Black Sabbath Can Teach Christians A Lesson Says Cleric
Christianity can learn a lot from Black Sabbath, and heavy metal in general. That’s the view of Church Of England priest Rev. Rachel Mann.
Ms. Mann, the priest-in-charge of St. Nicholas in Burnage, Manchester, has written in The Church Times: “Since Black Sabbath effectively created it in 1969…heavy metal has been cast as dumb, crass and on occasions, satanic; music hardly fit for intelligent debate, let alone theological reflection.
“Yet, as both priest and metal music fan, it strikes me that the Church, especially in these agonised times, has a serious gospel to learn from this darkest and heaviest music.”
Ms. Mann believes that the genre’s ability to deal with violence and death “Seems to offer its fans a space to accept others in a way that shames many Christians”.
However, whether Ozzy will be invited to read the lesson on a future Sunday at any church remains open to doubt!
Ozzy would be most welcome at the vicarage for tea…or something a little stronger…anytime!
It makes a refreshing change to not hear Metal (or Rock for that matter) be defined as devil music! It is often the case that when you go to gigs you find all sorts of people there. It truly does bring people of all ilk together and that my friends is a glorious thing.
Peace
Ozzy is a member of the Church of England. Has been for years.
Not only is he an amazing talent, I think he is a very good person. Not the awful person the “mass” media portrays him as. He and his choildren are members of the Church of England. Sharon might be Jewish as her father Don was.
“Ozzy ………. has been for years!”
Sorry Jeffro ….yes taken out of context but oh so true!
well face it religion has killed more people and caused more problems than anything else….
and yet heavy metal rock music is the devils music….?????? dont think so…..
One of my favourite childhood memories is of my grandfather, vicar and Rural Dean, saying: “You know, Slade are good, of their kind.” He and our grandmother were also tolerant of our constant playing of Purple, even if they preferred Sinatra and Secombe. Respect!
“Ozzy would be most welcome at the vicarage for tea…or something a little stronger…anytime!”
I highly doubt that….
Rachel is obviously an intelligent person, and the C of E has for the most part been a positive force for enlightened, progressive Christianity (relatively at least). Having grown up C of E, it’s values have always struck me as being more about being tolerant, liberal rather than dogmatic (it’s always been a very broad church by design). This is a world away from fundamentalists of all stripes who would impose their way of “thinking” on us all if they could. Like many people, I’ve come out the other side and have a wholly naturalistic worldview. I still love my Sabbath/Ozzy/Dio though!