Nunya business

Elizabeth Drescher’s article from Religion Dispatches has been screwing me up all week. I’ve always had a hunch, but she has confirmed (as much as one woman can) that the “Nones” we keep harping on about are – in large part – just people who do not want to be reduced to a label. As one who feels called to nurture and support Christian community, I have to admit I’m at a loss.

I’m beginning to wonder if the hold of traditional religion on the American imagination in general and the news media in particular is so great that it is impossible for us not to imagine those without a formal, institutional religious identification or affiliation as necessarily being unbelievers…But the tenaciousness of this imaginary label [“Nones”] seems also to extend to unbelievers themselves, who have often been just as quick as religionists to claim Nones as atheists, secularists, or other varieties of unbelievers despite plentiful demographic and anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

None Means None (Not Atheist, Agnostic, Unbeliever…)

Da Bears

In early 2010, I sat in my rocking chair with a serious pair of headphones on and my eyes closed, and caught my breath no less than a dozen times listening to Mumford and Son’s Sigh No More. Ever since, I have been on the search for an album that would reintroduce me to that experience.

I found it. Bears of Legend’s Good morning, Motherland is a most extraordinary collection of music.

It conforms to some pop sensibilities, but to call it “pop” would diminish it. It appears to be a concept album, but that would place too much burden on the narrative. It has all the traits of folk, but I’m not versed enough in traditional Quebecois music to know.

I just think its lovely and astounding and good. I hope you do, too.

(Make sure and watch until the end. It’s gripping.)