I disagree with you on one thing: I don't think it's possible to be too open-minded. What do I fear from exposing myself to the experiences of others?

I know that my culture is different from yours, but anyway. Here in Jamaica we dont beleive that christians should be going to concerts like these (atleast not in my circle). Are you aware that the rastafarian is basically worshiping a human being as their God? You seem to be a very open minded person, but I seriously thing a person can be too open minded.

I also read the blog about you being at the rock concert. That one was a shocker for me too. A christian?? at a rock concert???

Please undertstand I am not condemning you at all, just expressing the difference in our culture.

Hey John were you aware that Bob Marley accepted Christ before his death? If you Google something like “Bob Marley and Christianity” you can find articles about it. His funeral was done by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church which according to one of the articles will only bury you if you have been baptized by the church. Article goes on to say that after he was baptized, he wept for hours. He died a couple of months after the baptizm.

On the other hand, he was, ultimately, an extremely private guy. And he has a whole … thing with staying, in essence, hidden in plain view.

The problem is that reggae is too stylistically limited a genre to … well, constitute a "genre" of music at all. All reggae sounds like all reggae. So it boils down to the VOICE of the singer. And no one, ever, will have a voice like Marley's. So … unless your voice is as heartbreakingly rich as Marley's … what's the point? And since no one's is (to my mind, anyway, or that I've ever heard), what's the point?

Yeah, the whole thing with Bob going Orthodox Christian before his death has always been … one of those No One Really Knows Things. What's known is that as a favor to his mother–and it was also something that his wife Rita very much wanted–Bob agreed to be baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church at a time when he was sure he had maybe 2 weeks to live. And for SURE the EOC priest that Selassie sent to Jamaica to establish an EOC church there made a huge deal of TELLING everyone how Bob, at the last minute, had converted. But he had a LOT to gain by saying that–and by having Bob's funeral at the OEC church in Kingston.

Bob lived about three months after his baptism–and he didn't say anything anyone knows about in all that time about becoming a Christian. He was a DEVOUT Rasta most of his adult life. A man of deep conviction, it's hard to believe he converted. I'd LOVE to think that he did, of course, but I personally just don't see any proof of it.

Still. He cried with his wife and mom after his little baptism ceremony over his sickbed. So maybe! But I don't think so. If he'd really converted, he'd have talked about it in the next three months. He seemed to keep right on being the Rastafarian he … always had been.