I am supposed to be up and running early today but something caught my eyes as i was scanning my inbox. It's an email from Derek Webb explaining something sad,...... his new record Stockholm Syndrome has been delayed. Sad indeed knowing how interesting this guy's intellect and insight could be. I have all his records on physical CD except for Mockingbird which was offered as a free download on his website so i only have a CD-R copy of it. Still. Anyways here's the email,
friends-
i haven’t sent many personal emails to this email list but we’re in a situation that has gotten a little out of control and it’s time to fill you in. as some of you may know, i’ve been working for months on my new record, ‘stockholm syndrome’, which i’ve recently finished and turned in to the record label. they’ve been very supportive over the years, but this time we didn’t get the response we expected. it seems i’ve finally found the line beyond which my label can support me, and apparently i’ve crossed it.i consider this my most important record and am adamant about all of you hearing it. we had originally hoped to have ‘stockholm syndrome’ out this month (next week even), but at this point we’re not sure when the record will come out and in what form. the majority of the controversy is surrounding one song, which i consider to be among the most important songs on the record. so we’ve decided it’s an appropriate time to break the rules.
but because of various legal/publishing issues we’re having to be rather careful with how we do what we’re going to do next. that’s really all i can say for now and i’ve probably said too much.
we have a plan and we’re moving ahead, but we’re not sure what kind of trouble we might be getting into. we’ll let you know as soon as we know our next move-
derek
What delayed me from my supposedly chore is the phrase "controversy surrounding one song". Derek Webb is different from other christian artists. He is not afraid to tackle topics evangelical christians are too afraid to even utter from their mouth. Derek's theology is well founded in Scriptures and because of that, he is not afraid to preach it. And most people don't know this, but majority of the "christian tv and music" you saw and heard are not even theologically sound. Most of them are either based on emotions, feeling good gospel, prosperity gospel, or whatever.
Buttom line: Most of them only preach a 180 degree gospel. So someone must stand up and preach the other half. And thanks to guys like John Piper, Jared Wilson and Mark Driscoll, we now have the opportunity to hear the gospel in its unadulterated 360 degrees form. And thanks to Derek Webb, Caedmon's Call,Andrew Peterson, and Red Mountain Music, we may able to hear it as well.
Then Derek crossed the line.
What line exactly did he crosses?
Words on the blogosphere is that the record is supposedly about "race and sexuality" discussed in the filter of the Scripture. And that one song contains a word that INO/COLUMBIA thinks might offend a lot of christian music fans.
And the word starts with letter "S". As in "shit".
Now the nature of that word is not evil. It only describe that thing that comes out in our rear after we eat or if we ate to much...
But then the culture started using it as a cuss word and then the rest is history.
But hearing Derek from the past, i know he knows what he's doing and saying. I know he's using that word in contect. Heck, even The Bible uses strong words that the Pharisees (translation in modern times: self righteous Catholic and Evangelical Born Againers) coined inappropriate during their time.
But like i said, Derek is an intellectual man and his label is not stupid either. INO/COLUMBIA/SONY-BMG knows who are Derek's fans, mostly consist of Bible believing Christians(360 degrees not 180) and agnostic non believers who find Derek's insights interesting. Enough to sell a record.
So i was wondering, is there really a controversial word/words on his album or is this another one of those marketing scheme they got people talking to an album not even released nor leaked yet?
hmmm...
But then again given the name of his yet inactive charity/organization, you could reckon there might be that word in it.
Here's DEREK singing Blood of the Lamb;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unqlyz4irnI
