Some Folks Who Have Already Been Let Down...

My last post was filled with optimism (yes, even naive political optimism, by golly) but it's important - for better and for worse - to remember that we live in a time of extreme angst, sorrow, cynicism and darkness. People are lonely. The gap between the very poor and the very wealthy widens, and those in the middle are fewer and fewer.

I've been listening to a lot of Rufus Wainwright in the last few months, and his song Going to a Town off the Release the Stars (2007) album is beautiful, heartbreaking and fills me with the loneliness and frustration I see all around me.

I'm going to a town that has already been burned down
I'm going to a place that is already been disgraced
I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down.
I'm so tired of America

I'm gonna make it up for all of the Sunday Times
I'm gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes
They never really seem to want to tell the truth
I'm so tired of you America

Making my own way home
Ain't gonna be alone
I got a life to lead America
I got a life to lead

Tell me do you really think you go to hell for having loved?
Tell me and not for thinking every thing that you've done is good
(I really need to know)
After soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood I'm so tired of America
(I really need to know)
I may just never see you again or might as well
You took advantage of a world that loved you well
I'm going to a town that has already been burned down

Today's generations are starving for hope. I guess, so am I... yes, yes, yes: I have Jesus. I have hope. But I want to feel hope. I want to see reasons why I should. I want hope to grow, blossom and pollenate the places in me that are let down and disgraced.

Come, Holy Spirit...


please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://www.emergingchristianity.blogspot.com/