Switchfoot . . . and Taylor Swift?

So, because I have a taste for the perverse... Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman sang alongside Taylor Swift in Glendale, Arizona on Oct. 21, 2011. They shared a duet of Switchfoot’s breakout hit “Meant to Live” before an arena full of little girls, who - judging from all three angles of the same concert - knew the lyrics.

Swift proclaims Switchfoot "one of her favorite bands" and she has included their "Dare You to Move" in her acoustic shows (top video), so . . . maybe there's hope for the younger generation after all.

Science vs. Religion Again? No, just common sense...

So we got another one of those weird "Teacher fired for teaching creationism and hating Evolution" cases...

Link? LINK!

While I hear of reprimands to such teachers and slapping on the wrists.... But termination of a teacher's position regarding such a matter seems to be the first that I come across (though I am sure it's happened elsewhere)....

But they had a whole trial for this man's removal as a teacher...

6,000 pages of transcripts and 350 exhibits later, the court agreed that the man was right to be fired....

Sounds a tad similar to the Scopes Monkey Trial at the beginning of the century where a man decided to teacher his beliefs in evolution and was removed from his teacher post, and later went to trial, which, is kind of a big deal in history books....

I have really no spin on this trial. I agree with the decision of the court... If you can gather 350 pieces of evidence demonstrating that a teacher was continuously refusing to teach the material that the curriculum asked him to teach then he should be fired.

Teachers like the rest of us are hired to do a job. And like most of us would get in trouble for spouting our religious beliefs in the workplace, I don't think the teachers themselves should be exempt just because they disagree with the curriculum. If the man didn't want to teach it, he could have resigned.

Words to Live By: The Bible

"Many Christians expect the world to respect the book they neglect." -Quoted by E.C. McKenzie (via David Jeremiah Ministries)

Review: The City Harmonic's "I Have a Dream"

To Be Released October 18, 2011

From our friends north of the border comes a band full of energy, inspiration and a contemporary take on traditional spiritual values. They portray the Christian messages intended clearly while adding in certain folk/contemporary flairs.

As their name implies, The City Harmonic offers close-knit harmonies with the message of hope and forgiveness thrown in. With the Canadian foursome’s creativity, they combine to create a rather interesting style of music. If you were to mix a Coldplay-style piano with some of Need to Breath’s acoustic and Hillsong’s synth and vocal style, The City Harmonic is what you would get.

I must admit the first band I thought of was Kings of Leon as soon as the first few chords of the first song Yours was played. The way in which they incorporated catchy melodies and upright piano sounds, along with great lyrics, into their music immediately caught my attention:

All hopes, all my dreams, all my hopes all my thoughts.

All the things I’ve loved,

All my sin, all my fear, all my sorrow for the things I’ve done.

You can have it all, it’s Yours, all of it! Yours! All of it! Yours!

Songs such as Be Still, O My Soul evoke a solitary figure sitting at the piano, singing introspectively to the Lord in a very devotional style.

I enjoyed the CD very much. Their sound, in my opinion, could be a bit more unique. It sounded a bit generic, but with today’s contemporary Christian music industry, everything is beginning to sound the same to me. New inspiration, vision and diversity is definitely needed for artists today and I believe that these young men have the makings of something spectacular. I wish them only the best in their years to come and I cannot wait to hear more and to see where God will lead them in the future.

-Reviewed by Tyler Cummings