Jennifer Knapp

That's Jennifer Knapp. She was really big in Christian music between 1998 and 2003, when she just disappeared.


Here are the words to one of my favorite songs. She composed it. I've used it in worship:



HOLD ME NOW


From glass alabaster she poured out the depth of her soul
O foot of Christ would you wait if her harlotry's known?
Falls a tear to darken the dirt
Of humblest offerings to forgive the hurt
She is strong enough to stand in your love
I can hear her say....

I'm weak
I'm poor
I'm broken, Lord
But I'm your's
Hold me now, hold me now

"Let he without sin cast the first stone if you will
To say that my bride isn't worth half the blood that I've spilled
Point your finger and laugh if you choose
To say my beloved is borrowed and used
She is strong enough to stand in My love
I can hear her say...."

I'm weak
I'm poor
I'm broken, Lord
But I'm your's
Hold me now, hold me now


Jennifer resurfaced recently, complete with a new album (her first in many years) and the statement that she was living in a committed, same-sex relationship. She is now under attack by one segment of Christians. She is finding her music banned from Christian radio. She is attacked in reviews on iTunes and amazon.com. 


I tried to come to her rescue on amazon, and am now referred to by some on a particular message board as a "Christian pastor," the quotation marks being necessary because I can't possibly be a Christian pastor and celebrate the art, gift and soul of this woman because of who she loves.


I gave up on it. I have also pre-ordered her new album on iTunes. The video clip above is a song from that album, due for release in early May.


The song "Hold Me Now" has frequently moved me and others in my congregation to tears. There are times when you hear an artist singing his/her work that you can immediately sense just how deeply they have lived what they are singing. I strongly recommend you go to iTunes and download the song "Hold Me Now" right now -- the live version is most emotive and moving.


I also strongly recommend you speak out for those who might otherwise be shouted down. God does beautiful things in our lives. What a shame that some would rather be blind, deaf and quite DUMB (in the more modern sense of the word) than even consider the fact that they can neither predict nor control who God will love and through whom the Spirit will work.

Corey Gives Up On Christianity?

If you want to serve the age, betray it.  -- Brendan Kennelly


I think maybe I can't call myself Christian anymore.


I'm sitting here in my church office as I write this. It is a wonderful place, this building and campus. It is  full of promise and prayer, faith and challenge. It widens my horizons and takes me deep along paths I otherwise wouldn't think to follow.


My faith serves me well, and inspires me to serve the One and creation. It is Jesus, this church, its people, and my God as I experience God that compel me to break my simmering silence.

I am tired.

• I am tired of new acquaintances assuming that, because I am a CHRISTIAN pastor, I must also be a fellow-denier of scientific process. No, I don't believe the earth was created in six days and is only 6000 years old. Yes, I do think evolutionary theory is sound. No, this doesn't make me any less a believer than you.
• I am tired of reading that no CHRISTIAN can accept the "homosexual lifestyle." Yes, I do accept as Godly any loving, supportive, inspiring relationship between equal parties. No, I don't believe the government should step in and bar some people from sanctifying relationships in the faith communities that embrace and encourage them. Yes, I realize some Biblical texts are quite clear in forbidding tattoos, shellfish consumption, mixed-material garments and homosexuality. No, I don't read and respond to the Bible the same way you do.
• I am tired of those lazy news commentators who accept CHRISTIAN as some sort behemoth voting block to be played like a harp by particular candidates for political office. I vote my convictions, not my church! We do not all move in lock-step.
• I am tired of bejeweled, self-serving leaders of CHRISTIAN churches lording it over their flocks with perverse indifference to the Gospel message.  Preservation of power, prestige, buildings and bank accounts must never take precedence over the faith and well-being of any child of God.
• I am tired of the commentators and bloggers of the world who consider human CHRISTIAN stupidity to be some sort of proof of the non-existence of God. God is not a Christian. Jesus is not a Christian. Neither should be mocked because of the occasional clueless idiocy of believers.

CHRISTIAN wasn't a term used by Jesus and his followers. They were first "People of the Way." I am striving to be a Person of Jesus' Way. I'm thinking that following Jesus as closely as possible might mean I can no longer call myself CHRISTIAN.

What do you think?


I didn't expect change to come so slow, so agonizingly slow. I didn't realize that the biggest obstacle to political and social progress wasn't the Free Masons, or the Establishment, or the boot heel of whatever you consider "the Man" to be. It was something much more subtle... a combination of our own indifference and the Kafka-esque labyrinth of "no's" you encounter as people vanish down the corridors of bureaucracy. -- Bono