What was Jesus' earthly profession?

Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Dude Abides

Home
Progressive Christian

Last updated on: September 16, 2008 at 11:09 am by Cathleen Falsani

2008-09-16T11:09:00-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

GODSTUFF

JOAN BAEZ: 50 YEARS OF PEACEMAKING

They called her the “barefoot Madonna.”

Nearly 50 years ago, when an 18-year-old Joan Baez lit up the stage at the Newport Folk Festival, she was an ethereal, earthy chanteuse who launched a revival of the Americana musical genre that continues until today.

Now 67, her high soprano mellowed and golden with the years, Baez has released her 33rd solo album, “Day After Tomorrow,” a powerful collection of what can only be called American hymns, produced by that great Southern troubadour, Steve Earle.

Some of the 10 tracks are pure, worshipful odes to a loving God, the mother of God and mothers in general. Others are laments about a world at war. Baez’s spirit of peace and justice, rooted in faith, remains the same as in 1959 Newport.

On Thursday in Nashville, Baez will receive the Spirit of Americana Free Speech award from the Americana Music Association in recognition of her half-century of contributions to American music and the First Amendment.

Previous recipients of the award include Chicago’s Mavis Staples, Baez’s dear friend Judy Collins and Earle. The first award was presented to Johnny Cash in 2002, the year before his death.

I can think of no other musician alive today more deserving of the Spirit of Freedom and few other women for whom I have a higher regard than Baez.

When I was a child, I recall seeing Baez perform on television and was taken with her soulful voice and beauty. She bore a striking resemblance to my mother’s best friend, my Aunt Patti, herself an artist and justice seeker. Baez has long been close to my heart because of her familiar spirit, a soul sister to Patti who left this world far too young, when I was only 12.

Driving to a Pilates class Sunday morning, when I suppose I should have been headed to church, I tuned in to the local public radio station and heard her voice, singing first and then speaking to interviewer Bob Edwards.

She was talking about the new album, and when I entered the on-air conversation, she was discussing the first track, a glorious tune written by Earle called “God is God.”

It says, in part:

I believe in prophecy

Some folks see things not everybody can see

And once in a while they pass a secret along to you and me

And I believe in miracles

Something sacred burning in every bush and tree

We can all long to sing the songs the angels sing

Yeah, I believe in God

And God ain’t me . . .

God is God

The message of that song was as good as any I would have heard in church that morning. I stopped and bought the CD, and drove around listening to the whole thing, having a little worship service in my car.

Baez’s early life was steeped in Christian tradition. Her grandfather, the Rev. Alberto Baez, was a Methodist minister. Her maternal grandfather was an Episcopal priest. Her father, Albert Baez, a prominent physicist who refused to work on the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb and turned down defense industry jobs for reasons of faith, eventually converted (along with the rest of the family) to Quakerism, the historical peace church.

For a time during her childhood in the early 1950s, the Baez family lived in Iraq, and the effect of witnessing the poverty and oppression of the Iraqi people made an indelible impression on young Joan.

As long as she’s been singing, Baez has been singing for peace. She also has raised her voice year after year in protest of war, whether the conflict was in Vietnam, Cambodia or present-day Iraq and Afghanistan.

She marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma and sang “We Shall Overcome” for him during his March on Washington. In 1963, she founded the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, and in 1998, along with Collins, rode a crane hundreds of feet into the air to sit in a giant redwood tree with the environmental activist Julia “Butterfly” Hill. For decades, she’s lobbied for human rights and in opposition to the death penalty — all the while singing some of the most beautiful, enduring songs of our time.

Her consistency and commitment are rare, especially in a music business where the bread and butter of the industry is appealing to the broadest audience (some would say the lowest common denominator) and offending as few consumers as possible.

The title track of Baez’s masterful new album, a song written by Tom Waits, tells the story of a soldier from Illinois who is on his way home from the war.

You can’t deny

The other side

Don’t want to die

Any more than we do

What I’m trying to say,

Is don’t they pray

To the same God that we do?

Tell me, how does God choose?

Whose prayers does he refuse? . . .

I’m not fighting

For justice

I am not fighting

For freedom

I am fighting

For my life

And another day

As the sister of an airman fighting in Afghanistan, her words touched my heart. For her tireless work to end conflicts that send young men and women into war zones, for her words — spoken, sung or shouted — urging us to see the ties that bind us rather than the barriers that divide us, I am ever grateful.

The Bible tells us that Jesus said the peacemakers are blessed.

Barefoot Madonna, full of grace, surely the Lord is with you.

You are blessed, and for that, so are we.

To hear Baez’s interview with Bob Edwards about “Day After Tomorrow,” click HERE.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 15, 2008

Next Post

September 23, 2008

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A little happy ARCHIVED COLUMNS BECOMING FAMILY BelieberNess BREAKING NEWS! Disquiet Time DJ JEFF'S SPINTASMS falsani FILM from OCRegister From Sojo.net God Nods GODSTUFF I Take Requests incubatespirit LURKING IN THE NARTHEX On My Nightstand ONEMOMS Polling the Room PONTIFEXCELLENT Thru My Eyes TWO CENTS Uncategorized Upcoming Events VASCO VASCO'S HEART

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 October 2003 March 2003 December 2002 October 2002 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Jesus' earthly profession?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Carpenter Shepherd Fisherman Tentmaker