Religious Intolerance, part I

I've decided that one of the things in life that I absolutely cannot stand... the thing that I hate more than peanut butter, lima beans, sticky fingers, and false love... the thing I hate as much as I love spring rain, the sound of an orchestra tuning, hymnals, the smell of appledirt, and a good friend's hug... the thing that makes my skin crawl and my blood pressure rise (which is hard to do!)... the thing that I would do anything to completely eradicate from the planet, solar system, and entire universe if I could... is religious intolerance.
Why? Why do you hate someone just because they believe something different from you? Why are you so sure that what you believe is right, is right? Are you just that full of yourself? Or has the higher power spoken to you and told you that you are right and everyone else is wrong? And, if the later is the case, how sure are you that you weren't just hallucinating? How can you so absolutely judge something that you know nothing about? Take a walk in their dogma for a few moments, will ya? Maybe you'll understand that what they believe is just plain what they believe! It's got nothing to do with you and your god.
Now, I'm not just talking about the idea that "my religion is right, and everyone who doesn't believe what I believe is going to my idea of hell." I'm talking about "we believe that your religion is a cult," and "we believe that if you don't believe what we believe, then you are not only going to hell, but we are going to make fun of you and torment you and exclude you. Because my idea of heaven forbid that I try to welcome you because we don't want any of your kind sneaking in to our idea of heaven." JERKS!
Want to know how many hymns are shared among the major denominations these days? Hey, do you even want to know how many of "your" (and, for the moment, I'm addressing the mainstream Christians out there) hymns are sung by Mormons, Unitarian Universalists, and "fundamentalists"? Yes, that's right, the Mormons have "A Mighty Fortress" in their hymnal. Can you Lutherans shut the front door about them being a cult, now?
What is a "cult" anyway? Dictionary.com defines it as "a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies." Well, then. You are all members of cults! Second definition (same source) is, "A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader." Ah, well, that's a little harder to pin on Christianity.
But let me interject a story.
Once upon a time, there was this dude. Let's call him Joe. Joe was a pretty charismatic fellow, who attracted some pretty interesting sorts into his group. Got thieves and prostitutes and women who slept with other women's husbands to hang out with him. Got them to change their ways and become "good, upstanding citizens." Then Joe got together a group of followers to live with him. He traveled around, never staying in one place, ate funky stuff, and required some fairly unconventional acts from his cronies. Joe and his peeps didn't really follow the normal pattern of beliefs and were considered quite extremist and false. Sound like a cult? Sound like we could rename Joe as Jesus and be talking about a rather familiar fellow?

You may think that religious intolerance isn't a big deal today, and especially not here in America. I mean, we're not witnessing people getting burned at the stake or crosses being lit on fire or whole television specials making fun of an entire denomination... oh, wait. There was that special on the Phelps family. What are they doing to you? Well, okay, the protests at soldier's funerals is a bit extreme, I'll give you that. But that's religious intolerance, too. They are intolerant of you, so you scream about how stupid it is to be intolerant. Welcome to "I'm rubber, you're glue."
Another story.
So there was an accident on a deserted state highway. And this guy in his car is in a ditch. He got run off the road by some maniac in a yellow sports car. And the lady with the "love Jesus" bumper sticker drives by, 'cause she's late to Bible Study, you know. And the teacher with the cross around his neck, well, he's gotta be up early in the morning... someone will stop for the car. Besides, the guy's already got help on the way with his cell phone, right?
Hours go by. He's stuck in his car, can't reach the cell phone, and it's getting late, and cold.Then
he feels the door next to him open, and hands feel for his pulse, he tries to talk, but his throat is too dry. He drinks the water offered to him, relaxes as he hears the word, "it's okay, buddy, help's on the way. Mind if I offer a prayer while we wait here?" He nods, the best he can. He'd promise to listen to an hour of bagpipe music, just to not be alone anymore. He hears an odd sort of praying, multiple voices... speaking in... tongues? No, that can't be right. And the voice that belongs to the water-giver, praying "Mother Earth you give us life, sustain us here..."
His rescuer, a group of college-age Wiccans, each praying in their own style, and the one next to him stays with him the whole ride to the hospital, calling his wife for him, making sure he's okay, returning the next day to ensure his comfort...

Band Devo

I'm going to talk about fear today.

What were you afraid of as a child? The dark? Spiders? School?

What about high school? What were you afraid of in high school? Bad hair days? Embarassment? Not getting into college? The dark? Spiders?

What about now, in college? What are you afraid of? School? Spiders, the dark, bad hair days, grades?

I have a theory that all fears can be traced back to the fear of being alone. Embarassment, the dark, failure... variations on a theme, yes?

So what are you afraid of in band? Being out of tune? Coming in late? Coming in early? Getting it right, getting it wrong?

I googled "the opposite of fear" and you know what I found? Not courage or bravery or fearlessness. But hope. And in band speak, that's CONFIDENCE. Because I think "hope" is sort of a wishy-washy word. You can hope to do something, or you can know that you are going to do something. You can hope that you are going to do your best in band today, or you can be confident and do your best.

If our goals are up there (point to goal arrow near the top of the very high ceiling), how confident do we have to be in order to get there?
If Doc got up here and conducted like this (conduct timidly), how would that affect our playing? How does it affect our audience when we play "wimpy wimpy wimpy" (done in hefty commercial voice)?
What difference would it make if Doc conducted like this? (Conduct strongly, confidently) What difference does it make to our audience when we play hefty hefty hefty Confidently?

How do you want to be heard today?