Rob Bell Is Emerging
This past weekend we went to Nashville to visit our good friends the Shives, and Ben let us listen to some tracks from his upcoming album Cymbal Crashing Clouds. Well, it must have made its into my subconscious pretty deeply, because shortly before waking the next morning I heard a song in my sleep that Ben was singing. It wasn’t a full song, just a repeating line for the chorus:
“Rob Bell is emerging…. Rob Bell is emerging….”
I woke up and sang it for Ben at the breakfast table, and he thought the tune was borrowed from The Neverending Story theme song. There is a similarity, but I maintain that I did not sleep-plagiarize.
Immediately I knew that this song had to be written–that it has perhaps been given to me by God for such a time as this. The video will have Rob Bell’s head emerging eerily from different creative (but not crude) places. The verses will be about random things completely unrelated to Rob Bell and the latest controversy about him, his book Love Wins.
Here’s the problem, and why I need your help: I have given up joking for Lent, but this idea is hilarious. A good percentage of the hilarity is a direct result of my impeccable comic timing, even in my sleep. If I wait until Lent ends, the fire will have cooled a bit around Rob’s book. There won’t be enough energy left to generate the kind of interest in this song that we saw with “Bed Intruder.” If this song doesn’t get written, I won’t be able to scratch “Become a passing cultural footnote” off my bucket list.
So you have to write verses for this song. Just post them as comments. I can’t promise that I will share the royalties with you, but perhaps a percentage of the t-shirt sales. Well, maybe the bumper stickers. I think the t-shirt sales are going to blow up.
A little inspiration….
You are a very very funny man.
Peter,
Why don’t you explain the controversy surrounding the emerging church and how it could affect the Church as a whole? I would like to be better educated on this issue. Then, I believe, you could be afforded the grace for a parody. After all is a parody really a joke?
Stang,
Sounds like you might already be educated on the issue. And a parody would probably be a joke. I am not sure that the song is a parody, but just in case, that’s why I can’t write it during Lent. So, thankfully, no grace needed!
-p
In the middle of Love Wins right now. It is a little too sad to make jokes about right now. I am totally bummed by it. Not that I would be too much help on lyrics anyway. But none the less, I don’t think the hype will die down, I would like to hear the song.