i have a question Options

[gotigrz]

i think LIVE has the best sound out of any band that i've ever heard. with that being said.... what is ed singing about?

he sounds like he's pro-God, but maybe not so much of a Jesus fan. but, yet on his my space account he has Jesus as a hero of his.

also, in the video of selling the drama it shows ed ripping pages out of a book that, to me, looks like the Bible.

also, in the song operation spirit, he says that Jesus doesn't mean anything to him. is he saying that's the way he "was", and he's changed, or is that just the way he is?

i'm a Christian, and i can't help but let these questions run through my head. please someone enlighten me, thanks.

[ladylakini17]

idk eds a confusing guy sometimes.....i know that in the mental jewelry days and pretty much through almost all of the albums he is really into the eastern religions and the teachings of a man called jiddu krishnamurti and another called adi da which is like his spiritual master or sumthin along those lines.....he is into all the meditation and things like that but recently i hear that he still meditates but now doesnt really have a religion or something....idk all that stuff i heard in interview but i really dont know wuts right and wuts wrong.....i think if u watch the interview with him they have on awake their best of cd (if u havent already) then it may answer alot of your questions.

[gotigrz]

i've seen the interview, and he's just as ambigous as ever to me. i know that he's into eastern religions or at least once was, but for someone to be so "in your face" about love and God.... he doesn't seem to let you know what "exactly" he's talking about.

maybe his goal is to be this way so as to speak to all people and not just one religion. it is frustrating though,.... unless you just don't care.

[jaybb]

He lists Jesus as a "hero" because if you look at what "Jesus" actually preached and said, was all about loving everybody, regardless of any other factors. He's since articulated his view in several interviews that he doesn't like churches and organized religions, as he feels that they are largely hypocritical and often times skew what Jesus actually said to fit their own ideals.

I remember back during The Distance era, he used to list people who he respected stood up for love, he'd list Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus, Adi Da, and the Buddah (listing Buddah in the same list as Jesus is enough to make most Christians squirm). He did this in the lyrics of Love Shines too.

I remember he was high after a show a few months back, and he was talking about how he couldn't believe the types of things people attribute to Christianity, everything from denouncing gay marriage to believing that everybody should convert. It was a really interesting conversation, to say the least.

This post has been edited by jaybb: Jul 20 2006, 7:03 pm

[Gertjan]

I think he does not believe in -dogma driven- relegion, really. He also lists Gautama Buddha, Bodhidharma and Padmasambhava under Hero's, all founders of (some form of) Buddhism.

The thing that seems to fit him these days is integralism, which is more of a philosophy and psychology than religion. He appears to be good friends with Ken Wilber, the founder of the Integral Institute and prominent integral thinker.

This post has been edited by Gertjan: Jul 21 2006, 2:31 am

[gotigrz]

well, thanks for your replies, and i'll always be a fan of LIVE's music, but i'm no longer a fan of ed kowalczyk....... just his music. i had a pretty good idea that he wasn't singing about anything that i believe in, or at least not in the same way that i do.

oh well, i'll continue to listen and sing to his songs, but when i sing them i think about Jesus and God as one. i guess that's why i usually either skip or turn down certain parts of Love Shines and Operation Spirit.

honestly, i believe when he sings about God (when does he not), that he's singing about the same God that i believe in... because there is only one God. i guess i look at him (ed) as i look at Jew's. i know they believe in the same God as i do, but they dont' proclaim Jesus Christ as the Son of God, which i know he is. but, i don't hate jews.

besides, i'm not gonna sit back and believe that someone that proclaims that Jesus is equal to budha and visa versa when he (ed) uses the Lords name in vein (everytime i see your face). i don't have much respect for someone that does that.

my opinion of LIVE.... ROCK ON!!!!! my opinion of ed..... whatever.

This post has been edited by gotigrz: Jul 21 2006, 8:07 am

[jonesy]

There is no God.So you're both loopy

[HiItsNino]

Interesting point of view, but kind of hypocritical and backward. If your God is the same God as the jews then why would god send them to burn in hell for all of eternity just because they do not proclaim the superiority of a man who lived 2000 years ago, one that we living today really have no way of knowing if he even existed. If this Jesus that you speak of is so much better than my God (which is suposedly the same as your God) then why are we witnessing this war in Lebanon, and why is genocide occuring in Darfur? Why is Jesus against stem cell research, like the supirior Christians say he is. And, sense he is against stem cell research, then why doesn't he cure all these sick and dying people now?

I'm not trying to be a jerk and insult your beliefs, I am genuinly interested in your point of view. I am drawing a lot of assumptions from your post, but I'm curious how your beliefs square with the realities of the world we live in. Personally, I refuse to acknowlege myself as a Christian, instead I say that I follow the teachings of Christ, because that all I have right here in the 21st Century. Remember that Paul was killed by his followers because Christ never returned as he promised to them. Maybe Christ means it quite literally when he says the kingdom of heaven is right in front of you.

[gotigrz]

i don't know that God will send all jews to hell. God is mercyful. if He wasn't.. we'd all be doomed. I'm not saying that Jesus is better than your God. I honestly believe that everyone that refers to "their" God is the same God. I believe that God came to us through Jesus.

then why are we witnessing this war in Lebanon, and why is genocide occuring in Darfur? Why is Jesus against stem cell research, like the supirior Christians say he is. And, sense he is against stem cell research, then why doesn't he cure all these sick and dying people now?

wars are gonna happen... it says so in the bible. the bible isn't full of happy people all do good things with no evil. it's the real world just like today only a long long time ago. as for Jesus against stem cell reasearch.... whatever. i never read that in the bible. (though, i'm only in Acts right now, so ...... ) why doesn't he cure all the sick now? that's life. one can be the prototypical Christian and still die of a sickness. you just have to have faith in the fact that God knows each and everyone of us better than we know ourselves and is in full control of what is going on and will let things happen as he sees fit.

"I am drawing a lot of assumptions from your post, but I'm curious how your beliefs square with the realities of the world we live in."

my beliefs are as relative today as they have ever been... if someone that is interested enough would read the bible and apply the teachings to their life today they'd see that everything that happens in their daily life, good or bad, is no different than the lives of people way back then.

as for the realities of the world we live in today.... well, that's just it. they are the realities that we have made. that is no excuse to dismiss religion as something that may have been relavent to the people of ancient history but not in todays world. that's insane. there is no cutoff date as to who God was talking to in the bible.... he was talking to everyone, and still is.

This post has been edited by gotigrz: Jul 21 2006, 9:33 am

[chica]

this thread is becoming one fot the off-topic zone
because it isn't about the lyrics anymore

[gotigrz]

this thread is becoming one fot the off-topic zone
because it isn't about the lyrics anymore

yes, but this whole thread is BECAUSE of the lyrics. i'm not a preacher... i don't work for the church.... i work a 40 hr/week job and just live a normal life, but i am a religous person and if anyone else here is too, then these questions have probably crossed your mind, also.

and sometimes i ask my self "why do i like LIVE so much"... is it the lyrics?..... no.... is it the music?.... yes.... but mostly i think it's the passion and soul ed puts in his efforts when he sings..... i just wish he sang about other stuff. oh well,... what are you gonna do...????

so, i ask anyone who wants to reply... would you still like LIVE if ed sang the same lyrics to a crappy tune or if he sang about "whatever" to the same tune?

[crustyclown80]

it would be so great if live went back to writing music that meant something deep! they are such a great band and people should know more about them!

[gotigrz]

it would be so great if live went back to writing music that meant something deep! they are such a great band and people should know more about them!

i don't understand that statement at all.... when did live stop singing about deep stuff? the only song off of sfbm that isn't deep is "home" and "sophia". which i don't understand why he wrote "home" anyway 'cause in his interview on the AWAKE cd he admits that he's not that good at writing songs about politics and should leave that to Rage Against the Machine.

i know i'm probably coming across as a LIVE hater, but i'm really not... they've been my favorite band since the first time i heard Selling the Drama, but i just wish i could go back and rock to their music w/o caring what it is that he's actually saying. but when you hear the same "message" in just about all his songs, you gotta wonder if it's healthy.

[sellingthdrama]

It always amazes me how varying the opinions are about Live (the old vs. the new, etc). I think the Beatles summed it up pretty well: all you need is Love.

[sherocker]

but when you hear the same "message" in just about all his songs, you gotta wonder if it's healthy.

I think u analyze the lyrics to much my friend