Arcade Fire (or is it the church that is burning?)

A flashing multicolored neon sign in the shape of a book confronted me when I picked up the new Arcade Fire album this week. The title, Neon Bible, confirmed that the second full length recording form the Montreal band whould be a memorable listen. I have been looking forward to this release for a few months and was intrigued by the website and 1-800 number styled in the fasion of an evangelists resource for new converts. This marketing idea begged the question; Is there any difference between selling music and sellng "c"hristianity.

For many of us this isn't a new question but one that we've been asking for a while. It was interesting to hear a group a musicians from Montreal, gennerally regarded as one of the most secular cities in the world, asking it too. Generally the artists seem to have given up on the church. The title track follows,

Neon Bible

A vial of hope and a vial of pain,
In the light they both looked the same.
Pourred them out on into the world,
On every boy and every girl.

It's in the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is right.

Take the poison of your age,
Don’t lick your fingers when you turn the page,
What I know is what you know is right,
In the city it's the only light.

It's the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is right.

Oh God! well look at you now!
Oh! you lost it, but you don’t know how!
In the light of a golden calf,
Oh God! I had to laugh!

Take the poison of your age,
Don’t lick your fingers when you turn the page,
It was wrong but you said it was right,
In the future I will read at night.

In the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is true.

It seems to me that the band is given up on the consumer church as it is now most often expressed but maybe not on the whole idea of the church. The line, "You lost it but you don't know how," implies that at one point the church had" it". How do we return to this place where the church had what our culture was seeking?

How can our community be the church of the worn, dirty, tear stained Bible instead of the flashing, muticolored neon one?