Relevancy22: Contemporary Process Christianity: Post-Evangelic Topics and Theology: Punk Rocker and Poet Patti Smith - "Advice to the Young" & beautiful rendition of "O, Holy Night"

Quotes & Sayings

We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Punk Rocker and Poet Patti Smith - "Advice to the Young" & beautiful rendition of "O, Holy Night"

Patti Smith | Trampin' Band

Patti Smith | photo by Angelo Cricchi

"O'Holy Night" Patti Smith

Patti Smith managed to make one of the most beloved Christmas hymns all the more exquisite with her gorgeous rendition of 'O Holy Night' at the 2013 Vatican concert. It's little wonder Pope Francis invited the singer back to perform again at this year's show.

With the Vatican orchestra playing back up, Smith's voice resonated throughout the Conciliation Auditorium in Rome, where the 2014 concert will also take place on Dec. 13. The carol's lyrics -- "Led by the light of faith serenely beaming" -- stand out in the wake of Smith's recent interview with HuffPost Religion senior editor Paul Raushenbush, during which the artist discussed her personal relationship with faith:

Spiritually, one has to have the ability to be lifted up themselves. You can be inspired by a rock-and-roll song but spirituality is innate. Someone can make you feel good or happy, but the actual framework of spirituality is within you.

- Huffington Post, 11/28/2014

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Wikipedia Biography - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_Smith

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.

Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work is a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture,and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. She is also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

"Gloria" MENU 0:00 "Because the Night" MENU 0:04 "Dancing Barefoot" MENU 0:03
Problems playing these files? See media help.

Patti Smith Official Website - http://www.pattismith.net/intro.html

[HD] "People Have the Power" Patti Smith / Arisa
(with a very short Spanish translation)

Patti Smith: Advice to the young

LISTEN: PATTI SMITH'S SPIRITUAL WISDOM AND PROPHETIC POWER

Patti Smith - Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears For Fears) - HD

Patti Smith: EXTENDED INTERVIEW on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight

Patti Smith's Polaroid Images -

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/patti-smith-land-250-polaroid-photographs

Patti Smith's Quotes -

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/patti_smith.html

Patti Smith - Gloria - 1976 - Stockholm

The Story behind Patti Smith's "Gloria" -

http://www.covermesongs.com/2014/08/the-story-behind-patti-smiths-gloria.html

Lyrics: Gloria, by Patti Smith

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine
Meltin' in a pot of thieves, wild card up my sleeve
Thick heart of stone, my sins my own
They belong to me, me

People say, "Beware", but I don't care
The words are just rules and regulations to me, me

I, I walk in a room, you know I look so proud
I'm movin' in this here atmosphere, well, any thing's allowed
And I go to this here party and I just get bored
Until I look out the window, see a sweet young thing

Humpin' on the parking meter, leanin' on the parking meter
Oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
And I got this crazy feeling and then I'm gonna make her mine
Ooh, I'll put my spell on her

Here she comes, walkin' down the street
Here she comes, comin' through my door
Here she comes, crawlin' up my stair
Here she comes, waltzin' through the hall

In a pretty red dress
And oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
And I got this crazy feeling that I'm gonna uh, unh, make her mine

And then I hear this knockin' on my door
Hear this knockin' on my door
And I look up into the big tower clock
And say, "Oh, my God here's midnight"

And my baby is walkin' through the door
Leanin' on my couch she whispers to me and I take the big plunge
And oh, she was so good and oh, she was so fine
And I'm gonna tell the world that I just uh, unh, made her mine

And I said darling, tell me your name, she told me her name
She whispered to me, she told me her name
And her name is, and her name is, and her name is, and her name is
G L O R I I I, G L O R I A

Gloria, G L O R I A, Gloria, G L O R I A
Gloria, G L O R I A, Gloria

I was at the stadium
There were twenty thousand girls called their names out to me
Marie and Ruth, but to tell you the truth
I didn't hear them, I didn't see

I let my eyes rise to the big tower clock
And I heard those bells chimin' in my heart
Going ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong
Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong

Counting the time, then you came to my room
And you whispered to me and we took the big plunge
And oh, you were so good, oh, you were so fine
And I gotta tell the world that I make her mine, make her mine
Make her mine, make her mine, make her mine, make her mine
G L O R I A

Gloria, G L O R I A, Gloria, G L O R I A
Gloria, G L O R I A, Gloria

And the tower bells chime, ding dong they chime
They're singing, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine"

Gloria, G L O R I A, Gloria, G L O R I A
Gloria, G L O R I A, Gloria, G L O R I A
Gloria, G L O R I A, Gloria, G L O R I A