Just to commemorate the unique day, why not blog?

I'd have loved to comment more about Marcos' sermon on Wednesday, but when I got back home, I discovered something unique. It seems the recording I'd gotten of the webcast had all the video, but none of the sound. Weird.

But I did find it interesting that Marcos' own musical history shared something I'd witnessed elsewhere. Namely, that of critics of his music. In Marcos' case, there's t he comic irony of him having his hair too long on his first album. The only slightly more serious concerns about the music being too fast as well as the drums & bass being too heavy remind me of the criticisms I once heard of another form of Christian music that came onto the scene in the 80s.

Christian heavy metal, of course, had a rich diversity of critics. If it wasn't the hairstyles (too feminine), or the volume level (much, much too loud), there were even wilder tangents to tackle. I found the oddest from Jimmy Swaggart (pre-fall from grace). Swaggart, to those who will recall, was/is actually a talented musician, and is related to Jerry Lee Lewis & Mickey Gilley. While Swaggart touched on a wide array of criticisms of the band Stryper, in particular, the one criticism that I was most astounded to hear was that the use of minor chords and scales reflected a particularly satanic influence. That's it ... the use of minor scales. Who knew that even if the most well-intentioned musician (according to Swaggart) missed a note, he'd have hell to pay for it? Feel free to check out the Wikipedia entry on Stryper for more on the Swaggart critiques.

And just to make sure it doesn't go unstated, there's a "new" Stryper CD out today. "The Roxx Regime Demos" is a collection of demo recordings the band recorded to get a record deal back in the early 80s (under their original name of Roxx Regime). The band has long used the "777" symbol as sort of a beatdown on the more satanic "666." It would have been unfortunate to see the date 7-7-7 pass without a Stryper album of some sort.

Needless to say, my own favored genre of Christian music took a few poundings from many of the same type of critics that Marcos seems to have experienced. Small world, I suppose.

We're once again blessed to have Marcos filling in for the touring Joel Osteen this weekend. With a little luck, the sound will return to the webcast. I'm tempted to pick up a CD of Wednesday's sermon and synch it up with the video. If nothing else, it'd make a good experiment on my part.

Marcos also plugged another treat coming up on the calendar: Israel Houghton preaching next weekend. Mark your calendars now for that one. No idea what to expect, but I doubt Israel will disappoint. The Wednesday inbetween then and now will have another night of praise & worship with Steve & DaDra. Those nights are always one's worth looking forward to.

For now, though, 7-7-07 sounds like a great day to head to church ... which is exactly what I think I'll do.