Rocksermon and Obama

Today I sent this letter to the American rock-magazine Rolling Stone. I hope they will print at least part of it.

U2-rocksermon and Obama

Hello, my name is Rev. Jan Andries de Boer. I work as a full-time minister in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands. As a rock-lover, I am a happy reader of Rolling Stone. My all-time favorite is Frank Zappa. In the Dutch daily “Trouw” I am writing about rock and religion. And in the church I work with rock-music as well. You may be familiar with “U2charist”, developed by the Rev. Paige Blair from York Harbor (Maine). Independently I developed my own U2-service in 2005. I work with a very good coverband, called U2NL. In a service they play at concert-volume. With them I recorded a single some months ago, titled “40 CoeXisT”. It is a new version of U2’s song “40”. The original lyrics (from the biblical Psalm 40) are sung, and then at an instrumental background I speak a short sermon about people of different religion living together in one and the same country, as is the case in many parts of the world today. At their last tour, Bono wore a blindfold with the word CoeXisT on it, this word written with the symbols of Islam (The C, waning moon), Judaism (X – Star of David) and Christianity (T, cross). My sermon is fully in the spirit of Bono, who’s spirit is truly biblical in fact. I call people of all religions on outbidding one another with the good things each and everyone has to offer inspired by his/her own religion. We recorded “40 CoeXisT” in Dutch, German and English. It was the people of America I had in mind when I wrote the long English version. The New York Times is quoted from their report on the murder of Theo van Gogh, New York’s multi-cultural society being copied from 17th century Amsterdam. And I address on topics such as Guantanamo Bay.Rolling Stone is a warm supporter of Barack Obama, who appeared on its cover twice. Last month I was in the US for vacation and I read Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope”. I now understand that my rock-sermon strongly supports this amazing politician. I pray for him being elected.