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Moby
tells 大象传媒 World Service that his understanding of Christianity helped
him achieve a new balance in life
Musician
Richard Melville Hall, otherwise known as Moby, has been a Marxist
punk, a fundamentalist Christian and a teetotal vegan.
Moby
talks to 大象传媒 World Service about his Christian faith, why he's wary
of aligning himself with any one specific denomination and how he
has managed to achieve a balanced lifestyle.
The
interview can be heard at 10.45am BST in tomorrow's edition of Heart
and Soul 聳 Celebrity I Believe (30 April 2003, 大象传媒 World Service).
On
hedonism and consumerism
Moby,
who owns a vegetarian restaurant and loft apartment in downtown
Manhattan, says he's not a consumerist.
"I
wish I could say I'm enlightened and it's some sort of spiritually
inspired choice but there just aren't that many material things
that I like very much."
In
the 80s and 90s he was a strict Christian and vegan. Now:
"I'm
still a vegan and still Christian but I'm just a lot less rigid.
"When
I first got involved in club culture I didn't drink, I wasn't promiscuous,
I didn't take drugs. I didn't really get involved in any of the
hedonistic vices that most people got involved in.
"I
have taken drugs a few times but I didn't really start experimenting
with hedonism until I was about 33 or 34 years old. In some ways
I'm grateful for that.
"Now
hopefully I've found a balance wherein hedonism can be juxtaposed
or balanced in moderation by a more sober, sane lifestyle."
On
his belief
"I
was never encouraged to believe anything. I was brought up in a
profoundly agnostic or pantheistic community.
"Through
my teens I was really interested in different types of spirituality
and different types of world religion. At one point I sort of flirted
with Daoism, I was an atheist for a while, I was a punk rock Marxist
for a while.
"In
about 1985 I read the teachings of Christ and was instantly struck
by the idea that Christ was somehow divine.
"When
I say I love Christ and love the teachings of Christ I mean that
in the most simple and na茂ve way. I'm not saying I'm right."
On
religious orthodoxy
"I
don't necessarily subscribe to any denomination. I'm even wary of
calling myself a Christian.
"I'm
really wary of orthodoxy, any sort of orthodoxy, whether it聮s
religious orthodoxy or musical orthodoxy. Because the truth is,
orthodoxy and fundamentalism are arbitrary concepts."
On
fundamentalism
"One
of the reasons why fundamentalists are so aggressive in trying to
promote fundamentalism is because deep down they know it's arbitrary.
If you're comfortable with your belief you don't need to convince
other people to agree with you.
"When
I was younger, when I first became a Christian, I was a very fundamentalist
Christian and I was very rigid in my fundamentalism and my Christianity.
"Basically
what led me away from fundamentalism was looking at the world around
me. The fundamentalist is always trying to conform his or her experience
to his or her orthodox belief, to his or her fundamentalism. But
then you look at the world around you and you realise, you know
what, the world is flexible and fluid in ways that cannot be contained
within a fundamentalist ideology."
His
best song
"Ironically
enough it's a song that doesn't have any lyrics to it. It's a song
called God Moving Over the Face of the Waters, and it's an instrumental
piece of music that, when I was writing it, I had this vision, like
at least according to the Old Testament, the creation story, at
one point you know, what is it 聳 the earth was without form
and void and God was moving over the face of the waters. And this
particular piece of music was written with that in mind."
His
epitaph
"Here
lies Moby. He tried not to take himself too seriously but at times
he did. He was a jerk who tried to be a nice guy."
Notes
to Editors
大象传媒
World Service broadcasts programmes around the world in 43 languages
and is available on radio and online at .
It has a global
audience of 150 million listeners.
Heart
and Soul: Celebrity I Believe with Moby
will be broadcast on the 大象传媒 World Service at 10.45am BST (repeated
3.45pm BST) on Wednesday 30 April 2003.
All the
大象传媒's digital services are now available on ,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable.
Freeview
offers the 大象传媒's eight television channels, interactive services
from 大象传媒i, as well as 11 大象传媒 radio networks.
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