Friday, April 22, 2011

On Pastor's Kids and Gospel Music: Conversations at practice

Smitty is a P.K., a pastor's kid, he told me last night at the Tacoma Invaders football practice. P.K. is a new term for me.

Chris and Smitty

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Chris G is a P.K., too. He heard the gospel mix playing on my iPod dock and shared that information. He also plays drums for a Baptist church.
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As anybody who knows me will tell you, I like gospel. I didn't grow up with it. Unitarians don't listen to it. But I've loved gospel music since the 70's. Rev. James Cleveland singing "I Ain't Noways Tired" was one of my favorite songs. I had a Mighty Clouds of Joy album. Love their kind of music.
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Smitty told me that his favorite group is the Williams Brothers. I told him I think I have them in my collection. They're not on my iPod, I know, but I think I have a CD of some of their songs somewhere. I'm going to check.
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White folks can and do like black music. It stirs the soul.
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I'm not Unitarian anymore. I'm not Christian, although I love Christ -- you can't be a Baha'i and not love Him. There are a lot of songs sung in the African American tradition out of the thousands of Baha'i-inspired songs available today. Many of the songs I've been playing on my iPod dock for devotions before the Invaders practices are Baha'i.
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My favorite Baha'i artisit currently is Walter Heath. He has a song "Daddy Was a Preacher Man"  on his album Praise His Name, which you can hear a little bit of here. So Walter is a P.K.
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My friend Jeff is a P.K.

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Rocky and Robert are members of our Baha'i cluster. They were not pastor's kids -- they were pastors, ordained as ministers at one time in their lives, They served Christian communities before giving service to humanity as Baha'is. -gw

Robert & Rocky 

1 comment:

Leila said...

Hi there - I'm a Baha'i (British, white and freckly!) and had the joy this week of seeing the Harlem Gospel Choir with a friend of mine. It was such an experience - having never experienced live gospel music and living in a mainly white city it was such a joy and a blast to get the full gospel experience!! Will be looking more at Baha'i gospel that is available especially for my kids to listen to.
Take care