David Bazan

Just read this article in the Chicago Reader about former Pedro The Lion frontman David Bazan. Ten second bio: Bazan was raised in a Christian home, went to bible school, married young, rose to international fame with PTL (ironic acronym), lost his faith, became a drunk, and is now more or less an agnostic trying to get his life and career back on track.

The author of the piece, Jessica Hopper, is Bazan's former publicist. She is to be commended for a decent piece of journalism. Her writing is professional, and devoid of the bald faced hostility so often reserved for Christ followers by liberal art-fart rags like the Reader. Her portrait of the young Christians she interviews at Cornerstone--many of whom, clearly in denial, resort to superlative acrobatics in their attempt to understand Bazan's lyrics as somehow still "Christian"--could almost be said to be tender. David Bazan, former Christian, present agnostic (if perhaps back door seeker) is depicted as he is, without glorification of his "liberation" from "dogma."

That said, there is one thing that drives me absolutely bat-guano about the piece. It's this quote from liberal Christian writer David Dark:

when [Bazan] is addressing his idea of his God, the one that he fears exists but refuses to believe in, when he is telling him, 'If this is the situation with us and you, then fuck you—the people who love you, I hope they see you for who you are,' when he's doing that, he is at his most biblical.

Set the Bible aside for a moment, and let me use an analogy that involves what would at first appear to be a less-provocative document: The flight manual for your average commercial airline pilot. Now, I've never seen a flight manual for a 747, but I'm quite certain some sort of book exists. I imagine a thick spiral bound tome, about 500+ pages long, with a thick, shiny, gloss card stock cover. Something that would be a bear to fit in the glove compartment.

As I say, I've never seen this book, but I'm sure it has a thing or two to say about, oh, how to land the plane properly and whatnot. It may not say exactly what not to do in any and every situation, but "what not to do" can easily be inferred by someone smart enough to become an airline pilot. For example, if the book says something about aiming for the center line down the middle of the runway after you've begun your descent and have opened the landing gear, it's probably a safe assumption that you shouldn't attempt--at that particular time, anyway--that loop-de-loop you've been itching to try. Nor should you buzz the tower, pull up to play chicken in another incoming plane's landing path, or get on the intercom and scream "we're all going to die." Again, the book probably doesn't expressly state not to do those things. But if a pilot engaged in that sort of behavior, would his associates, superiors, and passengers refer to him as the "most by the book" pilot they'd ever met?

Like the flight manual, the Bible has a number of things to say about what one should and should not do. And among the list of "don't dos" are things like don't take God's name in vain, don't put God to the test, fear God and treat him with reverence, etc. Logically, since the Bible says these things, it would be "biblical" for one to abide by these rules and principles.

So how is it that someone who says to God,"'If this is the situation with us and you, then fuck you,'" is at his most biblical at that moment? Dark says his definition of "biblical" has to do with "the deep strains of complaint and prayers and tirades against conceptions of God in the Bible." He doesn't elaborate on what he means by this, but I assume he's referring to any number of passages in, say, Psalms, or Job, where the author is expressing his pain, panic, complaints, etc. to God. However, the difference between what Dark finds in Bazan's lyrics, and what is actually going on in the Bible, is this: the one bringing the complaint in the Bible never casts aspersion on God's integrity or righteousness--or if he does, he eventually repents (or gets fried). The sort of self-righteous telling-off of God as described by Dark assumes that the human in question is more morally righteous than God. I don't really know of an example of a God follower approaching God from this perspective in scripture, at least not without an eventual recanting and repentance from that erroneous stance. So if Dark thinks that Bazan is at his "most biblical" when his lyrics are openly blasphemous, what must he (Dark) think of as unbiblical?

Anyway, I wish David Bazan the best. I'm glad that he appears to be sober. I like what I've heard of his music and I hope he keeps working. I hope, most of all, that he dedicates himself relentlessly to pursuing the truth.