I am a man haunted by my past words and actions. Tom Jones and WWJD are coming back to curse me.
A. Tom Jones.
An email today is from rare-lyrics.com who wants permission to link their Tom Jones page with my old dead blog. I just took a look and sure enough, my old TallSkinnyKiwi.blogspot.com blog is one of his linking pages for people who want lyrics and news about TOM JONES. Must be a Google thing. Honestly, i cant remember blogging about Tom Jones, although it is true that we sometimes play his old stuff – “Whats New Pussycat” is a favourite of my daughters. but I would not consider myself an enthusiast of Tom Jones. But then maybe I am. I will give the go-ahead on the link.
B. WWJD?
And about the time when i preached on “What Would Jesus Do?”.
Firstly, let me admit if. Yes. Its true. But . . .
1. It was 1992
2. Those WWJD bracelets (and their counterparts) had not come out yet.
3. The song “What Would Jesus Do?” had just been released and had inspired a media frenzy with the church crowd.
4. I was a pastor of a Baptist Church and was, by hazard of occupation, lumped in with the church crowd and their frenzies.
5. I did not choose the name. The ministry hosting the youth rally came up with the theme WWJD and asked me to preach on it, just as they asked the soloist to sing the song, the rock band to allude to it, etc.
In defence, let me say that today, knowing what i know now,
1. I would not preach a message with that title without doing so in an ironic way
2. I have never worn that bracelet
We all need something to emerge from, right?
What’s so wring with What would Jesus do – a pretty good emerging thing to ask – I thought we all did it all the time – emerge from the institutions and go back to the pristine elegance of a re-incarnated New Testament style church – oops is that irony I see before me?
I noted on last night’s panorama that those Floridian Baptist Churches are now asking WWJV – Why Would Jesus Vote…and 90% of them are voting for George W Bush! GOD HELP US! For once I might carry round a placard proclaiming THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH!
Pete
Whoah, wait a minute – I still wear my WWJD bracelet every day, including to my job as a public school teacher. I intentionally avoided the fad, starting to wear it well after the man wave of the craze, and I don’t think about it all that much. I don’t wear it to be obnoxious or to give people a hard time. It’s amazing how many conversations it has started, all of them good.
It took me several months to realize I was wearing it to work, since I have been wearing it since 1997 (though I think I replaced it with an identical black one a few years ago).
Rock on, WWJD! I’ve never heard the song, though…non-instrumental church and all…