Spoonful of Sugar

When I was talking about knowing and picking your battles the other day, I recalled something about my own life.

I was a true Earth, Wind and Fire fan back in the day. And I mean I was fanatical. By 'back in the day' I mean just up til a few years ago. As a teenager, I was so into this group because I had a big crush on the lead singer, Maurice White. Don't judge me now; that part of my life is over! I also thought the Larry Dunn was the hotter than fried meat grease...

Anyway, one of my favorite EWF songs was one called "All About Love". Pretty melody and very innocent sounding. Who can worry about a song that talks all about love? I didn't, not even after I matured a little and started paying more attention to music that I listened to.

The the song lyrics never did give me pause until I started thinking about all the symbolism that is Earth, Wind and Fire.

Just go and look at some of their album covers and see what they feature. Great looking covers, right? But notice how the elements are celebrated as god ("In the beginning, there was EWF"). I found some interesting bits of information from this source, which includes a quote from a band member:

"Maurice always studied astrology, numerology, astronomy, We introduced Trancendental(sic) Meditation to a lot of the black audience. That was very new for them. Of course, the Beatles had brought TM to the people in the 1960's, but we brought it into the 70's to an audience that was looking for something alternative." (my underline)

And here I'd always thought he was just sharing his hotness with the rest of us.

The band seems fascinated with Egyptology. Not a big deal except that, as a Christian, we have been called "out of Egypt" (or the ways opposing the God of the Bible), right? And then, there are those lyrics:

You know, for instance, we study all kin
kinds of sciences, astrogy(sic), mysticism,
religion, so forth we did.
And like coming from here place, all these things help
because if you're inside your inner self
Have mercy! (source)

Have mercy, indeed. Neither astrology nor mysticism is something a Christian should mess with. (And, yes, I have heard of 'Christian mysticsim'. I've also heard of Yoga being taught in churches.)

Not everything that is contrary to Christianity is blatant and comes labeled with warning signs. Matter of fact, most everything contrary to our Christian lives is often hidden - or else cloaked as something very harmless. Which is what makes me think of the line from "Mary Poppins" ("A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down").

Sometimes I wished that every fattening food tasted like dirt. Just like I sort of wished that everything bad for my spirit came outlined in neon-warning lights. But only 'sometimes' and 'sort of'. If life really worked that way, we'd never have to practice self-control. More importantly, we had the neon warnings back in Eden and still got ourselves in a jam.

If it sounds like I'm just being over-cautious, I'm not. And I'd rather err on the side of caution than not after seeing something else that was brought to my attention (by checking the same source listed above) about another of the EWF songs I liked. The song was called "Jupiter". Catchy song, but I only ever half noticed those (now chilling) lyrics.

By the way, I'm not very  familiar with this site I used as a source and I'm going to be going over to check it out further, but I'm appreciative of this bit of info I could reference for this post.)

This is what that source says about who/what Jupiter is:

Occult research author, William Hutchinson says Jupiter is "painted with horns" and "he is the same as Baal. . ." (William Hutchinson, The Spirit of Masonry, pp. 82-83) Satanist Anton LaVey, writes in The Satanic Bible, "The Phoenicians worshipped a fly god, Baal, from which comes the devil, Beelzebub. . ." (Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 60) Anyone slightly familiar with the Bible recognizes Baal as the devil worshipped in the Old Testament. (source)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, we always have to be careful. As a Christian, I feel like a little kid still learning not to take candy from strangers. Not all strangers are bad, but some of them are deadly.

Now, understand that I'm not knocking anyone who likes EWF - or the Beatles, or any other performers or form of entertainent. All I'm saying is that, if I had been aware of what these guys believed in and stood for, I would not have been subjecting myself to their music. I wish I had paid more attention sooner to their message because I was certainly allowing it into my mind and heart.

I think I will end with something  have concluded about Satan/Lucifer being a being of 'light': of course he's attractive and appealing. If he came at us with horns and that silly little red tail, we'd run screaming away from him.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

We wouldn't (or most of us wouldn't) run and jump into a flaming car headed for a cliff, but offer us a ride to a free giveaway of designer goods in a shiny new car and watch how fast we'd take you up on that.

Peace
--Free