“Are the Good Times Really Over for Good” by Merle Haggard
— Friday, February 15th, 2013 —
There’s a certain sort of personality that is enlivened by the thought that we’re all doomed. You can here this from almost every vantage point in contemporary life. Dystopian novels and movies gain audiences because people really fear that we’re just this side of apocalypse now.
The same sort of pessimistic vision often shows up in the preaching and teaching of the church. Cultural progressives claim the arc of history is on their side, moving toward sexual revolution, family redefinition, and so on. Christians sometimes speak as though we believe them, that the future is dark and scary. This is why our narrative about the world around us is that it’s slouching toward Gomorrah.
I think the biblical vision is more complicated, and brighter, than that.
On this week’s episode of “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we’ll listen to Merle Haggard’s ask “Are the Good Times Really Over for Good?”. As we do, we’ll ask why people want to answer pessimism with nostalgia and whether there’s another, better, way for the people of Christ.
The best thing that can possibly happen to the American professing Church is for the “good times to be over”. For the most part the American dream is a lie and has doomed many souls to hell, reality. Time for the church to start being the light/salt again and it looks like that will happen during “bad times” in this country.
I have noticed that alot of the gloom and doom “prophets” forget the most important thing, which is to follow Christ day by day.
My husband and I were wondering if you would comment on Paul Simon’s “Graceland” here’s a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvliMzAFWHM especially this section:
I’m going to Graceland,
For reasons I cannot explain
There’s some part of me wants to see
Graceland,
And I may be obliged to defend
Every love every ending
Or maybe there’s no obligations now,
Maybe I’ve a reason to believe
We all will be received
In Graceland