Moby, If I May, Once Again…

November 29, 2006 | 1:03 PM

A couple posts back, I mentioned Moby’s comments on “right wing christian republicans.”  Whether you agree with him or not, you have to admire his thoughtfulness.  He speaks his mind in a seemingly civil tone (as much as tone can be read into a blog post).  I appreciate the guy, even if I’m certain we disagree about a lot of things- from religion to politics to our favorite color.  Yesterday, he posted about Christians again.  Here are some of his comments:

allow me to try to explain a bit.
see, i really love the teachings and character of christ.
the teachings are actually pretty simple on many levels.
be humble. be forgiving. be compassionate. be non-violent. be non-judgemental.
and more.
if you read the 4 gospels(matthew, mark, luke, and crazy john)you’ll find a lot of remarkable teachings.
teachings on forgiveness(to paraphrase: forgive everyone, regardless of how they’ve wronged you).
teachings on judgementalism(simple: judge not unless you want to be judged, and no one can really hold up under judgement).
and so on.

He continues with a list of things Jesus doesn’t address.  [Before I continue, let me say this: Moby is not a theologian, and the majority of my readers at least think they are.  So let’s not rip the guy’s words apart like we do theological works.  It’s rude, and moreover, it’s not like the guy has an M.Div.  Cut him some slack.]

Certainly I think Moby is inferring something out of the silence of Scripture, as we say.  Jesus didn’t directly mention a lot of things, but we know right from wrong anyhow.  And no, Jesus didn’t mention abortion.  But some Greeks of the time would put their unwanted babies on a hill outside of town and let them die of exposure.  The early Christians would go to that hill and save the children, adopting them as their own.  So there’s that.  And yeah, I’d love to know what he meant by “Crazy John.”  I like the guy a lot.  I gather that Moby doesn’t dig Paul much.  But I appreciate that he thinks about it.  And his thoughtfulness about compassion, mercy, and love is something that should be recognized.  Even if we disagree about a lot of other stuff.

Posted in Christianity, Media