Ok, so I’ll have to preface, these are my views. I don’t have 100 scriptures defending Rage against the Machine (RATM from now on), I don’t pretend to say that these thoughts are without flaw. But it’s something that came up again last week. So it’s time for this post.
RATM are not a Christian band. There’s a minority out there that would say that Rage against the Machine are Evil and that I’m sinning by just by listening to them or *dare I say it* Endorsing them. Let’s get this clear, Rage are very angry, very flawed in their thinking and sometimes flawed in their methodology. What they succeeded at was that they brought something to the music world that No band ever did; A focused anger and a thought out rage against what they perceived as injustice and greed. THAT is why they are so powerful on stage.
Essentially they have counterfeited a kingdom theology that we can war with our words and I for one draw from it sometimes. Their lyrics inspire me in the strangest ways sometimes. I’ll give two examples both very recent.
The organization that I work for is currently in a battle. We’re holding on by our fingernails to a building that we believe God has said we are to occupy. We don’t have the money and we’re experiencing some opposition to our rezoning. During a prayer time, PWADE (through tears of hope) quoted this RATM line: “what better place than here, what better time than now. All hell can’t stop us now”. Cutting through my heart, tears welling up in my eyes, God worked that line into my heart for this situation. Did I really believe that hell would win? Did I believe that THIS was the time?
The second example comes from this morning. I’d come in to lead our base in worship, and through a series of events I was thoroughly under prepared. There were several people there in a bad state (It’s been an intense few weeks for our community). This really wasn’t going to be an easy morning. After a quick prayer, I sat there in silence battling with actually getting up and abandoning my post as leader. What is possibly RATM’s most famous line popped into my head. “F*ck you I won’t do what you tell me!”. Everything was telling me to quit, take the easy way, to deny what needed to happen, especially this week. That line resolved me. I wasn’t going to give into my weakness, I wasn’t going to let darkness win. I bucked up did what needed to be done, and God was glorified.
RATM are for the oppressed, they are against greed. Yes, this comes from a socialist standpoint but I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here. If capitalism comes from ‘capitalizing’ (read at the expense) of others, then we could all do with a little rage in our lives. If Zack and the boys managed to have an experience of God, and come into a relationship with him, you’d bet your bottom dollar that they would be still raging against just about everything they do today.
I’m rambling now, it’s time to wrap this up.
I’m a Christian, I love RATM, and I don’t feel at all incongruent in existing like this. I’ll leave you with one more line:
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
How long? Not long, cause what you reap is what you sow
Wake up to truth, wake up to what this world could be when a kingdom comes. Wake up to what YOU could be if you refused the ordinary and took up challenge to live as an agent of God’s kingdom, following Jesus’s example of raging against a world of hypocrisy and greed.
3 Comments
Go Stu, RATM were at the Big Day Out in Melbourne, I didn’t attend bur Ez and Dave did and I heard them whilst picking up my 15 yr old nephew and 14 yr old neice who attended. God will use all manner of things to get His message through. I am re-reading Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancy and am re-invigorated at what God can do through all manner of people, situations and objects. May God use RATM for His purposes always. Keep up the Good Fight Stu, satan is active BUT God is more active and will triumph. Praise HIS NAME (I AM) forever.
Ron
Thanks for the encouragement Ron. I was there, with Paulie (We’d lost Dave and Ez by that stage). It was a brilliant day.
Don’t you worry, I’m still looking upwards.
The Main thing is you used your life experience to further your christian experience, the prophets of the old testament did not progress until they listened to GOD and did his will, you did that at morning worship on the 10th , you are not in Vancouver to please the pious Christians of this world, but to reach the unsaved and prepare others to reach the unsaved , keep up your own genuine rage, keep looking upwards. Look at the first two verses of Psalm 121 , you are surrounded by the hills and your help is from the lord, keep it up.