Why I Love the Color Orange

Welcome to WILCO,

I know there are lots of personal blogs out there that try to impress and deliver content just for the sake of putting something out there. This blog isn't like that. I won't try to impress you because I have no need to impress you. This is a place where I say my peace whether that opinion is popular or not. Having said that, feel free to read and chime in. I expect your responses, however, to be respectful, engaging, and thoughtful both to me and to others.

Thank you and God bless,
Sung

7.06.2008

Stupid People Make Me Sick...

I read an article/review on Patrolmag.com by the editor of that website, one Mr. David Sessions, and I was insulted and offended by what I read. I think my e-mail reply to him is the best way I can phrase it on my blog here so I'll just let you read it for yourself. If you're interested in reading the original (ridiculous and crackpot) review, please go to: http://www.patrolmag.com/index.php?id=21

Here's my e-mail to him:

Dear David Sessions,

I know that you wrote this review a year ago but this is the first time that I have seen it. I have to tell you that when I read it, I was not sure whether I could believe what I was reading. That you lambasted Casting Crowns entire collection of amazing music that is God-inspired and widely accepted by fans around the world was already bad enough. But you went on to insult the band, Mark Hall himself, and question their Christian premise all-together. One of the paragraphs that I found most offensive was the condescending "bless his heart" attitude in which you wrote this:

"Until, it seems, they discovered X&Y. On The Altar and the Door, the Crowns' intolerable strike three, they detail their bloated sound with Coldplayish soundstage elements, making for a lineup that sounds like a very bad Crowns album produced by Chris Martin. Hall tries once again, bless his heart, to wrestle with big spiritual ideas, and ends up more preachy and puerilethan he's ever been. If you think Casting Crowns is the band that, try as it might, can't do anything right, then you're not far from the truth."

Is that a joke? Casting Crowns is too preachy? Isn't that the very point...and by the way, all that is preachy is not bad. Preaching means the dissemination of a message. Casting Crowns stands with conviction enough to deliver a message in their songs (as most good CCM artists do). And the album sounds nothing like Coldplay and judging by their record sales for The Altar and the Door, their air play on stations like K-Love and AirOne, their ever-increasing fan base, and their numerous Dove Awards, I'd say you're pretty wrong. It's also pretty obvious that you have missed the mark altogether. That you don't like Casting Crowns means you don't know music. True, you are entitle to your opinion but I am entitled to mind and right now, I don't think very much of you for all the reasons I mentioned above.

I'm not sure if you are a Christian or not, and to be honest with you, I don't know you or who you are nor do I care to. But to go out of your way to insult a Christian band that motivates, inspires and moves people and acts in so many ways as a conduit of the Holy Spirit...and for you not to "get it", well, I think I just feel sorry for you. I plan on blogging about this on my many blogs. Maybe you should feel a little less adversarial about so-called "preachy" music and realize that bands like Casting Crowns are not only a blessing...but they throwdown with the best of them.

Thank you for hearing me out,
Sung N. Kim