And speaking of the lord…

Someone doing a late nite search came across this blog entry of mine and decided to respond. Here is what they wrote:

Dear MXV,

Just happened to stumble across the post…..

I am one of “them”.

I am a born again, Bible believing Christian. I happen to attend the church that was responsible for producing the “They Sold Their Souls for Rock & Roll” video, so I know what I’m talking about here….

You made a lot of stereotypical comments in your post that I’d like to clear up if I could. Here are some facts everyone should know.

1. True Christianity is not an “organized” religion. Our church is non-denominational. We are not Catholics. For the record, we are against most of what the Catholic church teaches, and most of the Christians who go to my church are ex-catholics who came out of that lie. Nor do we support, condone or defend priests who “diddle” on kids. God doesn’t condone it either. We simply attempt to live by what the Bible teaches, because we believe it is the word of God.

2. This video was made and produced by people who were FANATICS of rock in times past. Our pastor, who narrates the video, was a long hair hippie stoner guitarist who didnt know or even care if there was a God or a devil….until the devil revealed himself in his life supernaturally through the music he was writing. These experiences were so frightening that he called out to GOD (who supposedly didn’t exist in his mind) and the experiences stopped. There is more to the story….but to give a little background, my pastor has been doing this type of presentation for over 20 years. There was a prior version of this video made in 1992 called “Rock & Roll Sorcerers of the New Age Revolution” Myself and my pastor have both been on the side of the fence you’re on. We were raised in religion-free environments also.

3. We don’t want anyone’s money. We’re not trying to “brainwash” anyone. We don’t convert anyone. (Only God does that). We’re not even religious. We just happen to simply believe in Jesus Christ, and believe what He said. I have given away countless copies of both videos because I believe that the documentation presented is unarguable. I disagree that the information is “taken out of context”. Everything in the videos is carefully documented and is shown in the credits. Like you, I scoffed at it at first, because I didnt WANT to believe it. But eventually I came to see that it was unarguable. If you were to see the first video, it might be a little clearer. I can send anyone a copy who wants one, for free.

4. To sum it up in a nutshell, if you knew that a building was on fire and was going to burn down, you would warn people, right? You wouldn’t just stand there and watch them burn to death. That’s what we are trying to do with this video. We believe people are plugging their heads into spiritually poisoning music, and we are warning them. Do we believe that ALL music is satanic? No.

5. There was a comment made about pointing the finger at the parents for the problems of youth instead of the movies and the rock music. What you don’t acknowledge is that the modern rock and roll we take for granted today started back in the 50’s and 60’s. Back then, Rock music was “underground”. Parents of the older generation didn’t like it or listen to it, but their KIDS DID. and now that music and message is MAINSTREAM. Those same kids grew up and are now raising this generation. Today, you can hear Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest in Cadillac and Burger King commercials. So, in a sense, you could say the parents are part of the problem, no?

6. Who is the most important person in your life? Think about this person for a moment. Now, Lets just say the world at large created a multi-billion dollar media industry (i.e. music, movies, TV) that set out to insult, discredit, humiliate, contradict, laugh at, blaspheme, ridicule and generally lie about and hate that person who is the most important to you. Wouldn’t you be a little upset? Wouldn’t you want to tell people the truth? That’s how it is with us crazy Christians. We worship God. We live for Jesus Christ. He is the most important person to us. Is it a coincidence that Jesus Christ is the most attacked person in rock music and motion pictures? When was the last time you heard a band blaspheme buddha?

7. You said you didn’t know if there was a heaven or hell, or if there was a God or devil, or what happens when we die. Don’t you want to know? If I come to you and say I have the answers to these awesome questions are you going to slam the door in my face? Or would you give me a chance to state my case? If you don’t WANT to believe in Christ, OK……but at least be honest and admit it. Don’t slam the messenger if you don’t like the message. “The LAPD is hiring if you want to cop out.”

And to which I have this reply…

Jaymes,
My comments are no more stereotypical than yr response to my comments. You are every bit as full of hot air and nonsense as the people who knock on my door looking for donations or want to convert me, or those people who used to sell flowers at the airports (are the moonies still around even?!).

1. Those kid-touchers are claiming to be living by what that book teaches them too, so where in the book does it say to touch little kids? Are you telling me yr little group is not an organized religoin, so it is an unorganized religion? Is it not a religion? It is, so what is the difference, you have this book, which you take as something other than a work of fiction, and you abide by it because you think you are doing something wrong if the book tells you that it is wrong. While I fully agree that such things as killing someone is wrong (well, unless they really have it coming), telling me that having sex with a woman is wrong if I don’t have a ring on my finger saying I’m married to her and is entitled to half my stuff when she leaves me. That is ridiculous.

2. Did it occur to you for one minute that this admitted drug user saw these things BECAUSE HE WAS ON DRUGS?! He was a hippie, and everyone knows a hippie’s diet consists of pot brownies and acid. So I think he was tripping when he “saw the devil and then god saved him” more than it being some real supernatural occurence.

3. Are you telling me that in yr church there is no collection basket passed around, or some place for the patrons to “donate” to the church. And by passing around this video, which is chock full of yr religious propaganda, you are indeed attempting to convert or brainwash people, hoping to “get thru to them”. I’m not interested in yr video, I don’t need to be “saved” and by listening to music, this alleged devil is not going to condemn me to some “hell”.

4. If the building in question happens to be on roscoe/california street in chicago, and it was where I used to work, I would absolutely watch it burn, with many of the people inside. There is NOTHING at all satanic or evil about britanny spears, ok, maybe the fact that she banged that moron fred durst is evil, or at least stupid, but she, and countless others, most bubblegum pop, are not out shilling for satan. If you people need some cause to get behind, go attack the churchs that house these kid-touchers, or fix the traffic problem on the roads.

5. No, because music is not making kids grow up to be drug dealers and murderers, but bad parenting contributes a lot to the person someone grows up to be.

6. That person would probably be me. But in yr case, people like you are the very reason for most of the attacks, because you are out trying to brainwash people saying the things they like are bad, all in the name of this jesus fellow.

7. Unless you can bring one of my dead relatives to my house to have them tell me what happened to them after they died, you have no concrete proof of what happens once we expire. And since you will be unable to provide said relative, you can save yr little pamphlets and drawings and fiction for the weak minded.

Thank you for yr comment, for it gave me plenty to write about today. I’ve been in need of material for awhile now. People can beleive what they want. I don’t agree with yr interests, but I’m not putting together documentaries trying to tell the masses that what you are into is wrong and that is where we are different and where my problem with all this lies. I’ll voice my opinion in my personal blog here, but I’m not going to televise something hoping to gain some “converts” or “save” people from what I see as the evils of organized religion (or cults). You people seem to feel the need to and it is rather irritating.

And, unlike the blog entry that inspired this guy’s response, this entry was written vicodin-free.