Is Bob Marley OK?

[musicgal4jesus]

I think God has given some people on this earth the gift of making beautiful music. I think Bob Marley was one of those. We may not agree with what he had to say in his lyrics. We may despise the way he lived his life. God gave these people this gift. We do not know what is in their hearts as they decide to record it. If it is an instrumental how do we judge it, by it’s title? If it is a beautiful instrumental written by an athiest do we refuse to listen to it? We have to look for where it came from. The artist might throw some lyrics on the tune that we may find offensive but grounded in our faith we can enjoy it for what it is. We should pray that those who truly have the gift should write and record songs that will truly inspire us

I agree with this post for the most part. After all, who are we to judge?

Grandfather, I’d like to ask a question: do you listen to classical music? If so… Mozart was known to be a shamless flirt with little to no morals; Wagner was an open anti-Semetic; Tchaikovsky suffered from depression and may have committed suicide…
The list goes on. No one’s perfect, but these composers created some of the most powerful, beautiful, or just downright amazing music ever. Should we condemn Mozart’s Requiem Mass, just because he let a far-from-exemplary life?

 

[grandfather]

I think God has given some people on this earth the gift of making beautiful music.

Is beauty is in the ear of the beholder, or the soul?

One man’s treasure is another man’s garbage. With music it all depends on the dispostion of the listener.

 

[grandfather]

I agree with this post for the most part. After all, who are we to judge?

 

[Epistemes]

Actually, he was a devout Catholic and the folks who depicted him in the fictional movie Amadeous were nothing but slanderous.

Obviously you’re not familiar with Mozart’s more shameless pieces, such as “Leck mich im Arsrch, K. 231” which translate to “Lick me in the” well, you know… – or how about “Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schon sauber” which just adds a couple of adjectives to the title.

Lets start with Mozart or Bach at one end of the spectrum and listen to what they produced. Now lets fast forward to the Comets, Rock around the clock, Elvis, Jimi, Janis, Morrison and the doors, the Stones and end up with the rappers.

It’s obvious that your knowledge of music is rather limited. Rappers such as Mos Def, Arrested Development, and not to mention KRS-One (“The Teacher”) and Public Enemy have provided a great service to the underpriveleged in America and elsewhere, writing lyrics that reinforce needed concepts such as self-emancipation, self-empowerment, and how the state has nearly obliterated other fundamental concepts such as family and welfare.

Music is a spiritual force. It takes you somewhere. I am not sure, but maybe it takes you where you already want to be taken, or some of it might appeal to the baser parts of our nature and arouse and stimulate them.

I like this philosophy. So, in other words, the reason why I thoroughly enjoy Celtic music and Indo-Persian classical music is because I want to be an Islamic Druid? Thanks for clarifying that, because I just thought the harmonics happened to be pleasing.

Everything we encounter in life either draws us closer to God or leads us away from God. Sometimes it is not immediately clear to us what effect a thing is having, but there is one. There is a message in music.

It’s one thing thing to live in the world, it’s another to be of the world. If you choose to live your own life monastically, shut off from a reality that, yes, is potentially dangerous without proper training, then, sure, you are personally welcome to live your life as such. Everyone else, who have also put on the mind of Christ, and who would rather not live the rest of their days tucked away in some fallout shelter dreading that evil might happen, should be given the right to conscientiously choose what they wish to listen to, whether that be that unrepentant Marley, that sinister Hendrix, or those damned Stones.

Have you ever seen the movie Woodstock, the film from the era which you seem to base your philosophies upon? I urge you to watch it, and you’ll notice in the opening section three Catholic nuns dressed in their full habit walking through the gate…smiling, waving at the camera. Who knows why they were there, but they were there, they listened to the music, they endured those awful, immoral crowds, and I’m quite positive they didn’t turn out devil worshippers in the end.

 

[grandfather]

Have you ever seen the movie Woodstock, the film from the era which you seem to base your philosophies upon?

I did, but did not need to see the movie about it. I lived through it, the Filmore East, spent time in Golden Gate and miraculously survived it all. A number of my friends, the walking wounded, did not.

I urge you to watch it, and you’ll notice in the opening section three Catholic nuns dressed in their full habit walking through the gate…smiling, waving at the camera. Who knows why they were there, but they were there, they listened to the music, they endured those awful, immoral crowds, and I’m quite positive they didn’t turn out devil worshippers in the end.

You never know.

 

[theistgal]

I think Teresa of Avila was a great saint who had a lot of influence, too. And she liked to dance with castanets during recreation time at her convent. I bet she would have liked Bob Marley.

 

[tomarin]

This thread raises some interesting and perplexing issues. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Hardcore rastafarians are anti-Catholic (they think the Pope is Satan, or some such nonsense). However, Bob Marley is not a hardcore anything, so it’s difficult to object to his music on religious grounds.
2. Compared to today’s popular music, much of Bob Marley’s music seems pretty harmless and even soothing, musically speaking. It’s from the “one love” period of Jamaican music and furthermore the Jamaican-ness of his music was deliberately toned down by producer Chris Blackwell in order to make it more palatable to international, white audiences. I don’t dislike Bob Marley, but if you want something more authentically black, I’d recommend Burning Spear.
3. There are definitely drug references in his music (“Kaya” comes to mind) but they tend to be in code for those “in the know”.

I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz guitar musicians lately and I’d be surprised if at least some of them weren’t drug addicts or users, so I would be hypocritical to chastise you for not banning Bob Marley from your music library for that reason. (Of course they don’t openly celebrate drugs in their music, but then neither does Marley for the most part.)

1. He was definitely a person who treated women with very little respect and fathered dozens of children with many women. I don’t know whether he made an effort to take care of them (many seem to have recording contracts today so he must have played some role in their lives) and this kind of behavior is not uncommon among Jamaican males, but my point is, hardly an exemplary character.
2. I draw the line at rap. I have a hard time accepting it as music at all, but most of all the grotesquely exaggerated materialism disgusts me. But I felt that way before I embraced the Faith.

 

[strngrnrth]

I tried not to listen to music by drug abusers for a year or so (seems a lot longer) and I even tried not to listen to anything not explicitly Christian just to make up for a lifetime of eclectic taste that included hardcore punk, deathmetal, some experimental/goth/deathrock/industrial/acid-noise/you get the idea, and I just wanted that stuff out of my head. It was hard. It turned me on to some sounds I never would have heard otherwise, but I decided some of the country, blues, folk, rock, reggae, soul, funk and even some rap I was avoiding were just good music.
I’m now learning how to respond consciously to music so as not to become nostalgic for the bad things that went with some of it (like my own drug use etc.) or begin to accept some of the bad lyrics as my own attitude – in fact, when I’m listening to a song and I realize it’s sick I tune out or turn it off.
But Marley isn’t in that category IMO. It’s possible to listen to Reggae without accepting Rastafarianism (or declaring it by mistake either) if you remain self-aware. I don’t think it’s OK to declare Rastafarianism but you can always edit the words in your head while you dance just as I try to do with the almost inevitable swear words in rock songs.
Some of the best music I ever heard, Marley included, is full of memories for me, and I struggle with keeping those memories honest – avoiding nostalgic responses to flooding returns to days when drugs and things like that were something my crowd celebrated.
I try to stay in conscious control when I listen to music.

 

[Bob_Marley]

Greetings, love and peace be with you!

It is definitely ok to listen to Robert Marley.

Because in his song he is telling the people. ‘emancipate your self from mental slavery’, and that saying that ‘none but are self can free are mind’.

It is you who got free your mind. Free your mind from what? you ask?

Free your mind from the teaching that you have been teached that you think is true but is reality is not. :yup:

If u just listen to ‘one love one heart’ ask your self. Is my community really acting in one love and one heart?

Many of you don’t even know that Ethiopia has been invaded by Romans by the order of the church. But the Emperor Haile Selassie the 1ste, haven’t gone in pen nick, he said to the tv broadcasting , ‘‘Ethiopia don’t want to go to war, but Ethiopia trust in the Almighty’’

There is more to be realized by young youth Catholics.

Like Bob Marley have said in an interview, everyone hears a voice in their head(sometime like that)

The Question is not if Bob Marley is OK?

The Question is , is what you are following OK?

The only reazon why Rastafari’s((Not ‘‘Rastafarians’’)) , are anti-catholic is because they know the truth, and takes you to seek the truth. That is the only why The Messiah has said ‘’ seek and you shall find ‘’

Because when you go and seek and when you find, you will grieve because of the truth , but at the end you will be free.

If you didn’t know the messiah name is Yeshua(aramaic) or Yahushua(hebrew) , than you need some searching to do, and you my friend don’t know all about the truth.

If you don’t know the name of my father Yahuwah, Yahuawah ((YHWH)) , that you my friend haven’t been thought about the truth, because the Father is the Truth.

If you don’t know that the ‘‘new testament’’ has been changed, EDITED , than you my friend don’t know the truth.

If you my friend see The Messiah as the god incarnate, than you my friend has been mentally slaved for that , and all the above.

Because the Messiah and the Father name is just Names, just imagine what els has been hidden from you.

And believe many thing are hidden , and you don’t want to be sitting down a big dome with many secrets, and ‘‘mysteries’’

Blessing to one!
-Save yourself from mental slavery. Do the Rauch Hakodesh(holy spirit) a favor.

Yaccob the ‘bishop’ of Yerusalem have said in his epistle, You know that Eloha(’‘god’’) is One, you do good, even devils believe and tremble.

And a last verse let me check my scripture,
Aha!
YerahmiYah 23: 26 and 27

26 How long shall this be in the hearts of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
27 Which think to cause MY PEOPLE TO FORGET MY NAME by their dreams which they tell every man to his beighboar, as their fathers have forgotten my name of Ba’al. (the lord)

 

[Bob_Marley]

But! Don’t worry everything is going to be alright!

“Truly Eliyah is coming and will restore all things, Matt. 17: 11.”

Don’t keep waiting for The Messiah to come, wait for Eliyah to come he will restore all things. What is all things? With all things the messiah means , the teaching and the way of life like it suppose to be. It has been LOST. But many people are coming to realize most of them teaching and way of life.

 

[john1863]

Bob,
I don’t think you’ll be here long…so…Don’t worry…about a ting…'cause evry little ting…gonna be alright.

Of course Marley is alright…he may not be a champion for Catholicism, but his music is fun.

Don’t read to much into anything someone writes…you truly do not know what they meant.

John

 

[agnostic]

It is you who got free your mind. Free your mind from what? you ask?

Free your mind from the teaching that you have been teached that you think is true but is reality is not. :yup:

I’m with you. I say free your mind from what you have been teached and free your mind from english grammur and spellying too

 

[grandfather]

Greetings, love and peace be with you!

It is definitely ok to listen to Robert Marley.

Because in his song he is telling the people. ‘emancipate your self from mental slavery’, and that saying that ‘none but are self can free are mind’.

It is you who got free your mind. Free your mind from what? you ask?
)

If you don’t stop smokin soon, you won’t have any brain cells left to free.

 

[Cuddy_Duck]

As the great D H Lawrance, of literature, said:

“Trust the Tale and not the Teller”.

Likewise for music we should Trust the Song and Not the Singer.

Examine the musci of Bob Marley on its own merits. Ignore his lifestyle. It was not conducive to his talent. That was a gift from God. In fact it flourished not because of his lifestyle, but in spite of it.

And FWIW Mozart was a Freemason.

 

[grandfather]

“Trust the Tale and not the Teller”.

So if the devil was talking to you you should listen to what he has to say and evaluate it and ignore the source?

Examine the musci of Bob Marley on its own merits. Ignore his lifestyle. It was not conducive to his talent. That was a gift from God. In fact it flourished not because of his lifestyle, but in spite of it

 

[Cuddy_Duck]

So if the devil was talking to you you should listen to what he has to say and evaluate it and ignore the source?

If the devil were talking to me, he certainly wouldn’t reveal himself as the source, now would he?

I guess I would know him by his fruits.

But Bob was no devil. Misguided, foolish and tragic perhaps, but no Satan. But in fact a child of God like all of us.

Do you think it possible that without the drugs there would have been no talent? What do the musicians who used drugs say about the source of their inspiriation?

Most recovering addicts that are also artists maintain that the drugs were detrimental to their talent and brought them nothing but grief. Read the biographies of Gilmore, Clapton and McCartney if you wish.

It’s great when your straight

 

[grandfather]

As the great D H Lawrance, of literature, said:

“Trust the Tale and not the Teller”.

Likewise for music we should Trust the Song and Not the Singer.

Examine the musci of Bob Marley on its own merits. Ignore his lifestyle. It was not conducive to his talent. That was a gift from God. In fact it flourished not because of his lifestyle, but in spite of it.

And FWIW Mozart was a Freemason.

Cuddy **** has settled it. Bob Marley’s talent was from God Himself who chose Bob as the recipient of this gift. Bob could do nothing to destroy or stifle this gift. It was detined to flourish despite all of the drugs and sex and the insanity of worshipping an African dictator as God. The music was not only entertaining. It was from God.

What other possible conclusion could a sane person come to? By the way Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Sex Pistols, Rolling Stones, Madonna, Janis Joplin, 50 Cent, Elvis, Boy George, Brtiney Spears, Grateful Dead and Curt Cobain are also from God. They were talented so that proves it. Listen to them. Hear them. They have a message for you.

 

[Cuddy_Duck]

Cuddy **** has settled it.

Right there. You just lost.

 

[Bob_Marley]

Greetings,

All the people that have replied are just ignorant.

I told you so many stuff but you ignore them cuz u are scared that I might be saying the truth and that your people have been ignorant of telling you all about it.

I’m not talking rasta patua or whatever, I’m from the Caribbean.

I was trying to write good, for you English talking people.

Something you all don’t know is, that the biggest Rastafari Organization, who goes by the name of Twelve Tribes of Israel Organization are Orthodox. Some of them arent but they keep a more Messianic Hebrew faith. Bob Marley was part of that group , thats why he was baptized in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

And after that he still shouted Jah Rastafari,
Shouting Jah Rastafari doesn’t mean u believe he is ‘god’ u show respect by saying that,(i dont use it) It like shouting Jah Madre Teresa.

The Messiah was the Word of Eloha(’‘god’’) meaning he was the Hand, what is more important , the Brain or the Hand?

And many Rastafari see Haile Selassie also as Word of Eloha, not as the messiah incarnate , Elohim is plural, there more than one Word of ‘‘god’’. Its a family not 3 in one. Even when you go up there we become part of the family, Angels are also Word of ‘‘god’’

I don’t believe that Haile Selassie was The Messiah incarnate , but i do believe that he was decendent of Solomon and must have been i kind of prohecy behind him, only the end will tell.

Read this, [yorku.ca/(name removed by moderator)ar/kebra_budge.pdf](http://www.yorku.ca/(name removed by moderator)ar/kebra_budge.pdf)

Its the Story of The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek.

Bob Marley also singed, Now you see the light, stand up for you right.

And many of his song there some on youtube. If you type bob marley RARE , you find some that he us psalms in his music.

The Messiah Yahushua said, Happy are the peacemakers , for they will be called sons of Eloha.

Everyone got a share in the kingdom of heaven. Even one who gives a cup of water to holy man.
Just remember that.

 

[Bob_Marley]

i now have noticed that i have made type error in my first reply,

YerahmiYah 23: 26 and 27

26 How long shall this be in the hearts of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
27 Which think to cause MY PEOPLE TO FORGET MY NAME by their dreams which they tell every man to his beighboar, as their fathers have forgotten my name FOR Ba’al. (the lord)

-of - for