I watched the Country Music Awards the other night. Awesome. I didn’t used to appreciate country as a Brit—until I spent a season in Tennessee. Now I like a lot of country, as long as it’s not twangy.
Anyway, some of the words that caught my ear include these:
“No castle in the south of France…
And daddy was the apple of my eye
He will always be the apple of my eye.”
I did live in a castle in the south of France where I saw a lotta kids who had no-one they could call Daddy. It broke my heart. Now I’m seeing the same trend here in American and my heart is doubly broken.
Martina McBride sand a beautiful song about prayer (again). Words included:
“Blessed is the believer who knows love is a redeemer
And stays to pray for the times in which we live…
Give me a heart of tender mercy…
Everybody just stop & pray for these times in which we live”.
I was deeply touched. You’d never hear these kind of words at a secular music concert in France. Nor England.
One of the musical phenomena who performed was 17 year old Taylor Swift who won the Horizon Award. She first thanked God before thanking everyone else who’d invested in her. Carrie Underwood introduced Taylor and had won her own awards aplenty including female vocalist, stated, “God has blessed me with so many wonderful things, I’ll spend my life trying to figure out why.”
Brad Paisley won mail vocalist of the year, thanked everyone, ending “…and more importantly, God.”
Words in another song performed that night: included, “I’m proud to live in the boondocks, I found Jesus there...”
It was beautiful. And I love that so many people have the reflex to thank God. But what I’m still figuring out is whether these words express a sincere walk with God, or whether they’re just part of the American—especially southern—cultural mix. I guess it’s not for me to know. But it troubles me. Why? Because of so many folk truly know God, why is America going to the wolves?
Janey . DeMeo © November 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment