[My Favorite Headache]

Am I reading this correctly? Is Neil Peart about to lump passionate Christians in with Islamic nazis?

"I looked for the good side of faith," Peart says. "To me it ought to be your armor, something to protect you and something to console you in dark times. But it's more often being turned into a sword, and that's one big theme I'm messing with."

Unlike Islam, Christianity's sword is a spiritual one. But knowing Peart, he'll just lump Christianity in with all the other world religions, as being fundamentalist-fascist, power-hungry type of organizations.

This might be the last straw for this Rush fan if he goes in this direction.

[pissant]

Rush's heydey was 25 years ago. They can still pack in a few hundered drunk gamblers at the local indian casinos, but hey, so can Styx.

[dfwgator]

You're shocked by this?!?

Shouldn't the lyrics in Tom Sawyer, "No his mind is not for rent/to any God or government" clued you in to Peart's world view?

[frogjerk]

This might be the last straw for this Rush fan if he goes in this direction.

Rush hasn't been good for YEARS.

[Izzy Dunne]

the power of evangelical Christianity and contrasting that with the power of fundamentalist religion all over the world

[Pete]

I always understood Peart to be a libertarian so his comments don't surprise me. Love their music. Saw them live in '83.

[frogjerk]

You have to look a Peart's life as well. He has gone through some serious tragedies lately and is probably trying to deal with them all.

[commish]

I didn't know Rush sang! WOW! ohhhhhhh U mean that Rush .... wow, they are still alive???

[dinoparty]

Neil, dude, you are so deep, man. I, like, learned about this stuff in Philosophy 101 with that hippy professor when I was 18! Now you're put it to music...profound, man, profound.

[over3Owithabrain]

I will say those "you'll burn in hell" church signs splattered over highways leave me a little disgusted also.

[Strategerist]

Am I reading this correctly? Is Neil Peart about to lump passionate Christians in with Islamic nazis?

You're reading it correctly if you've now become yet another FReeper that spends all of their time going off half-cocked frantically looking for stuff to be enraged about because you enjoy being enraged at stuff.

Might want to wait for the actual lyrics.

As another poster points out you really need a trip to the clue farm if you haven't noticed Peart isn't much of a fan of organized religion of any kind before.

[Uriah_lost]

A pretty standard rationalist/libertarian statement. If it can't be observed and measured they can't believe it. I always ask them where the universe ends and they say it's an infinite, multidimensional rhomboid or some such and I ask them to prove it....that usually results in a snort.
As finite beings we can't get our minds around the infinite and we all have to exert some kind of faith. Atheists choose to believe in "nothing" and have complete faith in it.

[rwilson99]

Reading this in context of the comments today by the Pope, who used the sword imagery as well, I have some hope for Mr. Peart.

Christianity doesn't come to everyone quickly... sometimes it's a long process to get there.

Regarding the Tom Sawyer lyric, I would say God ain't paying rent to anyone.

[Yo-Yo]

[Lunatic Fringe]

The biggest threat to American liberty is Islamic Fundamentalism.

The 2nd biggest is Christian Fundamentalism.

[inkling]

Peart is a big-time Randian, so his trouble with religion is no surprise to me. And since I once was a 15-year-old white boy, I too used to be a Rush fan.

If memory serves, the last album of theirs that I bought was either "Power Windows" or "Hold Your Fire" (correct title?). Probably stopped listening to them in the mid-80s.

[t_skoz]

Good post, MFH.

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[My Favorite Headache]

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"You're not making Christianity better. You're just makeing Rock and Roll worse!" Hank Hill

[ScreamingFist]

Am I reading this correctly? Is Neil Peart about to lump passionate Christians in with Islamic nazis?

You're reading it incorrectly.

[kb2614]

I'll probably buy it anyway. I've been a Rush fan for a couple of decades now. Seen them 3 times. I still dig them. They'll never be confused for conservatives though. I keep in mind that the Islamists would kill Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, and Christains equally. Were all infidels after all. :-)

Looking forward to the new RUSH album!!!