I’ve decided–getting a little help from my friends–that it’s good to continue to expose this old Folkie to some alternative music. So last night I went to see a band called Seven Devil Fix at Edmonton’s Sidetrack.

They’re loud, energetic–particularly the frontman–all talented, with an outstanding young guitar player. While they’re not message oriented, they do have a message. It’s understated and as a result, received.

David Howard from 7DF

I hear some of you say, how could it not be understated when you can’t always understand it? Well, if you get a chance, see them live, the message, in songs like "The Seed" comes through nuanced and textured. Even while the energy is in your face. You can check them out here.

But what of the name Seven Devil Fix? It strikes me that it’s on a continuum from subtle to out-in-front, allusion to proclamation, depending on your history.

I like it. Here’s a personal take:

Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

Mary Magdelene, the wild woman of the gospels, shows up all around the death and resurrection of Jesus. Yes I know it’s Christmas. But the Christmas birth–if it holds anything at all–already has within it the seed of resurrection, that is, the reversible garment of death; the gospel.

And Mary M. is what the gospels are about. She’s homeless, has a rap sheet, and she’s a woman. Three annihilating strikes.

She’s been used and thrown out of all the respectable and semi-respectable places. But then she meets someone who treats her as an equal. (How socially bizarre.) And loves her into being. He loves her into completeness or, in new testament language–recalling for a moment the biblical understanding that the number seven connotes something complete–from her he "casts out seven devils."

Mary M’s story is both a restoration and a resurrection story. Undergoing this courtship-relationship she’s loved completely into complete beauty and released into an understanding that death-is-not.

The rumours she sensed were true all come clear to her in a flood-tide when after turning death on its head, she is the first one Jesus comes to upon returning from the tomb.

It’s an emancipation story for all of us occasionally haunted ones. It’s a dawn-story for all us night-sitters. And so it’s a Christmas story.

Technorati Tags: Seven Devil Fix, Sidetrack Cafe, Mary Magdelene, Christmas, Christianity, Religion

"I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy, I can’t tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."

This could have been a quote lifted from Michael White’s book "Stranger at the Gate" but it’s Paul Barnes, the latest evangelical pastor to be called out of ministry…into possibility.

But not if the church has it’s way. They hope to "restore" Barnes as a victorious and proper heterosexual.

"Men of Grace" (taken from GC’s website)

Paul and Char Barnes will get counseling, but unlike Haggard, they will not go into seclusion or report to a board of reconcilers, (associate pastor) Palmer said. He said it will be more personal and that church members will play a role.

However, reading between the lines of the Denver Post article Pastor Barnes seems to be opening himself up to self-integration. Even though Palmer, the associate pastor, said he wasn’t sure what Barnes had meant, and that Barnes told him that he believes God views homosexuality as a sin:

Barnes expressed hope for a future where one can "be who you are" and be accepted and loved in the Christian community and also spoke about "separating some of the teachings from Scripture" from Jesus Christ.

My heart goes out to Paul Barnes. You don’t say something like this without believing somewhere deep inside that you just may be "created" homosexual. But what an amazingly difficult journey this must be. And gravely trying for his family. The question is whether it will be more trying in the long run to be "restored" and attempt to live out a sadly divided life.

When Barnes experienced a Christian conversion at 17, it gave him a glimmer of hope. But his homosexual feelings never went away, he said.

Barnes said he asked God many times why he was called to ministry, to start Grace Chapel, carrying a "horrible burden."

Barnes described struggling with what he believes is the biblical teaching that homosexuality is an abomination. Over the years, he grew to accept that "this is my thorn in the flesh."

My prayer is for the well being of Pastor Barnes and his family. I do not pray that his homosexuality be taken away. I pray for his own prayer to be answered…that in the future a Pastor Barnes may be accepted and loved in the Christian community. That his being gay be as much an issue as the heterosexuality of his would be counselors.

In their only talk about sex, Barnes said his father took him on a drive and talked about what he would do if a "fag" approached him. Barnes thought, "’Is that how you’d feel about me?’ It was like a knife in my heart, and it made me feel even more closed."

Technorati Tags: Paul Barnes, Homosexuality, Evangelical, Denver Post, Christianity, Grace Chapel Denver