Posted on 09/13/2012 2:32:57 PM PDT by don-o
Well, how could I be expected to resist a title like that?
When I first read the excerpt of Bob Dylan’s interview in Rolling Stone yesterday, I didn’t much remark on the line where he complains about being called “Judas” for playing an electric guitar, and then says: “As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified.” You don’t refer to Jesus as “our Lord” and speak in that way about him unless you believe in Jesus as “your” Lord. Hearing him speak in the language of a believer was unsurprising to me: it is throughout his songs, after all, and I’ve never been of the crew who insist he “rejected” belief in Christ; quite the contrary, in fact. Bob Dylan is a Jew, and he’s clearly very serious about his Jewishness, but he also clearly enough sees no conflict with that and his belief in Jesus. He’s not alone in this, but due to our various baggage and traditions, many of us can’t get our heads around that. Especially, people in the rock press have never been able to get their heads around the whole “religion thing,” and have concocted theory after theory to make themselves feel more comfortable. Dylan for his part has never given the impression he much gives a damn what anyone thinks; he has just plowed his course, a course that has included Jewish observances in the company of the Chabad Lubavitch folk, and recording a Christmas album that includes hymns of faith, sung with as much angelic devotion as his crusty vocal cords could muster. And there have been other indications, literally too numerous to mention, of a man serious about faith in the God of the Bible, both the Hebrew and the New Testament.
In the end, it’s his business. Some people pick up on it and some don’t. Yet, people continue to be curious. Many people go to Google and type in “Is Bob Dylan still a Christian?” and similar queries. I know because some of them happen to end up in my website statistics after doing so, because they hit upon something I wrote on the subject in the past.
The curious thing about this Rolling Stone interview excerpt is that Dylan is talking about the “plagiarism” subject, and then seemingly out of the blue recalls being called “Judas” in the 1960s, and then just slips in what amounts to a profession of faith. Again:
These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you’ve been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified.
It’s sorta hilarious and somewhat typical that he does it in this indirect way. But nonetheless he is obviously stating faith in Jesus as “our Lord” and therefore “his” Lord—and also, by the way, his belief in the historicity of the gospels. (By the way, this is not unusual: it’s a belief common to most ordinary Americans, after all. What’s unusual is the endless analysis given to it in his case, because he is who he is.)
He then follows it up with what some may consider a vaguely un-Christian statement: “All those evil motherf**kers can rot in hell.”
Which just goes to show we’re all sinners.
It also gives me a chance to speculate about something else. I think that Dylan was never going to be comfortable presenting a “holier than thou” image to the public, and that’s one reason he only did what he did as regards gospel music for a limited time. He didn’t want to be a standard bearer and to be expected to live up to that level. It’s hard enough being a believer in this world without also being on display and having charges of hypocrisy thrown at you every time you let off steam. Dylan is out there in the rough and tumble world, and, dare I say it, that’s probably right where God wants him to be.
I don't know anything about Sean, but this was an observation that I thought was absolutely right on the mark.
Bob Dylan converted to a sort of "Jesus People" Evangelical Christianity way back when, and they were notorious for expecting insane levels of perfection (and even prissiness) from their members. Also, this group sure wasn't exactly up on the creative world, and I don't think Dylan saw his future as singing that gawd-awful "Christian Rock."
Many of the "Jesus People" either washed out or became Orthodox or Catholic if they wanted to be in contact with the larger world, but I don't see Bob Dylan as having either the time or the interest to consider this.
He's a leftist, and that will never change, but I think he's still a Christian, even if he's not part of a church.
He's talking about people in the present day. And he's right.
He's not saying anything about Jesus or attacking Christians, just pointing out that a lot of people don't believe the two things go together. Which is undoubtedly true.
I’ve loved Bob Dylan’s music since the ‘60s. Had the poster from “Greatest Hits” on my bedroom wall for 5 years. Listened to ‘Shelter From the Storm’ just yeaterday. ‘Blood on the Tracks’ is one of the best albums ever recorded. Think I’ll play it now.
Thanks for the great thread.
FRegards,
LH
Well, ALL Christians are born again Christians, by definition. And in this interview he seems to be maintaing that commitment. In his own Dylanesque way. I think Dylan gets a bit of a bad rap on FR, in that he broke from the Hippies early on, distancing himself from them and even ridiculing them in interiews and songs. He definitely marched to his own beat and, accoringly, has ticked off just about everyone on both sides of the spectrum somewhere along the line. I always liked a lot of his music (Pat Garrett, Blood on the Tracks) and found him interesting.
And he still is. That's his physical, ethnic descent. There are Christians who are Jews, and there are Christians who are non-Jews (Gentiles).
Whatever his faults, I dearly love, his Christian music.
“Gotta Serve Somebody”
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Might be a rock’n’ roll addict prancing on the stage
Might have money and drugs at your commands,
women in a cage
You may be a business man or some high degree thief
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a state trooper, you might be an young turk
You may be the head of some big TV network
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame
You may be living in another country under another name.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a
dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord you might even own
banks.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be working in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may call me Terry, you may call me Jimmy
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray You may call me anything but no matter what you say.
You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
I can understand why anyone would dislike his music and his talent and his politics, but I never felt that way. He always seemed like an “interesting character” even in an industry that was filled with them. His classic, “Positively 4th Street” is one of the greatest rants you’ll ever hear in music.
Bob Dylan is truly one of the few types on Earth: A Completed Jew. The Lord never intended for their to be two religions—he expected the Jews to be “completed” with Jesus ultimate sacrifice. Most have rejected them and are yet to become enlightened. Bob will be with us in the rapture! And I believe that day is not far from now.
Ricky Skaggs led Barry Gibb to the Lord. If you don’t watch the video Barry said Ricky led him to the light.
Later Ricky said he hoped to meet Barry’s mother. Barry said “You will someday.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meMZNiHURe0
And no song made the case for Israel better than this one:
Neighborhood Bully
Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
’Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully
He got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully
Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully
What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin’, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He’s the neighborhood bully
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully
Physical, ethnic, and in practice. I know Messianic (Completed) Jews who still follow all of the sacramental days of the Old Testament (Pentateuch).
What a crock, no the Evangelical movement and Jesus Freaks did not become Catholics and Orthodox, they stayed Evangelicals.
As far as Dylan's politics, we don't know, the only candidate favorite that he has named was Goldwater.
Dylan and Vietnam.
This is from The Weekly Standard.
It’s an interesting paradox. Looking at the record, Vietnam should have been the wedge that forced the left to reject Dylan as a matter of dogma, because he failed to give them anything that they demanded from him, and actually gave them the opposite of what they wanted.
Instead, the Vietnam war is the seemingly unbreakable link that ties Dylan to the left in the popular consciousness. Consider: Dylan wrote no songs about the Vietnam war during the 1960s. Zero. The songs Dylan wrote that antiwar protesters later seized upon (from Blowin’ in the Wind on down) were written when the Vietnam war was little more than a twinkle in John F. Kennedy’s eye.
A close study of those songs would also reveal, as Dylan himself has stated in so many words, that they are not “antiwar” songs, as such. Just as with all his best work, they are based upon an almost unerring sense of human nature and a remarkable ability to ask questions that provoke revealing answers in the listener.
Consider also: Dylan never spoke out against the Vietnam war in the 1960s. Not once. It was not for want of being asked. At a 1965 press conference in San Francisco he was asked if he would be participating in an anti-war protest later that day. He replied, “No, I’ll be busy tonight.” The tape shows that he was all but laughing while he said it.
With America’s name at a low-water mark in the world and in the minds of the protesters at home, Dylan recorded Nashville Skyline, an album of sweet country music that can also be heard as love songs to a simpler America, and one that was certainly very far from Dylan’s front door.
Despite the heat he took, he backed down not one bit. In an interview in Sing Out! magazine in 1968, Dylan was pressed on how any artist could be silent in the face of the war. Dylan talked about a painter friend of his who was in favor of the war, and said that he “could comprehend him.” Pressed further on how he could possibly share any values with such a person, Dylan responded:
I’ve known him a long time, he’s a gentleman and I admire him . . . Anyway, how do you know that I’m not, as you say, for the war?
The topic was dropped there.
He doesn't hate America......
Dylan Ping!!!
Scott Marshall’s Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life is out later this year. This follows his earlier book: Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan.
Highly recommended.
New book has an interview with Gospel singer Carolyn Dennis who was maried to Dylan.
I have met many “Jesus People” who became either Orthodox or Catholic.
The problem with that movement, like all Evangelical movements, is that it depends on enthusiasm, and once the enthusiasm has evaporated, there’s no structured place for people to go. It all depends on a charismatic pastor, and if they didn’t have one, they went to the more stable, long lasting, historical structure of the Catholic or Orthodox Church.
Most, but not all. Have you found www.rightwingbob.com? It's a previous blog that Sean did. Archives still on line.
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