Tag Archives: war

Regina Spektor Laughs With God in New Single

reginaspektor

Regina Spektor, a folk pianist with traces of hip hop, classical, and jazz all rolled into one, has the voice of a goddess.  She is releasing her new album entitled, “Far” on June 23rd (yes…4 days!) which can be streamed now at Regina’s Myspace.  I am definitely digging the album after my first few listens through and will be purchasing it on Tuesday.  Also, below is her new single called “Laughing With” which has some very nice speculations into who God is and who God is not.  I could pull out a ton of truth out of this song, but I will leave the song speak for itself rather than share my thoughts.  Feel free to share yours though!

Lyrics:

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls
After some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
when it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane
Starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love hand in hand
with someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door
And they say “We’ve got some bad new, sir,”
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
When the crazies say he hates us
and they get so red in the head
You think that they’re about to choke
God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha, ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
when they’ve lost all they got
And they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
that the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
When the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head
you think that they’re about to choke
God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
(repeat)
No one’s laughing at God in a hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God

We’re all laughing with God.

Campolo/Claiborne Talk Religious Peace

campolo

Peace. Everybody wants it, but there are many different routes to getting there.  So much of war is caused by religious differences.  It’s sad, but it is true.  Conservatives are criticized because they want to stop violence with violence.  Liberals are criticized because “all they want to do is talk”.  Maybe you “don’t care about politics”, but I find that most people that say this still definitely care about things like peace and justice.  This disconnect is frustrating for me to watch.  Is our government going to solve the huge problems of this world?  Of course not, but the government can serve as one source of helping (or what seems to more frequently happen, end up hurting the situation).  So maybe you don’t care about politics and that is ok.  But what do we tell our government to do when there is a genocide in Darfur (2,000 – 5,000+ dead since 2003)?  What do we say when our government bombs innocent people because we are looking for a small terrorist group in a huge land?  What do you think about abortion or gay rights?

Anyways, here is an old but interesting interview between Tony Campolo (president of Eastern University) and Shane Claiborne (a crazy, but interesting, hippie for Jesus).  I learned a lot and more importantly, it confirmed a lot of of my beliefs of how to come to peace between our religious differences (muslim, christian, atheist, etc.).  Maybe there won’t ever be peace between us, but that does not give us the excuse to stop trying.