What?

Yeah, I’m not really starting a Theology on Tap because I’m that attached to the concept (although it’s a good one). I’m starting a theology on tap because my friend Adam Walker Cleaveland just wrote a blog post tossing out the mere idea of starting a theology on tap group for his church, and within six hours, he received an email notification from the group that apparently holds the trademark for the term “theology on tap.” They basically told him he couldn’t use the name without paying them money. Oh, and this is a ministry, too.

WTF?!?!?!?!?!! (uh oh, has anyone trademarked “WTF” yet?)

Better yet:  WTFWJD???? (Ryan, you’d better hurry up and trademark that one.)

So, even though I actually think the name “Theology on Tap” is a little hokey and overused, I’m now going to start one, and yes, that’s EXACTLY what I’m going to call it: THEOLOGY ON TAP. Every Thursday night at 7pm, my front porch. Bring your favorite beer, and I’ll share some of mine with you. We’ll print t-shirts, flyers, and publicize the heck out of it. Oh, and if you’re not in New Jersey but still want to participate, I’d encourage you to start your own THEOLOGY ON TAP wherever you live. If thousands of us all do it together, I doubt the copyright Nazis who “own” the words (ridiculous, isn’t it?) Theology on Tap will really be able to sustain that many lawsuits. And even if they try, they’ll end up looking as stupid and foolish and selfish as when ASCAP sued the Girl Scouts of America for singing copyrighted songs around their campfires.

Sheesh. What an idiotic world we live in.

See you tonight for THEOLOGY ON TAP!!!

I’ve been a loyal fan since I was in high school — when I played the song Always With Me, Always With You so many times I wore out and broke my cassette tape (I realize I’m dating myself here) Surfing With the Alien album.

I have to admit, though, some of your albums (the new CD versions I bought as soon as CD’s became popular) had been gathering a little dust on the shelf. But when I heard the new Coldplay song Viva La Vida, and heard people saying Coldplay stole it from you, I dutifully took out Is There Love in Space, dusted it off, and listened to If I Could Fly again. I do admit, they have a lot of similarities. But mostly, I was just glad for an excuse to listen to you again–I even got on the web to see what you’re up to these days. In that sense, all the publicity around your song and Coldplay’s is a good thing.

But then I read that you were suing them. And that’s where you lost me, “Saint” Joe (suing your neighbor is equally as unsaintly as stealing from him). Because I’m not sure what suing another music group will ever accomplish, except for making you look bad. Here’s what I mean:

When Coldplay first landed on my radar, I heard their song Clocks on the radio and immediately thought it sounded almost exactly like a song I wrote and recorded years ago with my high school garage band, right down to the repeating triplet piano part (which in our version was voiced by background vocals). Now, in my case, it’s obvious that there’s no way Coldplay could have possibly copied the song from us, as we only made a handful of demo tapes of the recording for our family and friends. But it does show how two separate musicians can come up with remarkably similar chord progressions and even riffs independently. When I heard Clocks, my only reaction was “Yeah, they must have good musical sense, ’cause I did that, too!”

So unless you think they deliberately sat down and said “Hey, how can we turn this Joe Satriani song into our own song” (which I think is highly unlikely, given the originality of most of what they do) I’m left asking myself why on earth you would want to sue them? Is it for the publicity? Because you’d have that even without suing them. Is it the money? Because the best way to make money as a musician should always be by writing and performing great stuff, not worrying about what “other” people are doing, and certainly not worrying about songs you wrote five years ago. Or worse — are you one of those musicians who thinks you have sole, eternal ownership of a certain way some notes are arranged on a piece of paper? I hope not, because if those sorts of musicians are successful (and I count Lars Ulrich as foremost among these), it will signal the end of creativity and growth in the music industry, not a new beginning.

I really, really hope you’ll consider backing down from your lawsuit, and recognizing Coldplay’s song for what it is: a good song that owes a debt not to you, but to whatever inspirational muse you’re both in debt to. And I hope you realize that before you lose too many fans in a new generation that overwhelmingly and unstoppably has radically new views on copyright and music ownership.  If you want to be around and relevant in the future, take a page from Radiohead’s playbook — not Metallica’s.

Despite all this, I’ll still probably go see you in concert if you’re ever in the New Jersey area. But now I’ll probably be a lot more hesitant to take my son — a burgeoning 4-year-old musician in his own right — with me. I’ll still listen to your albums, but I’m not sure how much money I’ll want to spend on them, when you seem to want to collect money in a different way. And when someday my son asks me the inevitable question about who I think is the greatest guitar player of all time…I don’t know what I’ll tell him. Because to me, greatness is about more than just technical skill. Great musicians are the ones who, in addition to precision and creativity, acknowledge at the end of the day that we don’t own the music. It’s the music that owns us.

Sincerely, but no longer yours,

Neal Locke

SERMON: The text is Exodus 17:1-7, and is the story of Moses striking a rock to provide water for thirsty Israelites wandering around in the desert. I think I’m going to talk about the sometimes foolish and counterintuitive things (like hitting a rock with a stick) that God calls us to do in order to grow (both in spirit & body). I might equate “striking rocks” to “taking risks” or stepping out in faith. I might digress to talk about biblical literalism vs. myth & metaphor, or another digression to talk about needs (like water) vs. wants. Annie & John, if you’re reading, I was also wondering if there’s any tie-in I could make about water in the desert and sustainability in developing countries today.

WORKSHOP: Here’s the “official” title and description: Copyright, copyleft, and the Future of the Publishing Industry. We’ll take a brief look at the origins of copyright law, its present state, and recent developments in the concept of “intellectual property.” We’ll explore some dangers, pitfalls, and misconceptions, but also ways writers can use emerging copyright tools and technologies to their advantage. Finally, we’ll step back and consider the larger trends and shifts in the publishing industry that have the potential to leave established institutions in obscurity, while elevating to prominence writers who are prepared for publishing in the 21st century.

Anyone in the Dallas area is welcome to come to either event — the church is located at 10930 College Parkway, Frisco 75035, worship @10:45 Sunday mornings. The writer’s workshop will be at Barnes & Noble in the Frisco Stonebriar Mall, 2601 Preston Rd. Frisco, 75034 and will be this Monday night @ 7:00pm.

Confession: I can’t read just one book at a time. Maybe it’s an ADHD thing, but I generally have three or four books on my “currently reading” shelf at any given moment. However, it’s pretty rare for all of them to be this radical, this life-changing, at once.

The book I’m just finishing (and consequently have been reading longest) is Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig (he’s the guy who started “Creative Commons“). If you’ve ever illegally downloaded music from the internet, if you think Walt Disney was “original,” if you wonder whether or not it’s legal to Tivo your favorite show, or want to know why ASCAP sucks, you should read this book. Come to think of it, if you’ve ever produced anything creative in your life (a song, a painting, a poem, etc.) you should read this book. And you should be afraid of where our culture is headed. Lessig paints it like this:

Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy … IN response to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way that will undermine our tradition of free culture … The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check with a lawyer.

The book I’m in the middle of reading is Shane Claiborne’s Irresistable Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. I bought this book because someone at a conference told me I had to read it — apparently it would change my life. I’ve heard that line before, but I bought it anyhow. Then a few weeks later, David Bailey calls me from an airport and says, “Neal — drop everything you’re doing right now and go read this book. It will change your life.” This time I listened. They were both right. Last week I texted David and said, “You were right about the book. So when I go off the deep end, it will be partially your fault.” Claiborne calls for “Christians” to go beyond mere charity and distant, detached interactions with the social problems of our era:

Charity wins awards and applause, but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts the social order, that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.

It’s one thing to just think or say what he’s saying. I’ve done that plenty. But Shane Claiborne actually lives the way he talks, at an urban intentional community called The Simple Way. To me, this book and the ideas it contains could be the death and resurrection of the church, and possibly the world. And that would be a good thing.

The book I’m just starting is Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian Educator who lived through the Great Depression, and taught illiterate peasants in his country how to read — not just so they could “prosper,” but more importantly so they could fight against the wealthy and powerful forces that sought to control and marginalize them in the first place. I haven’t gotten too far into the book, but just enough to get really excited (and cram the margins with notes):

This then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves … In order to have the continued opportunity to express their “generosity,” the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this “generosity,” which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty. That is why the dispensers of false generosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source.

All three books challenge systems designed to keep the powerful powerful, and the rich rich — at the expense of freedom and opportunity: One from a technological/legal viewpoint, one from a sociological/theological viewpoint, and one from an educational/political viewpoint.

We love to *believe* that the words Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence — that “all men are created equal” — but but what we actually put into practice is more from George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All are created equal, but some are more equal than others.” And those “others” will generally stop at nothing to keep it that way. I think this is why Jesus preached that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. He wasn’t talking about people’s souls, or people’s hearts. He was talking about their houses, and their jobs, and their titles, and their bank accounts. Shane Claiborne puts it this way: “True generosity is measured not by how much we give away, but by how much we have left.”

Vive la Revolution!

Creationist vs. Atheist YouTube War Marks New Breed of Copyright Claim

Anybody seen the YouTube videos in question?