Monthly Archives: January 2009

Heaven & Hell – My Life With the Eagles

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I recently finished reading Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) by Don Felder, one of the original members of the band “The Eagles.” The book was given to me as a Christmas present by my oldest son, Taylor, because he knew that this was my favorite band of all time.

I found it to be a very revealing look at the inside of the music industry and culture during the turbulent 60′s and 70′s. Really amazing stuff. Don seems to be a person who entered the industry with some moral perspectives and humility from his upbringing, struggled through those years, made a lot of mistakes on his way to the top, but learned through it all and has come out of it a better person than many of his peers.

This is not a book to read for literary enjoyment… but the content is compelling. I have a lower view of fellow band members/founders Don Henley and Glenn Frey after reading this book. They seem petty, egocentric, manipulating and deceitful. Too bad that the group had to end the way it did. Getting rid of Don Felder (who wrote their greatest hit song: Hotel California) was a massively stupid thing to do.

I had thought about trying to see The Eagles on their “Long Road Out of Eden” tour this year, but now I think I’ll pass.

Here are a couple of interesting websites on Don’s life and music:

An interesting video interview:

The Screwtape Letters

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The Screwtape Letters

Uncle Screwtape and Toadwood his Scribe

Uncle Screwtape and Toadwood his Scribe

I had an opportunity to go and see FPA Theatre Company’s production of C.S. Lewis‘ “The Screwtape Letters” a week ago. It is playing at the old Mercury Theater at 3745 N. Southport in Chicago. It stars Max McLean (who also co-adapted the script) as “His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape,” and Karen Eleanor Wight as “Toadpipe,” his demonic personal secretary and scribe.

C. S. LEWIS (Author) (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential Christian writer and apologist of his day. He published The Screwtape Letters in 1942 wherein he presented a humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils named Screwtape and Wormwood. He used the book to deal with moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace.

Here is C.S. Lewis’ own INTRODUCTION:

I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence, which I now offer to the public, fell into my hands.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true, even from his own angle.

There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.

C.S. Lewis
July 5, 1941
The Screwtape Letters

Tata Jesus is Bangala!

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I’ve just finished reading “The Poisonwood Bible” a novel by Barbara Kingsolver about the Price family who go to the Belgian Congo in the late 1950′s as Baptist missionaries. It’s a pretty depressing story based upon the experiences of Nathan Price’s wife and four daughters… who rotate telling their story in each chapter of the book. Orleanna, Rachel, Leah and Adah (twins), and Ruth May (the youngest).

Nathan turns out to be an abusive, narrow-minded, ultra-conservative tyrant who refuses to learn anything from the Kingala culture around him, and chooses to impose his views, opinions and version of reality on the unsuspecting villagers. He yells “Tata Jesus is Bangala” to his congregation over and over, never understanding that depending on the way you say it, it means that Jesus is either precious (good), or that he is the poisonwood tree (bad). His listeners are never really sure what he means and there is never any real spiritual transformation as a result.

The female Price family members however, do learn from their Africa experiences but become increasingly alienated and separated from Nathan. Eventually tragedy strikes – which leads to the eventual sad breaking apart of the family.

Another interesting part of the book is how it weaves in the 1960′s political background of how the Congo became independent, then how the Eisenhower administration was involved in the assassination of the first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, and how it came to support the ruthless dictator, Mobutu.

To me the book makes a strong case for the serious consequences that exist for anyone (an individual, church or a nation) who is not willing to learn and communicate cross-culturally with a sensitive, serving attitude and manner. The same consequences exist for us in today if we do not learn to be flexible and to make the transition and bridge from modernism to postmodernism.