Matisyahu...continued

Okay...everybody's making some good points here. Let me add a bit more (or maybe a lot.)
Relevant is a Christian magazine. I don't care how trendy it is or how trendy you are or how cool it is that they talk about non-church stuff, one only has to look through the magazine to see that it's run by Christians.

While there is certainly something to be said regarding Jeff's idea that Matisyahu is relevant to the culture and some of us should know that, I still think there's a problem with this article.

I called Blake and we argued for ten minutes. I talked to him an hour later and we're still friends, so I'm going to assume that it's okay for me to rage a little here.
I've read the article and, in my opinion, they didn't cover "both sides of the story."

Some quotes from the article:

"Talking to Matisyahu is not unlike talking to a Christian artist working int he mainstream. Hassidic Judaism bears striking similiarities to evangelical Christianity with its focus on personal spirituality, belief in miracles and desire to spread God's truth. Matisyahu seems to face the same challenges and share the same passions as many Christians struggling to balance their faith with their work in the mass market."

This phrase essentially sums up what the point of the article. I disagree with Blake that the article provided a resource regarding Hassidic Judaism. In addition to the small one sentence description in the quote above (personal spirituality, belief in miracles and desire....,) the only other information that I learned about Hassidic Jews is that they are not allowed to touch any other women besides their wives and mothers. I guess this is something I need to know...doesn't feel much like a resource, though. The overall theme of the article is something akin to IT'S HARD OUT THERE FOR A HASSIDIC JEW WHO'S A REGGAE RAP STAR. And to be honest, I can appreciate someone who's willing to be devout in an industry that cares little for devotion. Now another quote:

"But the similiarities end when Matisyahu is asked about Jesus. 'A lot of times amongst religious Jews there's a negative feeling toward Jesus, and I think the reason for that is because, no matter how pure or good (a philosophy) is, you have to look at what's the result down the line, 100 years down the line,' he says. 'If you look down the road 1,00 years or 500 years or whatever, the basis of what came out - whether that's what He wanted or not - what resulted was, in my eyes, not necessarily a positive thing. I don't think it's truth, and I think, therefore, you see how it led to all kinds of destruction and violence.' In many ways, he seems dismissive of Christ's teachings on the basis of how people have twisted them, comparing it to the way philosopher Friedrich Nietzsce was misinterpreted. 'Nietzsche was coming up with all types of philosophical ideas, but then later on down the line, those ideas formed the basis of Nazism, even though he was against Nazis,' Matisyahu says. 'So his ideas at the end of the day didn't really work.'"

Okay...definitely learning something now. I've never heard Jesus compared to the early beginnings of Nazism, so I guess that's score one for Blake - I did learn something pretty important about his guy.

The article ends with:
"Matisyahu's music, ministry and spiritual journey all seem to be themed around an earnest search for truth, and his ideas about the Messiah and redemption seem to stem from this searching. In Matisyahu's descriptions of the Messiah, one can sense both parallels to the ministry of Christ and Matisyahu's earnest yearning. 'I think that maybe this Messiah will come, and people's perspective on the world will change, and they'll somehow get to some redemptive place in themselves and feel how there's this unifying force behind this fragmented world we live in,' he says. 'At that point, people will really feel connected, and they'll really feel present, and it'll be a real change. People will perceive the world differently, and that will be the time of redemption.'"

I think Relevant dropped the ball here. I think they put a popular dude on the cover, and interviewed him without really initiating any sort of worthwhile dialogue. I think they glossed over the fact that he believes that what Christians believe is a lie. I think they're so desperate for anything about faith - any kind of faith - that they'll slap it on the cover. I think this could have been a fantastic article, a real investigation, rather than a simple promotional piece the likes of which I might read in Rolling Stone.

I hated the article and I think its bad form for a magazine that is normally so clearly focused on empowering Christians to apply their faith in today's culture to take such an easy way out of a dialogue that could have been really cool.

But I am really glad that Ben Folds believes in God.