Friday, March 09, 2007

Pope Benedict Says Bob Dylan was a False Prophet

Ummm...maybe on second thought we should hold off on the Bob Dylan Videos lol

I've never listened to Dylan, so I can't say, but I would be interested to hear what some Dylan fans might have to say about this.
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2 comments:

Jason LaLonde said...

Well, it's difficult to say what Pope Benedict actually meant thanks to shoddy, sensationalist journalism. But what would we expect from Reuters, especially when it comes to telling the truth about the head of the Catholic Church? The headline blares, "Dylan a False 'Prophet', Says the Pope." Worse still another headline I saw claimed "Pope Benedict XVI Hates Bob Dylan." ORLY?? From what I gather Pope Benedict never wrote or said that Bob Dylan is a "false prophet." He did write about the concert, "There was reason to be skeptical,--I was, and in a certain sense I still am,--to doubt if it was really right to let these types of prophets intervene." Further, he says he didn't like the whole line-up of singers but Dylan's was the only name he could remember. And I am in agreement with him that the idea of pop stars giving a pop concert at a World Eucharist Congress is a stupid idea.

I am not sure that Pope Benedict has much familiarity with Dylan's work or has closely followed his career. I wouldn't be that surprised if it were the case that he is familiar with Dylan's work, as his range of knowledge is phenomenal. However, I get the feeling that he is simply lumping Dylan in with other pop and rock musicians who he rightly sees as preaching a message contrary to the message of the Gospel.

Is Dylan a false prophet? I suppose that would depend on how one thinks of him and how much stock one puts in his lyrical output. Dylan himself has plead throughout his career that he is not a prophet, the voice of a generation, or anything else other than a writer of songs. Nevertheless people do tend to worship him and hang on his every word--many of which are garbled and nonsensical. If one is looking to Dylan for some deep meaning and ultimate answer to life's question, if one thinks that every lyric he ever wrote holds some secretly profound meaning, then, yes, he is a false prophet. But if one views him with an appropriately critical eye as one would view any other artist or musician, then I think that some of what he has had to say is, indeed, prophetic.

3/09/2007 9:39 PM
Michael D. said...

What I got from it similiar to what you're saying, Jason. The skepticism Benedict had seemed to come more from an embracing of artists as the prophets and wise men of our generation. I see this less with Dylan and a lot more with the Beatles and Johnny Cash. Anytime we look to artisits as sources rather than potential communicators of truth then we make them a false prophet. Benedict just didn't want to see JPII 's having Dylan in concert play into that phenomenon.

3/10/2007 2:45 AM

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