Contemporary Christian Music

Here are some thoughts I had while reading a friend's blog(http://www.kewp.blogspot.com/):

Contemporary Christian Music introduced me to heavy metal. My mom bought a Stryper tape to see what a Christian hard rock band was like and the rest was history. I still have my Christian hard rock, heavy metal, and even death metal, but my growing theology moved farther and farther away form the simplistic and sometimes even harmful CCM type, I also moved into secular heavy metal more and more. Not quite what CCM intended!My Stryper, Barren Cross, Deliverance, and Vengence Rising tapes still rock, but the CD's of their secular counterparts get more play. Interestingly bands like Metallica and Slayer have some prophetic things to say about Christianity and social issues, such as war. Jesus an the Devil get along well in my music collection. I hear more hate from Jesus' supposed spokesmen featured on the news, than from the pernicious influence of rock and roll.

Gospel of Thomas 77

Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
Q-Thomas Reader, p. 147

cf. John 8:12-20; John 1:1-18; Proverbs 8:22-31; Proverbs 3:19-20

Light and demiurges and hypostases and lions and tigers and bears, Oh My!

Misc Theology - Revelation/Inspiration

Revelation/Inspiration is not God revealing facts or doctrine; Revelation/inspiration is God's revealing Godself to humans. Scripture is a record of this experience of God and the author's interpretation of this experience.

Crazy Pet People

Did you ever make fun of people who buy Christmas presents for their pets. Well, when you and your significant other get a house, a dog, and don't have any kids...

P.S. Thaddaeus or The Cat will never wear a sweater or a halloween costume of any type.

The origins of A Progressive Pretzel Town

I started this site because I wanted to share some of my misc thoughts with others; especially my theological/philosophical or political musings. I was using myspace, but thought that blogspot would reach a wider audience with links of my friend's blogs.

The title is part serious and part silly; like the mood I want to create with my blog.

The term "progressive" refers to my progressive/liberal intellectual orientation. The name "Pretzel Town" comes from the Adult Swim late night cartoon Sealab on Cartoon Network. In one episode the character Captain Murphey is upset by something another character does. He says to the other character: "You just bought yourself a ticket to pretzel town buddy." (This, like everything else on the Adult Swim shows is not really supposed to make any sense...it is just random humor.) In the show "Pretzel Town" is bad, but since I have decided to define the terms of my own discourse, "Pretzel Town" is now good. Kind of like if you say something is bad, it may mean that it is really good.