9 Crimes

"Leave me out with the waste this is not what I do,
Its the wrong kind of place to be thinking of you,
Its the wrong time for somebody new,
Its a small crime and I've got no excuse"




Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice's song "9 Crimes" is a really interesting portrayl of the struggle to make sense out of morality without absolute standards of right and wrong. Rice is definately not a Christian artist and some of his songs have some pretty subtle but raunchy content. Although I avoid a few songs, I actually really like Rice and have listened to him pretty heavily for a few years now. He is becoming more popular in the U.S, but he has been at the top of the charts recently in the UK and Ireland. The Irish Times called him "a most excruciatingly honest songwriter," and I have to say I would agree. His songs are hauntingly beautiful and generally pretty intrequing.

My favorite song of his, 9 Crimes, reminded me a lot of what Dr. Kersey talked about in regards to the "Godfather" and "No Country for Old Men" in last fall's lecture about Christianity and culture. Dr. Kersey mentioned that people are wired by God to live by a code of ethics, however if they reject Christian morality, they often try to fill the void with a code of their own. I think this is what Rice is doing throughout the narrative of this song. I'm pretty sure the song is about cheating, but it could be applied to a wide range of "crimes" or sins. At the beginning of the song Rice sings "take me out with the waste" ascenting to the fact that what he did has made him dirty - maybe even garbage. He follows by saying "this is not what I do" - in other words, he know he did wrong but he is trying to rationalize it by telling himself he wasn't really being himself in what he did.

Throughout the song further wrestling and justification takes place with phrases like "its a small crime" (trying to rank sins with his own man made system to create his own code), "but she's pulling me through" (he needs the sin even though it is wrong), and eventually he even admits "I've got no excuse." He has no excuse, but neverthless he still commits the crime.

The entire verse consists almost solely of one phrase "is that all right with you?" - when we reject God's standards of right and wrong all we are left with is a desperate search to ascertain what those we love will let us get away with. All we can ask is "is it all right with you?" if I do this sin against you. In essence, how far can I push those I love without loosing their love forever? This is that sad reality of a world stripped of absolutes.

One of the things most striking about this song though, is that it reveals that even the world is still searching for a sense of morality and an ordering of ethics. Instead of throwing off the issues of right and wrong as meaningless Rice is trying to rationalize what he did, revealing that he still cares about doing right. I think this is why I like Rice so much, he may not know God but at least he is honest about the real guilt that accompanies not knowing Him. It goes back to one of the issues Romanowski brought up in his book - some secular art can have value primarily because it honestly relates the human experience. In this case Rice is beautifully and tragically relating what the quest for morality feels like stripped of Christ.

Are we older than God?

Are we older than God?....the first time I was asked this question I thought it was a pretty ridiculous  - a sensation you are probably sharing in right now. Obviously the literal answer is absolutely not, in so far as God is in time. But, on a deeper level there are some cool truths to ponder in this question.

Sigur Ros released a music video to accompany his song "Hoppipollaa" a few years back. Maybe some of you don't like songs that contain lyrics in a made up language as much as I do, but I think this music video touches on something theologically profound - unintelligable lyrics aside. haha.

In the video you see elderly people engaging in activities you would only expect children to enjoy. They splash in puddles, fight imaginary pirate battles with wooden swords, sneak in a kiss when no one is looking, and do general kid like things. The irony is that they are much older than the adults they seem to be bothering (i.e. the man that comes to the door in response to a doorbell ditch...) and even play fight on top of a grave yard - in a sense making light of the death that we all ultimately face. They have a childlikeness about them; not in body, but in spirit. Although they have lived long enough to become tainted by the sin, pain, and death that prevades this world, they still maintain a demeanor of mirth in regards to life.

It reminds me of something I read in the book "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton. He said, "Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian...Jesus' pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet he concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomats are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of teh Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth."

In another place Chesterton writes, "He (God) has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grow old, and our Father is younger than we." Sigur Ros touched on this, intentional or not, in his representation of elderly people who share in God's "eternal appetite" for infancy.