It's been a while since the record was released so I though I would comment on the concept, title and cover art a bit.
The title, "Limited Vocabulary", comes primarily from the idea that everything we say about God is wrong, even when we're right. God speaks, we listen. He gets us. He tells us what to say about him, but even when we say it, even when we learn it, we still don't get it. If you look around at the church in America right now for about 8 seconds you'll see what I mean. Incidentally, here's your argument for traditional Christian liturgy. It takes a long time to get this stuff right.
The cover of the CD is a picture of the most run down house I've ever seen. I found it when I took a wrong turn in Wausau, WI and had to take a detour to compensate. I came upon a Catholic church with an ARMY attack helicopter on the front lawn...at least that's what it looked like from a distance. Next door to the church was some kind of veterans facility and they actually had the chopper (and a tank). Across the street was the afore mentioned house. I turned around in the driveway to take a picture of the chopper and the church because I liked the irony and was astonished to see current license plates on the cars in back. Someone was living there! I one-handed the shot of the house as I drove away. Just got lucky that it turned out as good as it did.
Here's the commentary: Maybe the poorest guy I've ever seen lives across the street from both the church and the state and nobody's doing a thing for him. There is a communication breakdown in the way we talk about poverty, war, and suffering. No matter how we think of love, it falls apart at exactly the point where we do nothing no matter how much we talk. God speaks and worlds get created. All we have is rhetoric. Our language shapes us more than most things, and getting our language right is crucial, but rhetoric alone helps no one. Without love, without service, words only desensitize us to what we ought to be passionate about. However we just might live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Here's the commentary: Maybe the poorest guy I've ever seen lives across the street from both the church and the state and nobody's doing a thing for him. There is a communication breakdown in the way we talk about poverty, war, and suffering. No matter how we think of love, it falls apart at exactly the point where we do nothing no matter how much we talk. God speaks and worlds get created. All we have is rhetoric. Our language shapes us more than most things, and getting our language right is crucial, but rhetoric alone helps no one. Without love, without service, words only desensitize us to what we ought to be passionate about. However we just might live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
"Only say the word and we shall be healed..."
