I’ve been having a lot of discussions with people lately (both offline and online) regarding how the bible should be read. Obviously I find it very hard to agree that the bible should be read 100% literally, especially with all the metaphors Jesus used himself. To be honest – and I hope I’m not being rude here – I can’t image anyone who has thought about it for longer than a minute can truly say they read the bible (completely) literally.  How on earth would this be possible?  The example below was originally used by one of my favourite authors Rob Bell and it illustrates that no matter how literally you believe you read the bible, you are still forced to interpret.

Mark 12:31 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”

I challenge anyone to tell me the “literal” meaning of this verse. Is it possible? Automatically if we want to act on this verse we need to interpret both words “love” and “neighbour”. Do I love my neighbour like I love my mother or do I love my neighbour like I love my wife? Or do I just love my neighbour like I love that lovely lady I buy milk from in the morning? Does neighbor mean the person next door to me, or also the person across the road? And if it includes the person across the road, could it also include the person across the world?

I think the most fatal issue of a “literal read” of certain sermons or parables is we are missing the big picture and simply trying to fit the Bible within our own framework or prior assumptions as opposed to letting the text say what it intended to. When reading scripture we must first of all understand the context in which it was written and then investigate the writers’ intention. It is only after we have done this will we be able to truly grasp the real reality of what a particular part of scripture means to the human heart. Biblical literalism doesn’t take the time to look at the semantic nuances of a text, therefore often misses the proper meaning.

Before I conclude I must point out that there are many historical events in the bible we should take a literally. For example; the resurrection of Jesus, the rise of the early church and all the events that occurred post gospels within this process. But I hope this helps explain my stance on the fact that not all the bible can be, and indeed should be read literally. Regardless though, I think C.S. Lewis has a more comical (and better) way of explaining it;

“There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of ‘Heaven’ ridiculous by saying they do not want ‘to spend eternity playing harps’. The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible… People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.” C. S. Lewis.

WINNER

I have you guys saved as MOM. Just sent the following to MUM.. Fuck it’s going to be an awkward dinner tonight… “Be honest. With the volume of messagesyou get, have you thought of putting this phone on vibrate and slipping it between your legs?”

- Anthony, Glenroy.

Congratulations to Glenroy’s own; Anthony, for a particularly awkward dinner you’ve earned yourself a free copy of every available I Forget, Sorry! artist’s release, plus a stack of extras! This will be mailed out to you in the next few days. Thank you to everyone who sent us a text, we had a lot of fun reading them all!! Check out the list of honourable mentions below for a few that came close to taking the cake.

Honourable mention #1:

- Ben Dalton, Victoria.


Honourable mention # 2

You know what will be cool? If someone puts the chorus to infinity on loop, that way, it never ends . . .  it never ends . . .
- Josh Hargreaves, Q.L.D.


Honourable mention # 3

I’m making a crime solving TV show about detectives who solve crimes over the phone…..
Star key and hash…
- Jarred Fisher, NSW.


Honourable mention #4

I FORGOT, SORRY! Give me your CD’s or I’ll go to each farm in your local areas and continuously push over every cow and/or sheep so they exercise less! Increasing their fat content and eventually yours!
You’ll then lose your ability to rap well and eventually your career will change from ‘dope rapper’ to ‘some loser working at maccas’ (where you will eat more meat, forever expanding the width of your hips) basically you’ll have a shit job and be very un-happy forever…
BUT if you somehow found it in your hearts to give me some CD’s it would make me happy! And I’d be too busy grooving out to push over livestock
Much love for ever and a long time! xox
- Jordon Buckens, Vic.


Honourable mention # 5
When I yawn I wonder if deaf people think I’m screaming…?

-Luke Wilde, NSW.


Honourable mention # 6

Skye Spence, QLD.

Honourable mention # 7

Gimme those CDs or you won’t see the real willow ever again. The willow that’s with you is a fake. It is instead an artificial intelligence designed much like the t-800. Although doesn’t look like Schwarzenegger. I won’t hesitate to remotely signal it to attack, as well as end the life of the real willow who is currently locked in the shed and forced daily to rap the theme song from home and away. You have 24 hours to comply with these demands. No authorities.

- Aaron White, Victoria.


Honourable mention # 8

Don’t you think it’s funny that in every painting of Adam and eve they have belly buttons…think about it..

- Jarred Fisher, NSW.


Honourable mention # 9

They offered Ian McKellen (actor who played Gandalf and Magneto) the role of Dumbledore but he declined saying that he’s already played 2 legends and 3 would be too many

-Lucas Durbridge-Brant, Victoria.


Honourable mention # 10

When Chuck Norris goes swimming he doesn’t get wet…
the water gets chuck norrised…

- Jarred Fisher, NSW.


BONUS Honourable mention # 11

Shayne Brady, NSW.

1) Amazing Grace

The book “What’s So Amazing About Grace” by Philip Yancey inspired the idea of this song. Has the Christian message of unconditional love been lost? Is Christianity now full of judgments and criticisms rather than aid, mission, support and love?

Triple J Presenter Tom Ballard (@TomCBallard) jokingly wrote on his twitter the other day;

“I bet when the Virgin Mary realized that Jesus was hanging out with a really slutty Mary she’d be all like, “What did I do wrong?!”, but jokes aside, he nailed it. This is what it means to be a Christian, to accept and love everyone. Even if certain Christians believe certain groups of people are “sinners” then as Christians, they should not be protesting or fighting them, but loving them, unconditionally. After all it is easier to help someone by showing them a better life than simply attacking their current one.

“Well I’m glad for a broken mirror, cause a window shows a more hopeful picture”

2) On Edge feat. Koolta

This is one of my favorite P.O.S. beats, largely driven by cups bashing against a table -awesome. The track explores where I am as a musician today and the early mistakes I made when I was signed to Nurcha Records. Oh well, go hard or go home right? We live life on the edge just to see the view.

Shout outs to Koolta for working on this track with me, it was a privilege!

3) Words I Never Said

It is no secret the situation in Egypt at this stage is horrific. The indigenous Coptic Christians are being absolutely persecuted by the Muslim majority. I wrote the lyrics while Mobarak was still in power and at this time the media were reporting largely false information. I know, because I was in Egypt around the time that it started. At least Mobarak is gone now right? Wrong. Egypt now is attempting to make a democracy with a largely uneducated, hateful population – things are only getting worse.

Maybe one day there will be some sort of constitution in place that protects human rights regardless of religion, but this will never happen without intense pressure from the Western World.

On that note, if we are too politically correct here in Australia we will allow aggressors to control us and the countries around us. It’s time to get some balls Gillard, how do you sit by while conferences in Western Sydney breed absolute hatred for democracy and non-Muslims? Say something, say anything.

4) BRB feat. Willow

BRB inspired this whole blog post, a lot of people wanted to find out exactly where the references in my verse came from. Well I guess the whole track will make sense as soon as you realize it is not one man talking to an ex-girlfriend, but man kind talking to God, or “a perfect universe” (depending on your beliefs). The Christian doctrine teaches that man was born into a perfect world and we chose to leave it. It is now Gods plan to bring us back to perfection, and it is on us to conform with this plan. Who doesn’t want perfect world right? Both Willow and I explore “The Great Fall” and how we are currently so obsessed with out independence that we are struggling to get back to ultimate unity and love.

Side note, Willow is not Christian so it was great to get his input on such a topic.

5) Lordy May

I delivered the lyrics for this song almost as a spoken word. Is all music spiritual? Regardless of your religious beliefs I believe that it is, and as I wrote this song I guess I came to the realization that if music is only used as a tool for selfish needs, i.e. gaining fame – then it is the true abuse of one of the greatest gifts mankind has been given.

Side note: Boy & Bear are my favourite band right now, I really recommend everyone check them out!

DOWNLOAD FREE MIXTAPE HERE

Here’s some flicks from rehearsal number 2 with the band ahead of our upcoming acoustic tour. The first shows of the tour are next Saturday at the Buddha Bar in Byron Bay, followed by Brisbane on Sunday at X&Y, both the shows are FREE! So if you live in the area you should come out and party with us.

Rehearsal was great as usual, Alex our resident weirdo/banjo player/keyboardist couldn’t make it so we had to settle for Luke wearing a pirate hat. It was my first time sitting down with our drummer for the tour, his name is Joe and the dude is a beast on the kit, I’m really happy with how he’s got the songs down. We also finished nutting out a version of ‘Inkstains’ for the tour and I’m really happy with how it’s sounding, might even see fit to record a little version of it, either on video or audio and give it out to you guys before the tour starts.

In other news I’m shooting the Build It Up video clip on Sunday! Can’t wait to get that out, I’ve been on a mad hunt for lego/dominoes/toys of all kinds, you’ll see why when I start to release promo pictures on the day. Follow me on Twitter if you want the latest @phatchanceau

Much love, hopefully see you guys at the shows! All the dates/tickets etc. are at http://www.iforgetsorry.com/nodj

Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but we’ve started nutting out an acoustic version of ‘Inkstains’ too. Anyway, here’s some photos for your greedy eyes. Oh yeah, and if you want to join us on the tour then check out the official tour website

About 6 months ago my agent received a call from someone in the Altiyan Childs camp who threatened to run a full blown smear campaign against me as well as out me as an “anti-Christian” through the media if I did not stop my tweeting regarding Altiyan’s relationship with a 15 year old girl.

Since I began my Twitter rampage I have been counter attacked by masses of X Factor fans and even journalists. I am usually a conflict free, let people be people kind of guy so I thought I needed to take the time to explain why I approached this subject in the way that I did.

Basically, I work with children under the care of the state. The girls in these refuges often have “relationships” with men who are 30 and 40+ years old. As you can imagine, these relationships pose a huge risk for the kids and just because the young person and their parents approve of the relationship DOES NOT make it ok.

These risks are something all youth workers have to deal with on a daily basis and Altiyan Childs is defending and supporting these kind of “relationships”, was something I simply could not let slide. I do apologise to the 15 year old girl involved who I won’t name, as I know the attention did ignite from my twitter account which lead to the new stories that aired last night. This kind of coverage is nothing I would wish on any of the girls I work with, however, I was aiming to attack an issue that happens so often in this country and I simply could not stand by while such a big public figure carried on normalising the behaviour. I believe it’s counter-logical to act as though there’s nothing suspect when an individual whose admitted to living on a premises a meth-amphetamine lab and contraband weapons and drugs were uncovered, is also the executor of a 15 year old girl’s mothers will. In an instance where Altiyan Childs were not in the spotlight for his celebrity status this would be, to most people, a clear cut case.

Altiyans publicists did a great job on Today Tonight of covering the relationship up as a friendship, and kudos, because the girl should not be subject to any more attention. I just hope this blog explains why I approached this the way that I did and I hope the mainstream media and the fan bases it services realise the serious nature of what I was trying to address.

Luke

TWITTER: www.twitter.com/copticsoldier

What is cracking at 11:50pm on a Thursday evening? I’ll tell you what Smiles Again’s Blog sesh that’s what!

Last week we engaged in quite an interesting Press Shot photo shoot. The shoot was conducted by very talented photographer Aaron Girgis who also happens to be Coptic Soldier’s brother, yep very handy!

Aaron knews of an abondoned ware house that was incredibly massive. The walls of the ware house were littered with amazing Grafitti and the floor with graffiti cans.

There is also a graffed up abandoned car in the warehouse with the majority of the insides stripped out of it however still has its engine and mechanical parts. It’s all smashed up and far beyond repair as you’ll see below, it had previously been set on fire as well. We thought some burning car shots would be dope so we grabbed 25 odd litres of petrol and splashed a bit around and on the car.

So I pride myself on being quite a logical and rational thinker at the worst of times. Being super logical I decided to do a test splash of petrol on the ground and light it (away from the car, just on concrete). However I didn’t move the petrol tank very far away from the splash of petrol. As soon as I lit it the petrol the flame ran right to and lit up the 25 litre tank of petrol! I shouted “LETS GO GUYS” Willow and Aaron watched though and didn’t move, I couldn’t believe this! (I think I’d seen one to many Bruce Willis movies). Willow then calmly went over and smothered the lit tank and it went out.

I was blown away with this. Apparently these kinds of pertol tanks are designed not to let flames travel inside the tank and get at the mass of petrol, however petrol will still burn around the funnel piece and on the outside of the tank.

So the photo shoot went on! Below are some raw untreated shots Aaron managed to capture;

The first time we lit the car up Willow and I were standing on the roof of the car. Black smoke hit us after a few seconds and we had to jump off the roof through the flames and abandon the car big time haha

Wild shit!

Smiles