Music & Christianity
Ok, after a week and some change of flu and blog absence, it's time to post. And, so as not to disappoint my faithful readers, today's post will hopefully be thought provoking. It's time to tackle the ancient debate about the relationship between music and Christianity. It's long and the thoughts are occasionally scattered, but I'm passionate about it...
I would be remiss if I did not first say, that
this interview with
Lee Bozeman really got my mind gurgling again. Lee is a friend and fellow O.C. who, in my opinion, is a brilliant singer/songwriter. He is most well known as the front man for "Luxury", a band originally from Toccoa, Georgia. However, he and his family have moved, and he has gone solo, with a new album just having been released. I personally love his use of "sampling" or mixing other tracks of music and spoken word in his songs. For those who know them, Lee even used a recording of scripture reading from New Skete Monastery in his song "The Transfiguration." I highly recommend that you read the entire interview. It is short, and Lee's perspective on the whole CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) thing is very good in my opinion.
To begin, I will quote Lee:
"Music and Christianity. Has there ever been a more misunderstood and terribly unhealthy relationship than between these two? The evangelical mentality has so pervaded and manipulated the modern western Christian that he is unable to see that Christianity is not a product to be bought and sold, nor is it a message to be propagandized, but rather, it is a completely counter-culture existential lifestyle. Contemporary Christian Music is nothing more than a musical version of McDonald's. They offer little in the way of true sustenance and appeal to our lowest common desire: our desire to be entertained. A true artist seeks to find peace with himself, and we, as onlookers, see something that is real and we cling to and believe in it. The truest Christian artist is the most human artist."
Being a singer/songwriter and artist myself, I have always found this debate one that is close to my heart. Growing up in the late 80's and early 90's in an Evangelical Orthodox church, and being formed primarily by others who very evangelical, I was very much into (and encouraged to be) what has become known as CCM. Bands like Petra, D.C. Talk, Newsboys, Geoff Moore and the Distance, and artists like Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, and Rich Mullins formed the steady diet of my listening appetite. In response to secular music, most of us young and budding Christians decided to "shun" secular or non-Christian music. We had one big "Devil music burning party" and got rid of our "non-Christian" vinyl, tapes, and C.D.'s. Of course, we were encouraged to do so by parents and youth leaders. Looking back, the ironic thing about it all is that we really believed we were being radical and counter-cultural. Mwahahahahaha! However, as many of you know, all we were really doing was letting go of acceptance from one culture to receive approval from another similar culture, thus pretty much canceling out any true radical behavior.
I know there are many out there who would say, "Yeah, but you made your first radical stand for Jesus that day, and threw out the trash that you listened to." Hmmm... Well, sure, we were able to face the death of music that we enjoyed, and I think there was some virtue in being able to let go of Earthly possessions... But, not all the music was trash, and the new stuff that we listened to was mostly just Christian propaganda, not necessarily true art. I was fortunate enough to escape the grasp of Carmen (couldn't stand the man or his music) but I was now a part of this Christian clique (for that's certainly what it was) and listened strictly to music donned "Christian." I'm not saying that I wish I'd done things differently, and maybe that was an important thing for me to do then, but in retrospect it seems a wee bit foolish. I think it would behoove us to actually listen to what's popular that our kids are listening to, and talk with them about it rather than blindly censor and draw very black and white categories of "Christian" and "Secular." Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent...back to the original reason for the post...
Lee's comment, "Contemporary Christian Music is nothing more than a musical version of McDonald's. They offer little in the way of true sustenance and appeal to our lowest common desire: our desire to be entertained." strikes something deep in me; a sense of moral outcry against something that is proclaimed to be Christian, and in many cases is inherently not. I've been to some Christian concerts where the artist was certainly pumped for Jesus on stage, and really doing his/her best to convert all the teenagers for Christ, but seemed much less enthused off-stage. I'm not judging the man, only the machine, and the false assumption that just because something is labeled Christian doesn't mean that it is life giving, healthy, or art. It seems that Lee's driving point here is that we seek to be entertained. Fine. I love being entertained! The problem comes when I confuse that entertainment with true spirituality and art. I think that this is why I have a certain sense of distaste for the whole Christian non-counter-counterculture; you know, all the icthus medallions, t-shirts using a secular logo and imposing a Christian statement or moral to it, parodies of secular songs replaced with more "wholesome" lyrics...etc. Which brings up the first part of Lee's comment:
"The evangelical mentality has so pervaded and manipulated the modern western Christian that he is unable to see that Christianity is not a product to be bought and sold, nor is it a message to be propagandized, but rather, it is a completely counter-culture existential lifestyle."
All you have to do is recall the massive marketing of the infamous Prayer of Jabez to really grasp what Lee's talking about, and of which I completely concur. Or perhaps the whole WWJD extravaganza and all that branched off of it? As with all of these, CCM has become a wildly successful thing. However, I have a hard time believing that the originators of the whole CCM thing would really approve of what's going on now. It seemed that when it started in the 70's, there was some purity and innocence in wanting to create music for Jesus; music to uplift the spirit and to remind us of Whose we are. But now, the CCM machine is often in an attempt to one up the secular market, or perhaps to show that, "Hey, Christians can be cool too!" So many of these flaming young balls of pubescence can't derive from this music that Christianity is about living a totally radical lifestyle; and no, not radical in the sense of cool, but radical in the sense of being really RADICAL. As Rich Mullins put it,
"We love the sensation of Christianity and the sensation of spirituality- we like the illusion of it, but we don't want the reality of it. The reality of it would be way too glorious and too boring for any of us to handle."
All in all, my point is that we really need to encourage each other and other Christians to listen to music not because it's labeled "Christian" and therefore supposedly safe, but because it's good, and it touches something deep in us. I'm not saying that CCM can't do that, only that Lee is right in saying that it often offers little in the way of true sustenance. Sure, there's a pearl here and there, but all in all, when all the lyrics are propaganda, it's not art, it's...well...propaganda. It reduces Christianity to a cheer or a pumped up youth rally, and not a call to total abandonment to God. One last time, to quote Lee:
"Kids today lack convictions and the gumption to act upon them. God doesn't need cheerleaders. He wants sober-minded, self-controlled people who love unconditionally. He wants real people, not duplicates. He wants people who will embrace suffering and find peace with themselves."
Exactly. This is the message of Orthodox Christianity. This is the message that I am afraid is being lost to a culture of Christian wusses. (Yes, I'm included in that category...) Scripture verses like, "Take up your cross, and follow me"; are now being translated to mean, "Take up your crosses, your CCM CDs, your in-your-face t-shirts, your Extreme Bibles, your Prayer of Jabez books, journals, board-games, study aides, and your WWJD bracelets, hats, bumper-stickers, shorts, and underwear, and follow me." There is less and less a call to self-sacrifice, a call to leave it all behind, a call of abandonment to God. And all too often the voice that does still cry out this message is frowned upon by the very community that should be embracing it!
To end, here's a the rest of the snip-it from Rich:
"...And one of the distinct things about the American culture is that we're product oriented. Most people I know would rather watch a movie about riding a horse than go ride a horse. Most people I know would rather (with all of this "Virtuous Reality" or whatever that is) seek out the sensation of something, than seek out the thing itself. That's why pornography is very popular in our culture, because you get all of the, most of the, thrill of sex without actually having to touch anybody. And it's absolutely safe. That's why soap operas are so popular. They're the female equivalent of pornography. They get all the feelings, they get to be stirred up and disturbed and emotionally traumatized and never have to be around a man to do it. And the church has adopted that very thing. We love the sensation of Christianity and the sensation of spirituality- we like the illusion of it, but we don't want the reality of it. The reality of it would be way too glorious and too boring for any of us to handle. And that's why we have, as Americans, this wonderful thing that we can buy, this illusion. As long as you recognize that it's an illusion it's perfectly fine, it's perfectly safe. It's when we begin to believe that this is the reality of the thing that we run into trouble. And so we go (oh yeah, I get this all the time) "I'm so glad you came because I'm in such a spiritual low. It's been three months since our last Christian concert and I'm just starving spiritually." And I go, "Well babe, you're starving worse now than ever, because you just got a lot of candy. That's all can give you. If you really want spiritual sustenance, go to church. Lock yourself into something that is more eternal than your little MTV generation head can handle."
It's out there; look for it. Artists like
Lee,
Bill Mallonee & Vigilantes of Love,
Will Kimbrough, Joey Weir, Frontmanout,
Luke Seraphim (shameless plug), Adrian Kolbo, Sean Blomberg (more shameless plugs)
Susan Enan, Sarah Harmer, Luxury,
Viva Voce, The Jayhawks, Coldplay, and
Sixpence None the Richer actually exist (some of which have acquired a very large following...certainly for reasons other than "hype") and are artists in the truest sense of the word. And yes, for those who still are unsure of what I'm driving at here, let's cease and desist on the classification of music as Christian. Words like "hell, damn, shit, fuck, and so on..." are not an abomination to God and when used in lyrics do not make a song "un-Christian." Used well and in proper context, they are tools to express deep emotion and feeling, things created by God Himself. Please, don't censor something just because it's not labeled Christian, else you may miss out on the beauty, the joy, the pain, and the deep sense of God's love and our collective part of the The Story in the poetry and composition of these and other artists. Christianity will bleed through the art of any musician who is a Christian themselves, whether they write hymns or Rock and Americana. The same is true of artists who aren't necessarily Christian, but are seeking the Truth in their songs. As Lee said, "The truest Christian artist is the most human artist." Art is passion, art is emotion, and at it's best, it is a window into the soul of the artists themselves, and perhaps in that image, that vulnerability, that song, that creation, we will see a part of ourselves in the reflection and remember our Creator and the Divine spark within us all.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!