Raise a Little Hell

Fundamentalists and cultists are the most petty people on earth. They have a perverse pleasurably delight in seeing wrong in any and everything.  They excel in the figuring out the smallest of details (in which 99.9% of the time have absolutely no relevance nor consequence) in how a believer should behave and restrain oneself (lest their twisted concept of “g”od will get angry and whack you Tony Soprano style if you don’t fall in line. I think Tony would blush but that’s another topic)and at the same time fail miserably when it comes to seeing the big picture and take perverse joy in missing the point. Frankly the less fundamentalists (of all religions) and cultists in the world, the more harmonious and progressive the world would be. What is my point? Back in my teen years in the WCG in the good old mid 1980’s,  my pastor was doing a Bible Study on music. It was of course, a pro-classical, anti-rock bias and the pastor reminised that when he was in a different church area, he clamped down on a song that I guess the local teens were playing (I guess at some church activity) by the title, “Of Raise A Little Hell.” Only if my then pastor did not fall in the same damnable trap of missing the point.

To digress for a moment (and if J of Shadows of WCG is lurking, I am giving you a readers discretion advised. I am fully aware of his ultra-conservative zero tolerance against coarse language amongst other things) American  university professor and evangelist, Tony Campolo made a dramatic statement of something to the effect (probably not exact but this what he roughly said), “Millions are going to hell and some of you don’t give a s–t!” In the binary mentality of a fundamentalist and/or a cultist, they are waaay more obsessed with the later of the statement than they are the former. To be blunt, their minds have simply shut off what the former was said and sadly they have missed the point. Even Dr. Campolo acknowledged this that some Christians were obsessed with the word “s–t” than they were of the statement that “millions are going to hell”. Perfect example of how “fundagelicals” (with apologies to Gavin Rumney) miss the point—to their own detriment.

It seems that my then-pastor was obsessed with a song that had “hell” in it than actually taking the bloody (is that bad in your books J?) time to sit and down and honestly figure out the true meaning of the lyrics—it wasn’t this satanic song as he stupidly imagined it would be. Actually the lyrics are pretty meaningful. Actually it is something that Jesus Christ in his life, leading up to his crucifixion did nearly 2000 years ago. He raised a little hell. He hated the lip service of the Pharisees, hated their double standards, hated the excessive burdens on the masses of people and he did something about it. It costed his life but thank God he revolutionized the world as we know it.  As I write the post, it is 2008 (and believe it or not we’re no more certain who’ll be the next U.S. president), it is my sincere hope that my then pastor has grown up considerably since the mid 1980’s over issues like these.

Enjoy the peformers of the song by a Canadian group (yes!) by the name of Trooper presented by none other than Youtube.com and yes, you can sing a long with the lyrics below!

 

Raise a little Hell, raise a little Hell, raise a little Hell
Raise a little Hell, raise a little Hell, raise a little Hell
Raise a little Hell, raise a little Hell, raise a little HellIf you don’t like
What you got
Why don’t you change it
If your world is all screwed up
Rearrange itRaise a little Hell …

If you don’t like what you see
Why don’t you fight it
If you know there’s something wrong
Why don’t you right it

Raise a little Hell …

In the end it comes down to your thinking
And there’s really nobody to blame
When it feels like your ship is sinking
And you’re too tired to play the game

Nobody’s going to help you
You’ve just got to stand up alone
And dig in your heels
And see how it feels
To raise a little Hell of your own

Raise a little Hell …

If you don’t like
What you got
Why don’t you change it
If your world is all screwed up
Rearrange it

Raise a little Hell …