Reply #126: Here's my take: There is an overlap between what I consider to be

[Warren DeMontague]

the core truths of TRUE Christianity; i.e. do unto others, treat your neighbor as yourself.. and the core truths of many faiths, paths, or roads (so MANY roads, remember?) like Buddhism, which emphasize the commonallity of all consciousness and compassion towards all sentience. That those core messages turn up in both what I consider "enlightened" or "illuminated" rock-and-roll, like the Dead's, and in what I consider TRUE Christianity (and something which has been on sadly short display in the so-called "Christian" community at large in the US, of late) doesn't mean that Rock and Roll is "soft-pedaling Christianity". Christianity doesn't have any singular claim to kindness, or treating people decently, or looking into your neighbor's eyes and seeing yourself there.

In fact, it's my opinion that "Christianity" as an entity (if you can consider it one) largely bungled a big portion of the message when they added "treat your neighbor as yourself, but you have to believe in Jesus to get into heaven, or to even get to that place of I am You as You are Me as We are He and We are All Together". One of the driving forces behind some of the best rock-and-roll, IMHO, has been the drive to find alternate spiritual routes, ones which touch on kindness, compassion, and karmic equivalence between beings, yet don't depend on dogma, rigid belief structures, or a specific brand of sectarianism.

Again, everybody has their own path, but to assert that rock and roll is somehow inherently "Christian" just because certain core truths turn up in both rock and roll and Christianity, is poor logic.