| Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions about your upcoming release Restore to One. Where do you, as Sabbath Assembly, stand on your release as far as your religious views go? |
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Jex:
I have no intentions to push my personal beliefs onto others. I believe that everyone must find their own path, and that these paths are not always the same. In fact, they may be completely different from one and other. I feel no urge to convert others over to my way of thinking. I do not wish to glorify all that the Process Church represents, or express that their beliefs are the right ones and others are wrong. All that said, I do connect with several of the teaching of the Process. I strongly agree with teaching the importance of embracing all sides of the Self, and I agree with teaching the importance of understanding the role that personal responsibility plays in our lives. To ignore our darker impulses is to remain blind to the truth. To take on shame for feeling these dark impulses is to punish our selves for a thing that is natural. If an impulse is natural, whether or not to have that impulse is beyond our control. Therefore, we are best served if we make the choice to embrace all of the sides within us. This is not to say that we ought to act on all of our impulses simply because they are natural. Rather, it is to say that we are in control of how we choose to apply this knowledge to our daily lives. The Process Church teaches that all effects we create MUST be created back upon us. If we understand and accept that these darker parts exist within us, and we accept that every effect we create will be created back on to us, then we will understand that we are personally responsible for what effects are created upon us. Understanding that we are responsible for the effects created back on to us, because of the effects we have created, allows us to better navigate through our lives. For if we are prepared to take responsibility for the effects that have been created upon us, then we are likely to choose to create effects that serve others rather than create difficulty or pain. We choose this because we understand that ultimately, we are creating these effects onto ourselves. |
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Other then unification, is there any other initiative behind "Restored to One" on this recording, such as the reawakening of the Process Church of the Final Judgment and a call for new members, or is this solely just to highlight the church and it's beliefs? |
Xtian:
We're not the Process Church, and we did not write the lyrics of the hymns. Neither is it our goal to highlight the Church, which is fine enshrouded in mist. But there is something about the spirit and passion of the content that we both connected with.
Jex:
There are no original recordings of these hymns. Our intention was primarily to give them a chance to be heard. We felt the extreme passion woven into the hymns and we each developed a personal connection to them. We wanted to give others the opportunity to connect with them -- a chance to be moved by them, because we ourselves were so moved playing them. |
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| In the press release, it was noted that in the novel The Family by Ed Sanders that this movement was linked to the Manson Family murders. Is this something that you are comfortable with having public regarding the recording or do it is something that individuals should not consider when looking at this religion in a modern or historical means? |
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Xtian:
I think it is important that all material related to the Process Church be examined by anyone who wishes to relate to it as a scholar. We have spoken with many original members of the Church and read as many primary and secondary sources related to the Church as we can find. However as musicians our intention is not to create a forum to sway the debates about the Church one way or another. Rather our work is to penetrate the heart of the Church, to connect with it at that level, and share the beauty that is certainly there. |
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| Looking at some of the events that transpired back when the Processed Church of the Final Judgment was around, do you think that back then this church's line of thinking may have been a bit ahead of it's time compared to now where there are more people who seem to be open minded? |
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Xtian:
This is a great question. I think that challenging people to acknowledge openly their darker sides is a progressive message for anytime. The Process Church certainly is not the first to have done so, but they seem to have been part of a zeitgeist of their time in the wake of Carl Jung and others who advocated people to work with their "shadow" side, which in Processean terms is the Satanic and Luciferic aspects of the Self. Essentially the Process praised these deities in their songs to encourage us to celebrate our instincts, and discover the parts of our selves that have been superseded by rationality and the conscious mind. The Process was of course were quite confrontational and public about this, for example in calling their restaurant and meeting place "Satan's Cavern." Our experience is that people even now, as "open-minded" as we are, remain uneasy about examining these parts of themselves. |
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| One of your goals were to take the hymns of the Church and sort of modernize them for today's society, and the music that was created came off as a very well organized psychedelic rock album that one would expect from the 60's or 70's. Do you feel that you chose the right style of music to incorporate these ideals into in today's modern society |
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Jex:
Few people outside the church had ever heard these hymns before. It was important to us that we find an authenticity to bring to them. The original composers still remain anonymous, but it was clear to us that these hymns were written from a true and with pure intention. So in attempting to do them justice, we drew on what we new of the church, the lyrics and the connection we felt to the hymns.
Xtian:
We didn't really "choose" the style but just played what came naturally from us. Never did we ever have the idea to modernize the hymns for today - in fact I'm not even sure what that would mean! |
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| What made you decide to embrace this Church and it's ideals and bring them to life in a modernized fashion? |
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Xtian:
We followed our inspiration and felt what was right for us, never thinking so much about the efficacy of bringing the message into the modern times. However we trust that because we were inspired to do so, there is some aspect of the world which is ready to receive.
Jex:
The hymns are beautiful and I found that several of the Church's teachings were quite in line with my own way of thinking. |
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| As far as today's society goes, do you think that it needs the Process Church of the Final Judgment more then ever, especially with people fearing the supposed end of the world that may come on 2012? |
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Xtian:
The biggest fear of people is not the end of the world but rather that the world WON'T end and we'll need to stay with the challenge of how to live in the reality we have created. It could be that some aspect of this music may be helpful with this; I don't consider myself a prophet but rather a musician. |
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| Recently Feral House published the book LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH: The Inside Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment by Timothy Wyllie, a former member of the church, there will be the aforementioned documentary, and there will also be an off-Broadway play called Gaming the Gods which is based on the rise and fall of the Church. How does all of these make you, as individuals and as Sabbath Assembly, feel? |
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Jex:
It is wonderful to have these different windows into the story of the Process Church. |
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| Thank you both, I appreciate you taking the time out to answer some questions and speak with our readers. |
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