Clannad?

[romula]

http://www.myriveroflife.nl/story.php?t ... re_Brennan

On the website says that music of Clannad is occult. Is that so?

I listen to Moya Brennan beatiful music. I hear her live and meet her (Drachten!)! Was amazing!

I try to translate the site:


An enchanting album, 'Whisper to the Wild Water "by Maire Brennan
Posted 1301 days ago by perfectly forgiving (self written)
Category: Reviews (books, CDs) | Keywords: maire brennan Clannad occult
A few years ago, surprised Maire Brennan (pronounce Moya Brennan) the gospel scene with her first Christian CD "Whisper to the Wild Water. Since I do appreciate Celtic music (Celtic rock bands like Iona and stoneware think), I bought this CD from this singer who also sometimes backing vocals at Iona on its behalf has taken (such as in Journey into the Morn).
The quality of this CD is nothing to be desired. Maire Brennan has a beautiful, dreamy, mysterious voice and the accompaniment, with Irish flutes and the like do not exist, there must also be sure. The achtergrondvokalen are beautiful. The compositions are clear and take you on a musical journey. Also this CD rather than happy sad. The CD is beautiful and has a completely unique style. The CD cover is nicely designed and looks good. The design also fits nicely with the music. Also, the lyrics sound interesting and this CD is not as fast "too often heard."
And yet and yet and yet I can not listen to this CD as a Christian. It will certainly be me, because even on the Internet Aanbidding.net this disc is rotated. But the Holy Spirit has shown me that I should do this CD away. In a certain time, three years ago, I listened this CD very much. Suddenly one night I had terrible nightmares and felt that it all had to do with this CD. In the morning I have this CD then thrown in the trash. A radical decision, so I slept better since then.
What grounds can there be such a CD that in God's eyes "impure" is? Of course, and I can not judge, but I think it's good to be vigilant as Christians. Maire Brennan has in the past a major contribution to the folk band Clannad. This group is not Christian, indeed, much of their music has to do with Celtic mysticism (DRUIDES and occult rituals). Of course, God's light can not tolerate such things. And this was not only the past, because even now with the band Clannad Maire stands on various stages, including a concert scheduled on November 20 in the town where I live now.
It is an 'enchanting' CD. The Bible is very clear on how to deal with sorcery in Acts we read that people are valuable magic books burned. If there is anything in your life what you performs on the straight road, take it away from your life because your life is more precious than all these things. For me, this CD is not a drop living water. Maire Brennan If I could reach her, I would like to warn and to point to Jesus' words "begin a new life."

[mise]

I am very much suprised by such an article Ronald and it makes me very sad. The writer clearly based his/her decisions on his own feelings and I can't judge those.
Moya has always struck me as a genuine person and if you listen to some of her interviews on youtube or if you read her book you will realise she sees herself as a Christian and her music as something that came natural and never meant as occult.

As you have met Moya yourself I am sure you will be able to form your own opinion about her and more so her music.

[Hester]

All I can say to the writer of that article is: read her book!!!
I've read the book twice and it is really a wonderful testimony of her faith. I can highly recommend it, to everyone; non-christians, christians but especially to someone who writes an article like this and who clearly knows nothing about her personal life, her struggles and how through all this she found great strength in faith. A very personal and very genuine christian faith...I've met her several times and she did share about her faith at some of these occasions, the way she lives her christian faith reminds me of my own parents, who have a warm, genuine and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I can also strongly recommend you to watch the documentary she did with the EO in 2003...a really touching and moving documentary which leaves you in doubt about what she believes!

Years ago (2004) I did an interview with her and to work it out properly I first typed down a transcript of the tape The first quote is on the Newage/druids thing...And it is also about the definiton of 'Christian Music' I agree with Moya that it is NOT the genre of music which defines it as christian music, you can have christian music in the gospelgenre, in the rockgenre, in the celticgenre in the country genre etc. etc....it is all about the heart of the people behind the music!

The other quotes are a wonderful illustration I think on how she experiences and lives out her faith....I can try and say it for her, but since I realized I still had this transcript, I thought I'd post her own words!

” I mean when I did ‘Two Horizons” It wasn’t a Christian album in brackets, but to me: I am still a Christian! This is a spiritual journey; I have invited more people to listen to this album by not putting a label on it! Anybody that knows my heart and read some of the words will see what I am talking about. For instance: ‘Bright Star’, you read the words and kind of go, ‘oh, okay’, I know what that is. It is sometimes…..I feel that where God has me is in a different place to just being……I am not an evangelist. Bertine: You are not? Moya: No, I am not, I am a person who is out there, trying to do the will of God in a different way. I love the language of St. Francis of: You go out and preach the gospels, and use words if necessary! This is my favourite! This is I feel where I am now, I don’t know what I am going to be doing the next year or the year after but I hope that I will be following what’s right for me and this is what’s important for me. So I would never say, I am never going to do this, I am never going to do that I don’t know, I don’t know where the Lord has me, or how he has me or, it’s just that he has me in a very different path to ‘a Christian artist’. Because I come from a secular background. So I have a very wide audience and so I don’t want to alienate/eliminate anybody when I do two Christian albums, you know I have five solo-albums and my last two albums were, what I call Celtic Christian albums and there was a reason for me to do that because I had to stand up and sort of talk about my Celticism, the Christianity in Celtic Music which is very important. The people always thought, you know I would be in Japan and the people would say to me, when I was with Clannad, Oh, you know, 'are you a druid and are you into this sort of thing?' and I said: “Why”??????? Oh you’re a Celtic. And I said: and???
And so people were getting confused. Since the year of five hundred, Ireland is a Christian country! So why are they getting so confused with this Celtic and then you know it is really funny even in Ireland when you say ‘Celtic Christianity’ they say there is no such thing and I said “why” and they say well you know Celtic ness…. (New age/…….?) And I said ‘you’re talking about it the way people used to talk about Rock and Roll as being evil music and you don’t use it in worship, you know what I mean! Now you’ve ‘heavy metal’ in Christian music. So, you know what I mean we sometimes get very confused I mean it all belongs to the Lord! And we have to identify that! That’s what it’s about. You know: Crystals and the rainbow and stones, they all belong to the Lord! It is the Creation of the Lord! We have been very, sometimes afraid to sort of ….we seem to be giving it away…rather then holding on to it. We usually say, oh that’s ‘New Age’ so you kind of leave it there….Helloooooo! Come back!! you know what I mean! It’s like, don’t do that! The next thing you’ll be afraid to use bath salts in your bathwater, you know what I mean "because it is New Age". It’s lavender ooh, it’s oils we can’t have scented oils, I love candles. We should be really careful; we should claim what belongs to the Lord! So to me, this whole thing about putting things in categories I mean look at my album ‘whisper to the wild water” I think I have confused the American people very very much because I was up for a Grammy Award in the New Age category with a Christian Album you know, I was thrilled! Thrilled! People were saying: I am so sorry’ and I said ‘why?????’ More people will hear it!!! Somebody that will never look at a Christian category will see my album in the New Age department and say, Oh yeah that’s cool! So they’re listening to it and I kind of go *happy smile of her face* so that’s good! These kind of things I am not afraid of! And that is why I am sometimes really afraid of people who say; Oh is this a Christian thing or not? It has to do with your heart and the Lord and sometimes I am kind of saying, it is not for me to judge.

Bertine: You have a great influence on people?
Moya: Well, the Lord has it! It is the Lords doing. It’s not me, you see what I mean.Bertine: the Lord through you! Moya: Yeah, the Lord through me, yeah. Bertine: doesn’t that frighten you? Moya: No, because I am not doing it by myself. If I was doing it by myself, it would scare me to bits!!! And also, when I was with Clannad for thirty years, what I am doing now, I would have been frightened off, because I never thought as a solo artist I would be up there and doing what I am doing. And this is probably why I am feeling so good, because when I get up in the morning, I am not by myself, I am not doing it by myself, It what feels so good about it. The Lord has blessed me with so much and I know he has given me a talent in my voice, that He helps me share. He has blessed me with a fantastic family and a wonderful husband,

And I am running, my life, with the Lord and the Lord is in our home; it is like that is how I can do it, no other way!

Somebody asked me a question the other day, how would you like to be remembered? And I was….I heard a beautiful story at a dinner party with my pastor and his wife and this other pastor that was doing an interview with me, and it was in Ireland. And they were talking about this woman, that had died and her kindness, and I was sitting there and I was saying: ‘Wow’, you know, Okay, I’d love to be remembered as good mum and a wonderful wife and everything but I’d love to be remembered as a kind person………a kind person….
I jus sat there, listening to them talking about this person and I was saying; ‘how wonderful’, you know what I mean, it is so special. Bertine: are you a kind person? Moya: I’d like be, yeah, I’d like to be, I am working on it! Bertine: You’re doing great! Moya: no, but I used to have a terrible temper….there are some members in my family that can still know where to get me. But I have a better control on it, than normal. But I try to be, the way I live my life, is very simple, I am not a theologian, I don’t do 100’s of bible studies or anything like that. Because we can lose the plot sometimes of where God wants us to be, I look at Jesus his life and also, what He said was the most important thing. You can read the Gospels, over and over again, but there are things that just for me fall out of them. And they are the main things, Paul says it and Timothy says it. About how much we need to love God and love our neighbours, that is my policy! It is as simple as that. Because if you do that it is all the other things you won’t do are built around the most important manners that Jesus had. You won’t be rude, you won’t do gossip. I am not saying I am perfect, please don’t ever think that! I am not at all, what I mean is that the kind, you know, I’d like to be a kind person I’d like to try and live by Jesus his rules. And there, his main body of rules, being a loving person and to love God, you don’t hurt people, you try and be kind you try and be generous you try and be patient. It is all those things come under the banner of love.

I hope these words shared by herself help you to realize that Moya and her music ánd the music of Clannad(!! if the writer of the article had done his research properly he would have discovered, that their music is all about the history of their country, the history of their country's music, the folktales and their cultural inheritage) are as far from "occult" as they could possibly be

Hester

[Dubhy63]

Great quotes Hester

It's more than clear that the article is a personal view,everyone who has read Moya's book knows how she relates to her faith.Her music is for everyone,it doesn't matter if you're a Christian or not.
Personally,I don't like it when a particular kind of music is related to a faith or religion,everyone is free to listen to the music they like without being put in brackets.

Regarding Clannad and druids,one might see a few of the latter on Halloween night in Leo's but this is the closest connection in my opinion.

[Phantas]

lol...


hester, I started reading those quotes and I just had to stop. I got almost sick to my stomach reading it. Couldn't stand the almost blatant Christian message in it...kinda the feeling I had when I heard about Perfect Time. I don't mind people believing in something but I can't stand the preaching. Sorry!

Hope you don't mind! It doesn't take anything away from Moya or you Hester, it's my own mindset. it just comes across as preaching to me....



Love,
Phantas

[Methica]

I actually find that article hilarious. It's so obvious that it's written by someone who didn't do their homework haha! I mean, come on, it makes Clannad sound like they're some medieval band (:

[Dubhy63]

Unfortunately it happens very often that articles contain a lot of rubbish.I believe that some people just go to a concert,listen to a CD or watch a film etc. and write a review without checking anything about the band, singer or actors.I've come across this so many times in the past,therefore I only read reviews from reliable sources,people who have been in the business for years and know what they are talking about.

[romula]

thanks for your information!

[Hester]

lol...


hester, I started reading those quotes and I just had to stop. I got almost sick to my stomach reading it. Couldn't stand the almost blatant Christian message in it...kinda the feeling I had when I heard about Perfect Time. I don't mind people believing in something but I can't stand the preaching. Sorry!

Hope you don't mind! It doesn't take anything away from Moya or you Hester, it's my own mindset. it just comes across as preaching to me....



Love,
Phantas

Thanks for posting your thoughts Phantas...
I must admit reading that you "almost got sick to your stomach" was a bit tough to read cause from what I've seen from and know about Moya, she's the last person who is 'preachy'...But I respect you for your opinion and I do understand that it can come across like that if you are not a christian and don't share her belief...

Please take into account that, I felt I wanted to post these quotes not so much for the 'non-believers' here but much more for the believers who might be unsure of what Moya stands for because of certain articles they come across (like the one mentioned here).

[Phantas]

yes I did understand Hester and I do know Moya isn't preachy at all...she's a loving, kindhearted woman and I am very thankful for having met her as well as coming into contact with her music.

I respect her choice of choosing such a direction in faith...I just don't like being confronted with it in such a way I simply do not believe that God (or any deity) is responsible for everything in the world.

[Hester]

I am glad you understand
And I also don't believe in a God who's responsible for everything in the world. I think we ourselves have a great deal of responsibility...

[hermeyjdi]

That article is terrible. That is the problem with some so called Christians, they put things like this out and then it keeps others from the blessing of listening to the music. The only Clannad song that even talks about Druids is the song "Newgrange". They based their whole idea about Moya & Clannad off of one song. I call that immature. I agree that anyone wanting to know the truth should read Moya's book. Simply awesome.