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Re: Christian music
This is a great topic, thanks for bringing it up. This is something that
I had a similiar experience with. I went to a "Christian" high school
(in quotes because this place was less Christian and more a haven for
whatever suburban, right-wing, sheltered,
you-only-need-to-look-Christian-on-the-outside crap was in style that
week amongst the administration), and there was definite pressure to
only listen to "Christian" music (this time the quotes refer to the fact
that when we were talking about Christian music back then, we were only
referring to music which was signed to a "Christian" label, or sometimes
just music that met a certian JPM threshold. JPM = Jesuses Per Minute).
However, when I came to Calvin College, our student activities director
(Ken Heffner), was very insistent that not only is it "OK" to listen to
"secular" music, but in fact we *should* listen to secular music. His
reasons for this are many, but I'll summarize a couple, if I can:
- Just as sin affects all of humanity (including Christians), so does
redemption and grace. Therefore, we cannot retreat to "Christian" music
to find respite from the "sinful" secular world. Also, we cut ourselves
off from many opportunities to experience grace and redemption and
plain-old human emotion when we do this. In his (and my) opinion, this
is very unlikely to be the will of God.
- The Christian music industry has set certain guidelines (JPM
threshold, as an example), and they do not readily permit music which
falls outside these guidelines. Case in point: Sixpence None the Richer.
This Beautiful Mess was bashed by the Christian music press because it
was "too dark" or not "full of joy." I'm sorry, but sometimes people are
"dark" and not "full of joy." My sister was at the time this album came
out, and she identified with it on a very deep level while all the
"happy happy joy joy" Christian music out there just made her feel even
more depressed. The fact that this album was dark was a *good* thing, in
my opinion. In a sinful world, it's not always going to be roses and
marshmallow bunnies! Jesus said he would give us life, more abundant.
Not happiness, more abundant, but *life*. Last time I checked, "life"
was a lot of ups and downs. That implies we get an abundance of ups and
an abundance of downs. The Christian music industry, as a whole, seems
to want to ignore this and pretend we only get the ups. It's not their
fault really, it's a symptom of a deeper problem in the church today,
but I won't go into that. Bottom line, it is much easier to address the
entire human experience in the world of secular music. And when I say
"secular music," I don't mean the artists cannot be Christians, many of
them are. They just are not on a "Christian" label.
Regarding your comment about Christian music competing with the secular
music industry: I think you're right on target there. There are people
within the Christian music industry who see their goal as setting up a
sort of Christian music ghetto. I'm not even twisting their words!
That's what the article I was reading said! The author said that might
be the "best we could hope for." There is a publication (I forget the
name of it), that lists Christian artists and the secular artists they
sound like. It is intended to be a tool for people to get away from
secular music by finding their "Christian equivalent." It talks nothing
about the secular artist, it just assumes "Secular baaaaaad, Christian
gooooood." sigh...
Anyway, that's enough out of me on this topic. I'll be interested to see
what others have to say about this.
Sarah Herr wrote:
<snip>
> Ta-da: my first real discussion thread! (thank you, thank you *bow*)
>
> How much of what you guys listen to is "Christian" music and how much
> is "secular"?
</snip>
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