The Annoying Voice of Truth

Every time I travel to a new town, one of the first things I do is peruse the radio stations to see what I might like.  There are a few things I listen for:  sports talk, classic pop, eighties, even symphonies at times.  I've also found myself listening to NPR stations lately.  Although I disagree with their blatantly liberal slant, a lot of their news is different and interesting.  I can handle a different point of view until I can't handle it. 

My work brings me to many different locales within the region.  This week I found myself in Poughkeepsie, New York.  I was travelling in radio silence that morning, just enjoying the quiet drive.  Upon entering the area of destination, I switched on the radio.  The fuzzy static of a station from my home area met my ears, and I quickly hit the back search button.  Funny note here: I can scan forward through the stations and hit certain ones, then when I scan backwards, I'll hit ones that the forward scan missed.  Just thought you should know.  As the backward scan hit the first station, an annoying voice hit me full on.

Imagine Mr Magoo (for you young'uns, youtube it), but with a much, much slower voice, and some very interesting hyper-enunciation.  The gentleman speaking was obviously quite aged, and not prone to generous verbiage.  I can spot most radio preachers within a word or two, and he was definitely one of them.  My hand reached forward to hit the search button again, but I hesitated.  The tone of his voice grated on me, and I wanted desperately to shut him off, but I then wondered what he might have to say.  He was speaking of truth, how God is truth, and there are no lies in him.  This thought, this simple thought, took quite a while for him to get across.  Each word was a burden to listen to.  I would finish his sentences in my head long, and I mean long, before he finished speaking them. 

His message was simple.  His message was biblical.  His message was true.  As painful as it was to listen, I eventually grew a bit fond of his messages.  Yes, I had his station on whenever I was driving, and in fact, I never changed the station while in that town.  We hear a lot in this world.  The tv is always on.  Or the radio is always on.  Or there is always music playing.  Sit in the car?  Radio is on.  Walk in a store?  Music is always playing.  As a society, we have developed a need for background noise.  It becomes odd to sit in silence.  A lot of what we do hear while in public is either news, opinion, or music for the masses.  In this case, I was isolated in my work van, and had the pleasure of listening to a wise old man speak some simple truth.  Annoying as could be, but he was speaking biblical truth. 

I realized this after the first listen I gave him.  I got to the job site, and went to work.  Hours later, I could sort of remember what his voice sounded like, although the memory was a bit faded.  What I remembered clearly were his words of truth.  He was just the messenger, largely unimportant.  What stuck with me was his message.  The message of God's truth. 

If you read into this at all, you'll realize what I'm saying is that I can be annoying.  Just ask anyone who knows me.  I can be.  I don't mean to, I just am.  Sometimes.  If you hang with me long enough, you'll figure that out, and you don't even have to be my smartest friend, which you're not.  You'll also figure out that I don't think of myself as being terribly important.  I'm not.  That is good, and its also bad, in a personal sense.  What is important is the message that I am trying to convey by how I live my life.  If you know me well enough to know that I can be annoying, I hope you also know what I believe. 

Yet another blog that should end here, but it doesn't.  The radio station isn't just an old man with an annoying voice speaking biblical truth.  Its old church music.  Music that I grew up with.  Music that would make my son rip his ears off of his head.  A piano, and voices.  Old church hymns, many of which I knew, and many that I didn't.  I started playing bass guitar a few months ago for our church band, and I love the experience.  I love playing music.  Its just not the same as it used to be. 

Christian  music is different now.  For me, it changed in the late seventies.  I went on a ski trip with our church youth group.  I was in eighth grade, I believe.  We had a singing evangelist join us for the weekend, and it was memorable.  I bought his cassette before he left.  It was the first of countless cassettes and CDs that were to follow.  Even the music back then, especially the Christian rock, is much different from what we have today. 

This radio station played music that I missed.  The simplicity of a choir of voices blending in harmony with just a piano or organ accompaniment draws me in.  Brings me back.  I spent some drive time trying to remember old hymns, and had some luck with the more popular ones.  I remember my dad as preacher leading the songs from up front.  I remembered the sign boards where the hymn numbers were posted.  I remembered a lot about church in the old days, and how we worshipped God back then.   It reminded me that there is no right or wrong way to praise God, as long as the praise is genuine and biblical. 

I enjoyed that time, and look forward to future trips to Poughkeepsie.  I may never do a radio search while there, and that will be fine with me.  I have the rest of the world to search for something that pleases my ears.  But there, I have an annoying old man to speak truth, and music to soothe my thirsty spirit.  Hallelujah!

Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, and the VMA Awards

(I authored the following rant, originally posting it on facebook.  I didn't want to lose it to a busy timeline, so I'm reposting it here.)

After all the hype and anti-hype, I finally broke down and watched the Miley Cyrus video.  I have resisted because I'm not into watching trash like that, but want to stay somewhat relevant with things that are happening in our culture.

All I have heard about lately is the "Miley Cyrus VMA" video.  What I haven't heard about is the "Robin Thicke VMA" video.  Or the "other guy in the sports shirt VMA" video.  Yes, I know Miley was famous for being innocent and all-American, and has turned that ugly corner.  But these other entertainers are just as responsible and culpable for their own behavior as well as the participation in hers.  Do we not care if an adult starts out being despicable?  Is it only news when a formerly innocent child star loses their moral compass?

What about the dancers?  They must approve of this mess.  After all, they are also participating.  How about the audience?  Not all of them approved, but many of them clapped and shouted and screamed.  If they had all sat quietly in protest, how would this number have ended?  
I've also heard talk over the years of Billy Ray, and what he thinks of his daughter.  If someone could post a tweet or an interview with Alan Thicke about this, I'd appreciate it.  He was, after all, a good, well-behaved TV father, a role model attempting to teach his children values and morals.  Did he not believe any of that in real life?  Does he really approve of his son dry-humping a tramp on live TV?  Where are the fathers of any of these entertainers?  Will none of them stand up and say, "I don't approve of my child's behavior.  They've made poor choices and need to reevaluate the direction of their lives."

This isn't the first time we've seen this.  Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Madonna...  there have been many.  But why do these celebrities take the heat for this type of behavior, when the fans are the ones supporting them?  If no one bought their music, they wouldn't happen.  If the dancers didn't agree, they wouldnt dance.  If the producers couldn't profit from it, they wouldn't produce it.
If this is shocking to any of you, wake up.  This is our society, and we support it.  And if you think this is the end, or things will change for the better, guess again.  It will only get worse, and quickly.  The best I can do is to make individual choices, stand by them, and try to influence the world around me for what I believe is right.  And this hasn't been right, for a long time.
I worked all day, but couldn't get the VMA video out of my head.  I specifically didn't discuss the actual performance in my first post, because that wasn't the focus.  But there are some disturbing images here, and I need to speak.

First, Miley emerges from a big teddy bear wearing an outfit with a big goofy bear face displayed on the front.  The big tongue is hanging out, and the ears are covering her breasts.  Apart from the display by Ms Cyrus, her entire set, including dancer apparel, was designed to give one impression:  A young girl.  I would say kindergarten age.  Portraying an innocent girl, her behavior was everything except innocent. 

Mr Thicke is another story.  Apparently, I wasn't the only one to notice that his outfit was exactly like the character in the movie of the same name, Beetlejuice.  So I have to ask, what does a bio-exorcist ghost and a little girl have in common?  Anyone?  Of all the stories I read about this event, none, not ONE, talks about the fact that there's a ghost portraying a sex act with a little girl on live tv. 
Does anyone find this disturbing?  Did you even notice it?  A male ghost having sex with a little girl.  On live tv.  I am having an awful time putting into words how deeply this disturbs me.  The penalty for an adult male having sex with a minor female is prison.  But the outcome of the same act portrayed on a live stage is profit, income, publicity, notoriety?  While the audience, well, some of it, cheers and encourages. 

I've heard it said that maybe the whole VMA fiasco is a distraction to what's going on in Washington.  While we're looking in the direction of VMA, what legislation is Washington trying to sneak through?  What are they doing on Capitol Hill while we debate celebrity entertainers? 
Maybe we have it backwards.  Maybe Washington is the distraction.  Maybe the war in Syria, foreign affairs, political correctness, and gun control are the distractions.  Because I'm convinced that while we keep our eyes on war and elections, the entertainment industry is stealing our souls.  If we had a soul left, would our country be in the state it currently is?  If we can applaude a ghost molesting a little girl, what chance to we have to effect our planet for the better?