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The right time for Leigh Nash

Six years ago, I was provocatively reminded of the pervasiveness of American culture while I was walking around an outdoor market in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Amongst the tables full of trinkets and indigenous crafts, I spotted a Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken joint and heard the megahit "Kiss Me" from Sixpence None the Richer over a transistor radio. The setting seemed almost surreal. There in the center of that Muslim capital city, Malaysians were scarfing down poultry under the grinning face of Kenny Rogers and singing a simple love song along with the angelic and innocent voice of Leigh Nash.

The tune became the most-played song in nearly a dozen countries, landed Sixpence on the late night shows, and found its way onto TV and movie soundtracks.

Leigh Nash and Matt Slocum met at church and formed Sixpence None the Richer (a reference from C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity) as young teens. "Kiss Me" was a gratifying reward for Sixpence, who had traveled on the road for many years before their big break.

As suddenly as the flame of fame had been fanned, the politics of the music industry extinguished the inferno. Rather than capitalizing on their successful hits, Sixpence's record label left them dangling in an artistic purgatory. Sixpence amicably disbanded in 2004. Shortly thereafter, Leigh and her husband, Mark, became the proud parents of Henry. With Leigh cutting her teeth on motherhood after 13 years on the road, her life became a completely new adventure. She just released Blue on Blue, a powerfully elegant solo album. She seems ready for this chapter in her life.

 Good News editor Steve Beard sat down with Nash to talk about record companies, motherhood, and faith.

Where did you see God in the midst of your record contract fiasco? Were you mad at Him?

Leigh Nash:  No, not at all. The picture in my head is of a young colt jumping and writhing around in a little pen, but if it were to get out it would hurt itself. The pen is there for a reason and the owner is standing there. What can you do? The colt can calm down and have some water. I was just fighting and fighting and fighting. I think that you either have to grow from something like this or destroy yourself. I think I probably did something in between. Hopefully, I grew from it as much as possible. I didn't fall into any destructive behaviors as a result of that anger. So I guess I did grow from that, so that is good. You learn patience. Eventually, you have to sit still and learn to observe what is going on around you. In those years, I made some of the best friends that I have had in my life. I learned to not hold on to what I want so hard that God can't still mold me and I have to have my hands open so that he can give me stuff. If you are clinching what you want so bad, He can't get your hand open. You have to open your hands. I am still learning to do that. It is really hard.

Compare motherhood and creating a new album.

I think there's similarities in that you don't go into it knowing exactly what you're doing; it's just instinctual. I think Mark and I together are doing a really beautiful job with our son, just following our instincts and just trying to be good to him and to be good parents. Making a record is kind of the same thing. The writing, the record, the whole thing, I just followed my instincts, just like with my son, Henry. And hopefully the payoff will be as beautiful as my child is.

Are faith and creativity at war with one another, or do they walk hand-in-hand?

At this point in my life I guess I don't really know. I mean, I think that my faith makes me who I am. And so whatever I do, that's what I walk with. It's this amazing faith and this belief that is stronger at some times than others. But I still carry it with me and it changes who you are. I mean, it's everything. So I think they walk hand-in-hand, absolutely.

 

Canterbury leads the way

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the 75-million member World Anglican Communion, recently made news when he was quoted in The Sunday Telegraph in England saying that homosexuals "need to change their behavior if they are to be welcomed into the church."

"The announcement landed like a bombshell on the Anglican Communion," wrote David Virtue, Anglican theologian and journalist (www.virtueonline.org). He continues, "The declaration by the archbishop-rebutting the idea that active homosexuals should be included in the church unconditionally-marks a significant development, if not sea change, in the church's crisis over homosexuality."

Williams has been working hard to hold the Anglican Communion together in light of problems caused by the Episcopal Church here in the USA. In 2003 the U.S. church consecrated a practicing homosexual as bishop of New Hampshire. As you can imagine, that action has irreparably divided the Episcopal Church. Numerous parishes have left the denomination and others are considering departure.

What makes this noteworthy is that many Anglican observers believed that Williams had at one time been more supportive of gay relationships. However, as the world Anglican Communion has felt keenly the damage done by the consecration of a gay bishop, Williams no doubt has been encouraged by many African and Asian Anglican archbishops, as well as his long-time colleague and now Bishop, N.T. Wright, world-renown biblical scholar, to firmly express once again the church's teaching.

The Rev. Tory Baucum, an Anglican clergyman who teaches missions at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, told Good News, "The Archbishop has consistently said that no one branch of the Church has the right to unilaterally undo the consensus of the global church and the consensual tradition. Furthermore, as Archbishop he believes he is tasked to preserve the unity of the church and the faith which grounds that unity."

In an interview with a Dutch journalist which was quoted in the Telegraph, Williams denied that it was time for the church to accept homosexual relationships. He suggested the church should be welcoming rather than inclusive. He added, "I don't believe inclusion is a value in itself. Welcome is. We don't say 'Come in and we ask no questions.' I do believe conversion means conversion of habits, behaviors, ideas, emotions," he said.

 The archbishop tried to distance himself from a controversial essay he wrote several decades ago in which he seemed to be defending same-sex relationships. "That was when I was a professor, to stimulate debate," he claimed. "It did not generate much support and a lot of criticism-quite fairly on a number of points."

Baucum notes about this matter, "I think it is just as fair to say he is differentiating his work as a young theologian, whose job it was to ask hard questions, and his job as the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose primary task it is to maintain what has been given."

The archbishop seems determined to preserve the unity of the church and said he has backed a resolution which says that homosexual practice is incompatible with the Bible.

Virtue concludes: "Just suppose, for a moment, that the archbishop has had a seismic shift in his thinking about the inherent dangers of homosexual behavior, and that the biblical prohibitions against homosexuality still stand, and, that just maybe the Global South archbishops are not so stupid after all, as many of them have been educated at Oxford and Cambridge and still think the Bible is right about sexuality, and that all such behavior stays within marriage between a man and a woman..Would that be such a mistake to admit in this eleventh hour? Whatever you conclude, Dr. Williams has come across as a man of great humility who is entirely willing to admit that he might be wrong." 

Baucum, however, denies that this represents a "seismic shift" in the Archbishop's position. "I don't think the Archbishop's orthodoxy was ever that far from the Global South to begin with.  I do think his ability to live with multiple points of view, some of which look very syncretistic, is greater than most. But when push comes to shove, Rowan is a deeply convinced Orthodox theologian who won't blink or budge. He has proven this already. On the other hand, he just doesn't hide behind his orthodoxy when the faith or morals of the church is challenged but rather Orthodoxy is the source of his extraordinary quest for the truth of God's kingdom." 

James V. Heidinger II is president and publisher of Good News.



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