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Please share the information provided in this video. Always remember that a crucial part
of removing a person's confusion is understanding his or her unique source of it.
Music is a big part of the Christian religion, but it is not without problems. First, it
is usually way too upbeat and positive. Positivity is not a bad thing. Positive Christian music
really helps us express our deepest emotions to God in a very real way. In short there's
nothing wrong with Christian music that is full of praise and worship for God. The problem
is that this is almost always the only type of Christian music.
Christians get angry, feel depression, are overwhelmed with fear and worry, struggle
with doubt and are often anything but full of praise and worship. Sometimes, Christian
music should meet people where they are, and move them to an attitude of praise and worship.
In the Bible, the book of Psalms is largely a book of song lyrics. Although the music
is lost, we can still tell that these songs often met people in these dark places far
from an attitude of praise and worship.
When is the last time you heard a Christian song with words like these from Psalm 3?
O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah[a]
Selah means that the song pauses for reflection. Words like those don't come around so much
in praise gatherings today. But the next lines from Psalm 3 are much more familiar.
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.
Notice how the words of this song give the listener something to relate to, then takes
him or her to a higher place. So often worship services start with, "I just love Jesus so
much! God is so great! Jesus does awesome things for me!" If we stand back we see a
crowd that has a hard time getting their hearts into that attitude. What we need are songs
like Psalm 3, that help us get into the right attitude.
The reason the situation is like this is a product of the history of Christianity in
America. With the Bill of Rights, America introduced the freedom to believe what you
want, or disbelieve what you want. A free marketplace of religious ideas took over the
nation. Before this, church attendance was required by law, and attendance was at 25%.
But afterwards, church attendance jumped to 80%. America was a Protestant nation. People
felt the shackles of old world religious control were gone. Then as, science moved onward to
the turn of the century, the world modernized in a big way. The turn of the century saw
cars, electricity, the discovery of germs, philips head screws, refrigeration, telephones,
movies, airplanes, radios, power tools, cheaper mass produced goods and so much more. Evolution
of the Species was written by Charles Darwin. Geologists began to pile up data that the
earth was way older than 6000 years. Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Babylonian Akkadian were decoded,
and we saw striking similarities with the Bible. This raised doubt in the Bible itself.
Because of this doubt, many turned to materialism and denied the existence of anything supernatural.
Others remained religious. They simply traded away the parts of the Bible that didn't seem
to work any more. Liberal Christianity was born. Then came the fight against liberalism
in the Southern Baptist Church known as Fundamentalism. They proclaimed that some things just don't
change. They entered the free marketplace of ideas and pushed for America to stay the
Protestant dream it once was. It all came to a head in 1925 at the Scopes trial. A teacher
was sued for teaching evolution in schools. The Fundamentalists won the case and Scopes
was found guilty. But the case was also a debate of ideas. Here the Fundamentalists
came out on bottom. America wasn't going to be completely Protestant anymore. So the Fundamentalists
pulled inward and formed the Bible Belt. The idea was, "Just don't try and change us."
Imagine growing up in a society where almost everyone is a Christian. People didn't convert
to Christianity. They were born into it. It was all they had ever known. The belief was
that to be holy, one must distance himself from bad influences. But Science popped the
bubble. Television brought rock music into your living room. It's hard for us today to
realize how overwhelming this would have been. With modern media, it has become much more
difficult to distance yourself from bad influences.
This is a market force behind Christian music to this day. A person puchases a Chrisitan
album because he or she wants create distance from bad influences. Therefore, the Christian
music that sells is the super positive, "I love Jesus so much" type. This does bring
an age old condemnation on Christian musicians. Are you in it for the money? Are you making
this type of music not because you like it but because it sells? This is a problem in
music in general. People even say they like college football because "the pros are in
it for the money." Paul wrote to Timothy 2000 years ago that "The love of money is a root
of all kinds of evil."
Another problem from this is that Christian music becomes something made just for Christians
to enjoy. In fact, it really becomes something just for the more committed Christians to
enjoy. This would present no problem it Jesus had not said, "Go therefore, and make disciples
of all nations." Many Christian artists have dealth with this issue by making their music
more secular. This debate between Secular and Christian has been a fierce one in Christian
circles. Some bands will openly say they are Christians, but sing about breaking up with
girlfriends, growing up, or dealing with bad experiences. Some bands will do all of that,
but throw one or two clearly Christian songs on the album. Many bands learn to master the
art of singing ambiguously about Jesus. The lyrics can be taken in a Christian way or
another way. Almost always, the reason given for all of this is "we wanted to reach more
people."
This is an understandable goal given that Christian music is so often intended just
for Christians. But the old snake rears its ugly head. Is this desire to reach more people
really a desire to make more money? Bands stand to make a lot of money by appealing
to mainstream audiences. This is especially true when the artist effectively uses ambiguous
language. The listener can hear what he or she wants or needs in the song, and it can
be totally different for each person. Ambiguity is the perfect tool to make money. In the
late 1990's the band Switchfoot, was experiencing some success, but their 2003 release "The
Beautiful Letdown" sold 2.6 million copies. The album mastered the art of ambiguity necessary
for mass appeal. While the band remained clearly Christian, their hit songs "Dare you to Move"
and "Meant to live" were the ambiguous was. These songs were heard by far more people,
and you couldn't really tell for sure what they were about. That is unless, you buy the
album or read about the band.
Not to be outdone, Secular artists have released their own great accomplishments in ambiguity.
Bands like Creed or Hoobastank were masters at keeping people wondering, "What's this
song about?" Evanescense went so far as to be offended that people kept thinking they
were Christian. Mastering this art, while keeping the music in step with the seriousness
of all the possible messages, has spelled big dollars for any musician.
Some Christians respond to the lack of clarity by refusing to listen to music unless it is
as clear as a speech. They wind up listening to Christian Rap. The problem with this type
of thinking is a misunderstanding of what art is. Art is essentially communication.
It is an attempt to express something. But all communication is not really art. Art is
the attempt to say something which you find hard to say, but still understand yourself.
Art is essentially a pursuit of clear explanations for things that are very hard to explain clearly.
Art is an attempt to push the boundaries of expression and communication. As art progresses,
things become easier to explain and art has to break into new territory. So true art must
always be at least a little ambiguous. This is because art is inherently difficult. But
it is different for the Christian band that "goes Secular" through ambiguity. They are
being intentionally ambiguous. This contradicts the very purpose of art. To be fair, many
times things about God are hard to express. But with many Christian songs, expressing
what they mean would appear to have been possible. We must ask, "Why?" If art is about communication,
then why would bands intentionally make it unclear?
The reasons that these bands give are often ridiculous. Speaking for the band Listener,
Chris Nelson says that "Yes, I am a Christian and yes, Dan is a Christian, but I think it
is a very American thing to take your faith and place it as a trend or topic or a culture,
rather than being a very sacred thing that is very personal. For me, it's uncomfortable
for somebody I've never met before come and ask me questions about my faith without having
some kind of relationship with them or even just talking to them first. It's never been
a goal of the band."
We want to commend Chris for his emphasis on personal relationship evangelism. In fact,
nothing he says is untrue. There are just other relevant facts that he's left off of
the table to reach a false conclusion. His reasoning reduces to the absudity of all proclamation
of the Gospel being just a trend or a brand. The irony is that the Gospel has been proclaimed
for the entire history of the church and has led to many becoming Christians.
Underoath has broken into the mainstream with the melodic metalcore sound. In fact, Christians
were at the very heart of this and the emo movements. Underoath vocalist Spencer Chamberlain
has said of Christianity, "backbone of our lives, especially in the way that we handle
certain things, but it's not so much the backbone of our lyrics. It's not like every song is
a lesson from the Bible or something. It's just normal life struggles." Essentially,
Underoath wants to sing about something other than God. But lets think abou that. The Christian
God is the source of all that exists. He gives pupose to existence itself. He tells us how
to make day to day choices. And He defines where everything is ultimately going. So the
question for Underoath is this. What else is there to sing about?
By far the most interesting reason for Christian bands "going Secular" is the idea that they
will reach more people for Jesus by doing it. The claim is that by making the music
"for everyone" it will reach more people. Then, as people come to respect and enjoy
the band, they buy the CD or read interviews. In this stuff, the details are revealed and
people get confronted with the message of Jesus after building a type of relationship
with the band. It's easy to see the possibility that this technique can be effective. It works
out like this. Level one
Hit songs are not clearly for Christ but also not against Christ.
Level two The rest of the album reveals more details
about Christ. Level 3
Interviews with the band bring very clear affirmations of Christ.
There is a problem with this method. To see it, simply replace the Christians with pop
artist Kesha. Then replace their message with hers.
Level one Hit songs are not clearly for Devil Worship
but also not against Devil worship. Level two
The rest of the album reveails more details about Satan
Level 3 Interviews with her bring a very clear affirmation
of Occultism and Devil Worship.
Kesha'*** singles reveal a "party girl" who wants to get a little wild. In one of
her other songs she claims to have sold her soul to the literal devil. In interviews she
reveals that she regularly has sex with spirits and claims to drink human blood from human
hearts for power. You have to ask yourself, this when she uses this technique, does it
suddenly feel deceptive? It may be effective, but so is promising people lots of money for
becoming Christians. Christian bands that keep their faith unclear on the outside aren't
telling lies, but they are appearing to be noting different or unique. By far the true
master of this system is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The Mormons believe
that God was once a man and achieved his God status like his parents before him and that
we must do the same. But ask a Mormon what his religion is about and he tells you, "We
just want to be more like the Savior Jesus Christ."
Now exactly when a Christian band has been fake is certainly determined on a case by
case basis. Sometimes points are hard to make. But if you are singing a song that is about
Jesus, and you want the song to be for the public, then why not try to make it clear
what you are singing about? If you believe Jesus died to pay the punishment for your
evil, then you'll probably sing songs about it. Why is it any more complicated than that?
Also, remember that the failures of you favorite band don't mean that you can't enjoy their
music anymore. In the end, musicians are just people, and we all make mistakes.
I hope you found this video informative and enjoyable. New videos every Monday and Friday.
Thank you for your time.