Inspiration, Voices and Sounds of the Housechurch on the Radio

Activists take baby Jesus from his crib in Vatican City

Activists take baby Jesus from his crib in Vatican City

This morning the Holy Vatican court reviewed the case of the kidnapping of baby Jesus Christ committed by FEMEN sextremist and recognizing the absolute legality of her arrest, however, it has ordered to release Zhdanova. Sextremist Zhdanova will be extradited from Vatican, followed by a ban on enter the territory of the Holy See. The infant, which have been kidnapped by FEMEN, became a symbol of necessity of taking away a woman’s right on reproductive function and sexual freedom off the Church.

A sacred duty of every woman is to take away the child from Vatican!

Higher Love is takin’ it into Super Max.

This is the first of many interviews with our incarcerated brothers and sisters.

Tom made this bug out of plastic utensils.

Tom made this bug out of plastic utensils.

Tom's drawing, pen and ink.

Tom’s drawing, pen and ink.

The Wall

One day recently I was in class at the prison, and one of the longtime lifers spoke up. He said he wanted to read a poem he had written. I was standing at the front of the class as he began to read. This was the first sentence: “I haven’t seen the sunset in 37 years.” I just walked to one of the desks and sat down. I said, “Wait, I just need a minute”—it felt like I couldn’t go on, just holding that knowledge. You see here a pic of The Wall, which many of the men speak of. They can’t see out because it’s so high. So this man was completely serious in explaining that his cell is positioned in such a way that he cannot see the sun set, and he had been in that situation for 37 years.

Rashaan Roland

Rashaan Roland

This episode begins with a paean to Rahsaan Roland Kirk. If you haven’t heard him play, don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of chances on this podcast. Kirk perfected what he called “circular breathing”—he could play three saxophones at once, plus the stritch, the manzello, and the nose flute. And just about anything else he put his hand to. The song you’ll hear is his 1971 version of “The Old Rugged Cross” and his spoken word intro to it is a thing of beauty! (Check out the youtube link to hear the entire song—it’s worth it.)

In this episode August talks about being bedeviled by love and asks a big-ass question: What or who is God? Yeah, it’s a wee bit ontological, so if you want to skip ahead to some great storytelling, check in around minute xx:xx to hear “The Way Station,” a testimony that’s straight outta the Seventies. It’s a mashup of “The Rivers of Babylon” with Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’/We’re finally on our own/This summer I hear the drummin’/Four dead in Ohio.