Rage Against The Burn
Or, why I spent 60 bucks on a single CD
Oh man, I got more comments on last week's post than almost anything I’ve ever written.
Most of the comments weren’t even about the actual post.
At the very end of the post, I tagged on a reference to throwing away Rage Against the Machine’s The Battle of Los Angeles twice.1
And by “threw away,” I mean burned.
When I was a teenager, my youth pastor2 had a yearly event he called “the burn.” He got a metal cylindrical trash can and lit a fire in the bottom. He asked us each to bring 1-3 items that were ‘keeping us from God.’
He had us throw these items in the fire and watch them melt.
The theory was, once those things were gone, our relationship with God would improve tenfold.
I don’t think anybody ever brought porn.
That would have been hilarious, though.
I’m imagining my youth pastor screaming “LOOK AWAY KIDS” as the naked pictures burned.
Some youth brought movies,
others brought CD’s,
some brought expensive clothing,
still others brought books.
One guy brought a PS1 controller. This was at the height of the PS1 era. And he didn’t just bring a PS1 controller—he brought a Dual Shock. Those controllers were EXPENSIVE.3
I watched the Dual Shock melt, and remember thinking, “That dude’s gonna buy another Dual Shock within 3 weeks.”
As I watched The Battle of Los Angeles melt, I thought “Now my relationship with God is going to be much more solid.”
I bought The Battle of Los Angeles again within 3 weeks.
I’m of two minds here.
Christian or not, I think there’s something admirable about trying to better oneself.
If something’s getting in the way of a person’s joy, well-being, or sense of wholeness, I admire anyone who makes the choice to get rid of it.
On the other hand, it was coerced.
It was expected.
Bring it, burn it.
(Interestingly, I don’t remember my youth pastor bringing anything of his to The Burn. Maybe he did, but I kinda doubt it).
And that coercion was emblematic of everything I experienced in youth group.
We didn’t really learn much in youth group about the God of grace, love, and mercy.
We learned about all the things we did wrong.
Don’t cuss.
Don’t do drugs.
Don’t masturbate.4
Don’t have the wrong friends.
Don’t keep things that are making you a Bad Person.
You know, like listening to an album that has ‘shit’ and ‘hell’ in it.
The message of our youth group was Stop doing bad things.
Not Make the world a better place.
The message was You’re bad, do better.
Not You’re good, and God loves you as you are.
The message was Burn shit and you’ll be better.
Not Pursue growth and healing for the betterment of yourself and the world.
Again, the idea of trying to better oneself; to become
more whole,
more loving,
more free,
more caring,
more joyful,
more at peace,
is a good and admirable thing.
(I think so at least)
But The Burn didn’t teach us that.
The Burn taught us that we’re bad and we need to do better.
The Burn taught us that we’re disappointments.
I still, 25 years later, have pangs of guilt for re-buying that Rage album.
If you’re reading this and you’re 20+ years younger than me, CD’s were how we listened to music. You put a little circle that had a single album in it in your car and you listened to that one album. If you wanted a different album, you pulled out a binder the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica* to get a new CD.
*The Encyclopedia Britannica was the internet before the internet.
Great dude. I’m about to crap on one of his events, but I genuinely like the guy.
A buddy said this week: “As a parent, if I found out my kids’ youth pastor had them burning shit I bought them (PS1 controller), I swear to all that is holy…”
I feel that.
Every time we got a sex talk from a youth pastor, it was just the youth pastor looking at us with an aggressive look in his eyes and saying “Don’t masturbate.” Very cool. Loved that.
The whole point of those events was to instill shame and guilt in teens and tell them the only way to feel better was to commit more to the group/to god. it's actually very insidious! giving them the addiction and "the cure" at the same time.
I heartily agree with your take, and I think there's a deeper issue here.
I think Rage against the Machine offers a valuable critique of Christianity, which deserves to be explored. But it's important to realize that the critique offered is not diametrically opposed. Indeed, the machine that the band is raging against is oppressive Babylon. They speak out for the oppressed. As I understand it, they primarily disagree with Christianity about the method to achieve liberation. Whereas Jesus desired reconciliation with the oppressor through sacrificial love, Rage implores the oppressed to take the power back.
Rage against the Machine, along with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock--potty mouths all of them--helped me see oppression that I never was taught to see in Sunday School.