OCR Text |
Show aay PFE The Sat akeTribune RELIGION noedics mt Bev Doekoue iain Finds Jesus, Strength To Beat the Bottle Rock On With Cyber-Jesus Utah bandfinds wider audiencefor Christian music on the Internet “Andthe scarecrow died on a crossyou madefor him, he sufferedforyour sins and not his own. While Satan dances down yourpicket line, the angels cry . . . as an un- Are youborn again? It's hardtodescribe how those words affected willing soldier marches home.” The song “Scarecrow,” a memorial to Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student beaten to death in 1998 chisel. I hed never i al myearch Ie hear of being “bornagain,” and all I could think ofwas how ridiculous itsounded. ee After marryinga woman was again, it was timefind a new church that was accept- "seems, and began fel wringwin ; ay ee TS aribincie. | pastorofthe church, and he asked hoeiehtent ine but ow wasboxing to ‘ “Rob,”he said, “you've been aittending church | for a while now. Have you accepted Jesus as your same | | way for new quickly grow ai — Christian or secular — to outside their own back “We recorded our CD last year as a fund-raiser, and it was well-accepted by our congregation, but otherwise it is hard to go outside those boundanot that well-known outside our church,” sh Mis advertordigtiel qiatity inests ducing bs ae Fae bee Doe. say ite cantina with the pastor again the next week and he asked how liked the book ofJohn. I could hardly explain my feelings, I was so excited. You Se oe I suddenly understood that this was more than a book ofstories, but the historical aecount ofGod himselfcoming to Earth in the form ofa man and | Holladay “MP3.com most likely be our main avenue of distribution now,” Green said. “We are recording some new songs and plan to upload them | Christ. Guitarist Tracy Vandeventer, left, drummer Amy Boettger, mandolinist Jani Gamble and piascholo tial Not pictured are Annette Carhart, ~ , Jana Csicsery and Todd Stevenson. free shared by thousands ofmusicfans. The recording industry offers its own MP3compliantsites, prompting big-namebands to offer free song downloads and online purchase op- tions. users. of peronal music hee of site For now, the number of Christian Rock category groups online is minuscule, a relative handful compared with the hundreds of garage bands trying to attract attention to stylings as diverse as heavy metal, gothic, industrial rock, alternative, new age, Celtic and reggae. But Green and Gamble expect that will change as other, cash-strapped | pastor asked ifbelieved that I was a sinner.Boy, ; did J; as a matter offact, the closer I got to the Lord, the more my moral compass pointed out my sins. He asked ifI believed that Jesus, the Son of God, died for my sins. I told him I did, and we sat togetherand said a very simple prayer. As I raised Heino gD adatcls cyenht osibommceas ‘ Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune Members of Twist of Faith sing at the close of the Sundayservice of Holladay United Church of Hyrum Smith Speaks of What Matters Most @ Continued from C-1 Christian groups see online distribution as an alternative to established recording houses. “There are lot of Christian artists out there who could benefit from this,” said Gamble,a 41year-old engineer with Utah Power. As for Twist of Faith’s future in cyberspace, band members hope to find a niche with their decidedly harder lyrical edge compared to most contemporary Christian groups — and spread a message of socially conscious, activist A prime example ofthe band’stone is the song “Scarecrow,” a memorial to Matthew Shepard, ie gay Wyoming college studentbeaten to death in 1998. Green wrote the song in response to anti-gay demonstrations by“so-called Christians” at Shepard’s funeral. “And the scarecrow died on a cross you made for him, he suffered for your sins and not his own,” the song goes. “While Satan dances down. your picket line, the angels cry ... as an matters most is your relationship with the Savior. What the world thinks or whatyour church thinks or what anyoneelse thinksjust can’t matter as much. Ireached a point where what mattered to the Savior and myrelationship with the Savior was the most erent thing. ... screwed up big Smith: That's really been one of "Rime passed, and I felt closer to God on a daily @: Areyouplanning to be rebaptized?Ifso, what is delaying that? Smith: Thope to be... .. Why it has taken two years?I really don’t know. I think the church just wants to be sure it really is in my past. tem I have and were raised with the same [LDS] belief, and tell them what I'd done, and that I had to go to the church and start the process to Smith: Well, they didn’t provide ‘When I got home, I went to my room and got on my knees and begged God for his forgiveness. I | asked him to take my desire for alcohol away and renew my with my wife. That was five yearago andhave never even bee clos to * “taking a drink Tetil bawbath itmay I aa Ton hase, bt now know what sin is and attempt to avoid it at every turn. ‘The past five years have been amazing as I have the impetus. The impetus was really what we've been teaching here at the firm for 20 years,the whole idea of consistency between what you do and whatyouvalue.. . - The emo- through... My life hasbeen time. sured. I have been given gift serve, but is my as. that I do not de- to everyone. It isa gift that changeslives and restores hope. My story is no different | Christ, I tal for the only faith in your i} who have never heard ofa life or. is you from RobRains Reirietnae |food brokeragein Salt World War II British prime minister; professional basketball star Michael Jordan;the late Catholic nun Mother Teresa — and a schoolteacher, Robert Niederholzer. aesee such an illustrious group’ body’s screen as a national or international figure. But in mylife he had a huge effect. He was my teacher in my senior year ofhigh schoolin Hawaii, and Robert Niederholzer introduced me to books. . . . I discovered the magic of reading, and as a result ofthat I had a watershed experience in my life. 1 often wonderifI had not had Robert Niederholzer as a teacher what mylife would be like. eee— ee a similar impact on Iwas just t i te awe of his anitet withthe Englishlan: guage. Q: WhatMatters Mostis big on well. He was awaya lot. But my motherhad a huge’ impact upon me. Thave nothing on my desk today because ofmy mother.I picked up the wholeidea of order from my mother. Wedidn't go to bed at night until everything was in its proper place. She was a schoolteacher,and she insisted the English language be spoken well in our home. In fact, she died ofleukemia back in 1992. She was 84.For about three weeks before that, she was in and out of comas and wasn’t very lucid. Bnt three days before she died at home, I came bounding into her bed- room. I'd been on a road trip somewhere, andI said, “It’s me!” She hadn't spoken for three days, but she looked over at me and said, “Itis 1.” ‘Thatwas the last thing she said to me,you know,butit was kind of neat. Q: What do you see in thefuture for Hyrum Smith and Franklin Covey? What legacy do you want to leave? Smith: Well, my missionin life has been for a long time to make a Smith: Well, the commonality is knowing who you are, knowing what My mision presidentin Ex Smith:I am in a better place today in my felationship with the Savior than I have ever been in my life. I have taught the atonement and what that can mean, that the Savior came for the sins ofmankind. Wetend to say, huge responsibility —I mean they were aboutto get run over by the And he goes to bed saying, “T was anxious for the next day.” There was this celestial impatience. I think that was pentant is he ifhe's up there still Tah the pinabroken heart and a contrite spirit for Ri ue a sing oybarll Most is a wonderful title, and what built around making difference. . . [We] started this company in my basement19 years ago, three of us. The passion for that came from this story tell about Churchill, in the book, was when he was asked by the king to be the new prime minister. . .He went home that night excited cult times”veryopenly and But where isthe healingprocessfor you now? '~ Q:Your book lists peopleyou characterize as having it “all together.” There’s Winston Churchill, thegreat speak just before he died when I was in England. nde wake ing was out there as a result ofwhatI went Q:; You've shared those “most diffi- ‘that means the most the “We'll pull artists who are popular but not really Christian, butstill have spiritual themes in their music — people like [Celtic lyricist] Van Morrison and[‘folkabilly’ singer] Nanci Griffith andlots of other artists youmight not otherwise think of in a churchservice,” Gamble said. The point is the message, not the vehicle, she said, claiming that most contemporary Christian artists are“too praisy” to appeal to audiences outside their faith groups. y seem to say, ‘Accept Jesus into your life and everything is great.’ We tend ‘to look at the struggle, the unknown, the journey, more of the discipleship side,” Gamblesaid.Still, we always lookfor spiritually based music.” e-mail: bmims@sltrib.com difference... . 1 heard Churchill painful for her, I marvel at the way she has ‘stood by me in the middle ofthis holocaust. all, could have lost to me— my eternal to worshipChrist on occasion. Smith: He won't show up on any- cess? basis, but still had so much sin in my life and was | | unwilling soldier marches home.” Twist ofFaith also performs its share ofli. ter, worship-oriented songs at Holladay UCC,but isn’t afraid tolook to the secular music world for help But there is such a thing as repen- tance and there is such a thing as for- helpedyouformyour philosophy? Smith: My mother was an incredible human being. My father died when I was 19. I knew him, but not nars, Weplaced 17 million [time management] tools in people's hands last year, from kindergarten to business people, and that matters to us. I think we arejust now in position to make a bigger impact on the world than we've ever been. We're putting all of [our] training onto CDROM and . . the Internet. We're now able to reach the masses. Mypassion to make that happen is a whole lot deeper as a result of my problems of the last few years, because I knowthe pain of when you are incongruous with your values. And that’s just stupid. Stupid. e-mail: bmims@sltrib.com |