George Martzen "georgos"

What defines a generation? My son and I were conversing today, as we often do, about "pop music." The question was whether or not older pop singers need to update their repertoire to attract younger listeners. It was a good, rollicking conversation. Most people enjoy music of one sort or another. And we love the fact that people love music. Watch American Idol or Singapore Idol to hear all the people who enjoy singing in the shower. Now, according to the great jazz musician, Duke Ellington, if music "sounds good it is good." All music is popular to someone, even church hymns. So there should be no argument about styles of music. One could certainly argue about the appropriateness of any one style of music for particular social settings. Normally you would not sing a funeral song at a wedding, nor a party song at a funeral service. I myself enjoy listening to a range of music, from what might be defined broadly as "classical music" to folk, blues, ...

Paya Lebar Chinese Methodist Church (The Methodist Church in Singapore) Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 John 18:1-19:42 Meditation on the cross: The violence of human nature and the grace of God Today the Straits Times headlines say that Singapore will seek an indictment against Romanian diplomat for a hit-and-run death. Today’s reading from gospel of John is also an indictment against the human race. Betrayals, tortures, murders, assassinations – these are all part of our world. From a strictly human point of view, the events that we commemorate today only exemplify the long history of murder and genocide that characterized the human race in every age, from the killing of the Hebrew babies of Goshen to slaughters of the 20th century. In Red Scarf Girl: Memories of the Cultural Revolution by Jiang Ji-Li, we are told of how, during China's Cultural Revolution, family members, especially children were used by the party to spy on the family, and turn them over if they should say against the...