The Crystal Method
Through the graces of Bubba — astrowhore.org — I had chance to see the Crystal Method, back in the days of yore. Before they got famous for doing TV commercials and theme songs. I’m sure my exposure to this music was chronicled elsewhere.
The “band’s name” came up because I read about a United Methodist minister who was facing a defrocking for two sins: 1) performing a gay wedding and 2) failure to denounce his own — apparently — gay children.
See: I was raised in a liberal Methodist Church. I’m unsure, but I think I was UMC at one time, confirmed, anointed, baptized, something. Think they were sprinklers, not dunkers. Always grateful for the education, and one of the last memories I have is the old sanctuary with a modernist altar that looked more like a dining room table, and on it, a round loaf of artisan bread, grape juice and candles. A largely figurative cross in the background.
Cross for Swords, bread or collection plate for Pentacles, candle for Wands, and chalice for Cups.
Air, Earth, Fire and Water.
Rampant symbolism derived from the Mother Church, passed along to my favorite tarot cards.
Confused? Wait, it gets better. The referenced novel, The Damnation of Theron Ware is frequently taught as a classic in early American realism. That’s one of the books English Majors read and discuss at length, but relatively unexposed otherwise. My, personal, takeaway, that I still recall? I was appalled at the relative conservatism of the “methodism” as promulgated in that novel. I remembered my church as a hotbed for liberal activists — not arch-conservatives.
Dogma meets karma?
My last exposure to the church of my raising was a sad affair at my father’s funeral, but the place, the minster, driving a Prius, and from that, the rest of the image should be clear. Forward thinking, fiscally conservative but socially liberal, just shy of being a commie.
That was then. Church I was raised with believed in a voice in social issues, and the ministers I’ve since known? all of them support equal rights — and equal rites.