Tuesday, May 27, 2025

It is the 27th of May 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Gillespie warned me.

When he heard me mispronounce that Midwestern Indiana city, he told me I would hear about it. A thousand million apologies- it is Terre Haute- rhymes with Boat (they must teach people that’s how you correct people, because that message came across a number of times).

No one was snarky or mean- many of you reminded me that pronunciation is indeed a matter of custom and preference, and language is weird. You’ll have to forgive us mispronouncers for the sin of reading too much. I read faster than you talk, so my apologies. And it just so happens that today is the 80th birthday of a man I only recently discovered through the weekend edition on Mark Heard (link in transcript: https://www.1517.org/podcast-overview/2022-09-24). And I mispronounced his name and heard about it- but then I delved into the music and interviews and 2014 autobiography of the man sometimes called a christian mystic, a Canadian folk mystic, and Canada’s best kept secret- he is Bruce Cockburn- spelled as if to suggest a kind of rooster but pronounced “Coh-burn” like the suburb of Perth in Australia and the port wine brand, or so I am told.

Cockburn was born on this, the 27th of May in 1945- 80 years ago today- he grew up in Ontario, the son of agnostic parents- they went to church because, in his own telling- his grandma would be mad if they didn’t, his parents also didn’t want to seem weird- everyone went to church so they did too… (and a shoutout to cockburnproject.net- one of the most thorough artist websites I’ve come across that has collected his interviews on subjects through the years). He picked up a guitar he found at his grandparents and eventually learned music theory through the organist at the United Church he attended. He wanted to be a musician and did not consider himself a Christian. After high school, he spent time as a busker- a public musician- in Paris before attending a few semesters at the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts between 1964 and 1966.

He played in a variety of bands back home after dropping out- including the Esquires, the Flying Circus which was renamed Olivus and opened for Jimmy Hendrix in 1968. He then joined 3’s a Crow before striking out on a solo career in 1969.

He would become a Christian in 1974- he’s told versions of the story in the past- being in Sweden, having a troubled marriage, and having an experience. He told a reporter in the 90s- about his conversion, it’s worth reading in full:

 “Well, it didn't happen right away, but I became a Christian and, a few years later, got divorced, and a lot of my assumptions were forcibly taken from me. When I said that, I was responding to the notion you hear expressed in the Christian media a lot. People testify that their life was falling apart, and then they found God, and God miraculously put their life back together. Now their wives are subservient, they have a job, and they don't drink anymore. If that's a genuine experience, then more power to them. But it wasn't my experience.


I felt that the glibness with which those kinds of stories are presented and treated needed offsetting. My life became certainly no more comfortable and probably less comfortable than it had been before. Because there are big questions. A relationship with God isn't about superficial stuff like "I got my job back..." People didn't become martyrs so they could stop drinking and have a subservient wife. People became martyrs because they were in a relationship they couldn't deny. 

He would receive some mainstream recognition in the 80s- his “wondering where the Lions are” got him on Saturday Night Live in 1980. His second hit, 1984’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” caused a stir as here is a Christian in the mystical/pacifist tradition crying against inhumanity and wanting justice.

He worked with the now deceased Mark Heard and has worked with T-Bone Burnett- another “musicians' musician” who has had success as a Christian in the mainstream. Cockburn’s memoirs were released in 2014- titled “Rumours of Glory” (with the funny second u in Rumors)- his last album came out in 2023- he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2001. A very happy 80th birthday to that Canadian Folk Mystic- Bruce Cockburn, born on this day in 1945.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary, and still at the end of Revelation- wonderful imagery and hope:

19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 27th of May 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man from West La-feet? Lafayette… come at me, bro… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who recommends “Lovers in a Dangerous Time- a cover of Cockburn by a Canadian Band whose name I don’t say on this program with little ears listening… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.