"Using the name of Jesus to identify and, therefore, market and sell a product comes awfully close to using the name of God in vain," Christian explains. "Still, we get hate mail from Christians who want to call us out because we played in some club 'that is best suited for a crack junkie' or play with bands that are 'demonic,' which, in our experience, has been nothing of the sort. It's hard when you get that kind of criticism from other Christian people, so my manager keeps that kind of mail away from me -- it's so disheartening. Jesus said a prophet isn't appreciated in his own hometown, and Jesus was criticized for places that He went to eat and who He ate with. If we're all the body of Christ, I know that I am the feet, and I'm going to go out and tread where other people are less likely to go. But, as a Christian, we make our music to connect with anyone who will listen, but we're not in the market as Christians, but as musicians."

LOVE SONG

Christian tells this story to drive home his point: "I went to New Orleans to help out during Mardi Gras about four years ago, and it turned out that there were a lot more homeless [people] on the streets than I had ever imagined. So we got together some sandwiches and socks and took them out to share them with some of these gutter-punks and help meet some of their most pressing needs. I asked them why they weren't Christians, and one of the kids pointed to a sign by two street-preachers with blow-horns that read 'Liars and homosexuals are going to Hell.' I was embarrassed to think that these preachers and I share the same faith -- what they were saying was not grace; it was not loving. I think a better sign would have been 'No matter who you are, or what you've done, I still love you.' That's a message that I want to be associated with."

When it comes to Christian, and apparently his bandmates, what you see is what you get. Ask Josh Head, the keyboardist for Emery, about them, and the first thing he wants to talk about is their character. "Anberlin are like brothers to me ... They're amazing people," he says right off the bat. "Their heart for people shows by the things they do, both with the band and outside of it."

Love -- the message that Christian wants "to be associated with" -- is found throughout Anberlin's new disc.

In the song, "The Unwinding Cable Car," Christian sings of "the correlation of salvation and love," and promises "with quiet words, I'll lead you in." Asked what his songs address on Cities, Christian is clear: "Life, really. On this record, I had an overall theme. It came from a quote [attributed to author Henri Nouwen] that 'solitude is the furnace of transformation.' It's an autobiography of life lessons."

And, while it's personal, Christian knows that these are common experiences. "All of us are going to go through these kinds of things at one time or another. We will know depression; we will have unanswered questions. It's a universal path that all of us will take. And I knew that going in to the record. I knew that starting out before I wrote the first lyric. I wanted to touch people's experience. I want people asking questions. I want them wondering what I meant, why I said this or that. I wanted to do something that invited people to dig deeper."

The disc closes with the song, "Fin," wherein he quotes the Epistle of James' concern for "widows and orphans," which Christian says puts our life and work in perspective. "It reminds us that our ministry to take care of the vulnerable and the weakest among us is something we're all called to do. We need to get back to love and grace and acceptance."