Wednesday, January 16, 2008

As I Lay Dying

A band I like, that some of you may have heard of, is As I Lay Dying, which is a hardcore, Christian band, who has become very popular among hardcore music lovers. They just released a new album a couple months ago, and one of the songs is called Nothing Left. They recorded a video for the song, but I will get to that in a second. The song is a really good example of christian symbolism, as it says in the song, "Like those gasping for their last breath. We cannot hide, there's nothing left. This world was never worthy, but how can I call it 'unfaithful'? Every promise was fulfilled as decay crawled from its throat". What this is saying is that in society, every right we have as christians is virtually taken away from us, and we are critisized and pursecuted for doing things wrong. The video for this song represents faith in a really strong way. The video starts out with a woman, from the future, waking up from sleep, and noticing she has a dark mark on her neck and shoulder, with a television on of a dictator speaking with the subtitled, "Condemn the Infected". The video continues to show her trying to hide her mark with a red scarf, but decides to remove it. This causes people around her to point and judge her for having a dark mark. The next part of the video shows her naked in a coliseum (its not like pornographic or anything), standing next to the dictator, with people yelling, screaming, and throwing things at her. The final shot is of people pointing guns at her, and virtually shoving her off a cliff. This video shows a great view of how us, as christians, are critisized and judged for doing wrong, but we are still people nonetheless. It also represents satan saying, symbolically, "You are trash for doing wrong". And luckily for us, we have a GOD that doesn't see it that way.

1 comment:

Rose said...

I am very impressed with your writing skills. I had no idea that you are this articulate. Nick, I agree with you and especially regarding what you srote about Christmas. You were right on with your views about mega-size churches. You, my friend are an awesome Christian. I love it when it shows in a person, don't you? I know we disagree in politics and that is okay. I tell you what is absolutely wonderful and that is the book we got at Set Apart written by Charlie Alcock. I have read it twice and the truth is in that book. I will see you Sunday! I got a ride! Much love,
Rose**