forms waiting to be invented as well.

I get it now.

“Hymn of Remorse”–We covered your colorful earth with grey cement. We cut down trees and stripped the soil wherever we went. We scarred the hills for gold and coal… We paved paradise and put up a parking lot… The noise of traffic is drowning out the songbird’s song. Your voice within us telling us that we’ve gone wrong. Holy political agenda, Batman!

“Love and Justice”–The factories breathe acid/and leak into the stream. And every day the earth gets hotter/ who will stop it? Ooh, ooh, this one’s about global warming. When will we wake up from/this self-destructive scheme, So everything can change … God’s kingdom coming! Cause if we could just stop global warming from happening, we would usher in the kingdom.

“If We Don’t Have Love”– the chorus of this one is Hey-Hey, Ho-ho. We have nothing if we don’t have love. Hey-hey, Ho-ho. We have nothing if don’t have love. Can’t you just picture McLaren hip-hopping across the stage…

So in conclusion, I probably (make that definitely) won’t be buying this album. McLaren, don’t quit your day job. On second thought…

-Ry