Culture,  Music,  Politics,  Theology/Bible

Dixie Chicks Abandoning Dixie

dixiechicks.jpgMy wife and I are fans of the Dixie Chicks–at least when they are not saying things that are so over-the-top offensive that we feel like joining the boycott. As many of you know, the Dixie Chicks have been on the outs with their fan-base ever since Natalie Maines zinged President Bush during a concert in London in 2003. But when I talk about offensive rhetoric, I am not talking about their politics. What I am talking about is reflected in some recent comments by Martie Maguire:

I’d rather have a small following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don’t want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do (source).

As far as I’m concerned, the thing Natalie Maines said about President Bush back in 2003 wasn’t near as offensive as this statement is. It leaves you wondering why Maguire would want to say something that would without a doubt alienate so many people, so many fans.

This alienation was not lost on the audience at the Country Music Awards last night. The loudest applause of the evening came when the host Reba MacIntyre said the following:

I don’t know why I was so nervous about hosting this show this year. If the Dixie Chicks can sing with their foot in their mouths, surely I can host this sucker (source).

My good friend Russell Moore has an insightful commentary that may go a long way toward explaining why the Dixie Chicks seem to be embracing their alienation from their former fans and their Dixie-roots.

I wonder if the gospel seems so irrelevant to contemporary Americans precisely because so many of us have forgotten what it means to come home, or even to have a home. Could it be that the rootlessness of 21st century Americans isolates us even more from the truth of Christian redemption? Could it be that the more cosmopolitan we are the less we understand the cosmic kingdom of Christ? Could it be that we can sense something of what it means to come home to the Father by loving what it means to go home to one’s father? Could it be that learning to be a citizen of the Kingdom may mean learning what it means to be an Arkansan or an Ohioan or a New Yorker? (source)

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