Finally... an Oscar year that brings some much needed focus to a subject sorely overlooked at the movies — great men with big dreams!

Bear with me. This isn't a movie review or a music review. This is just something that's on my mind today. I'll explain why, but first I have to write down the heavy stuff.

I may have sensed, on some level, the dissonance between such prejudice and Jesus’ own teachings. But if I did, I suppressed it. That sense of superiority, of being on the right team, of having Jesus’ favor: they felt too good to give up. One of the easiest targets on my denominational dartboard was liturgy.

Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups screened at Berlinale today. Here come the reviews...

Even more evidence that films about faith are alive and well in contemporary cinema (and that there is no need for a preachy "Christian movie industry"): As It Is In Heaven is an intelligent, riveting thriller that shows wisdom on the subject of cults and their appeal.

In the early days, they plotted how to kill each other.

I posted a question on Facebook and elsewhere: What breakup songs or breakup records mean the most to you? What music do you find entangled in your own hurtful experiences of separation? The floodgates burst open.

Sharing your heart with someone who in turn takes sledgehammer to it understandably leaves an impression.

I'll conclude with a few words about the American Sniper hubbub. But first, here are some of the things that caught my attention on the Wild Wild Web in the last couple of weeks...

The first song of Joe Henry’s album Invisible Hour — my favorite record of 2014 — is the subject of the second installment in my new series called "Listening Closer." Plus: Two new albums well worth your time and attention.

He's the great orator. Let's make a space for him to go on speaking. If you read great words from this great man today, feel free to share them in the Comments here.

This week, I begin a new year-long adventure: "Listening Closer." I will write about one song every week, opening it up to consider what's inside, where it came from, what it might mean, and why it has caught my attention and stayed on my mind.