Tori Amos at the Library

You're probably thinking, "Man he saw her at the library?!" Yeah, well that would have been cool, but no, I was wandering the library, generally making the other geeks 'n' bums nervous, when I came across a display of musician bios, and Tori Amos's, written by herself and a music writer, a series of interviews and thoughts, etc, and I opened it up randomly and began to read . . .

I had always known, somewhere in my travels, that Ms. Amos had faced a violent rape early in her life, and as anybody who listens to her music knows, she has put that into almost her entire creative career, and the part that I read gave me a glimpse into how her family life probably did not help much for her to cope with that horrible part of her past.

Tori Amos mentions that, with regards to Christianity, her grandmother could see absolutely no merging of the Madonna and Magdalene. They were distinct and separate. and if she ever saw any of the Magdalene in her granddaughters, they would be "cast out" - she mentioned that her family believed that people could actually be possessed by demons.

I was so sad on reading this, because it is just further evidence how Christians have ruined Christ for yet one more person. Why is it that so many "fire and brimstone" damnation-preaching generations have totally given their children and grandchildren such a warped view of a loving Christ that it may be near impossible for them ever to return?

Many people in the faith, I believe, may be uncomfortable with my point of view. I may even be mistaken, and if I am, then I apologize to God for my arrogance; however, I am a devout Christian and I believe in the all-encompassing LOVE of Jesus Christ and it absolutely breaks my heart that time and time again I read about and hear about people who can't be Christians simply because someone, somewhere in their lives, put such a guilty "Jesus will damn you to Hell" attitude.

Basically, Jesus doesn't damn us . . . simply put, we're already damned, and HE's the way out. The way I see it, there's just no where to go but UP!

But, back to Tori Amos . . . I have loved her music ever since Little Earthquakes. "Silent All These Years" still ranks as one of my all time favourite songs. Boys for Pele still my favourite Tori album, loved Scarlett's Walk, but I have to admit that American Doll Posse somehow I couldn't get into.

So, with my Amos-credentials established, I hope she will understand when I say that I hope that she found the true love of Christ somewhere in the back pages of her autobiography, and I just happened to hit the sad part. and if not, well, I hope someday she just knows that Verble loves her . . .

but not as much as Jesus does!

VG


P.S. The Beekeeper was awesome, too!