Check out the opening chapter of David Zahl’s book, A Mess of Help: From the Crucified Soul of Rock N’ Roll. As parents and leaders of teens, we’re constantly asking ourselves if certain aspects of our culture are helping or hurting our kids. In this chapter, “Did I Listen to Nirvana Because I was Angry? Or Was I Angry Because I Listened to Nirvana?,” Zahl (a former youth minister) addresses this complex issue.
He opens A Mess of Help by talking more specifically about listening to Nirvana during the difficult time in his early teens, spent living in Germany with his family:
“I give my parents a lot of credit. I can only imagine how alienated they must have felt when they would come into my room on Heinlenstrasse and hear Rage Against the Machine blaring from the speakers. They were wise enough to know that if they had forced the issue and made me throw out those abrasive CDs, the feelings would not have disappeared. They would have festered and grown, the forbiddance being yet another thing to be angry about.”
David Zahl is the Director of Mockingbird Ministries and Editor-in-Chief of the Mockingbird blog.
