The Only Good Christian Music

The Only Good Christian Music - When I was in college, I was involved in an endless argument with a guy who lived down the hall from me.

I, of course, had been playing in rock and roll bands since I was a kid. Neighbor - let's call him "Chad" for simplicity's sake - was in a "Christian Rock Band", which was distinguished from all of the bands I'd been in in three ways:

• Being a Christian group, they only played at churches and for college and high school church groups
• Their bills were paid by our college, to help it keep its' nominally Christian label
• They didn't rock. Not at all.

The argument usually started with Chad - a clean-cut son of a couple of southwest North Dakota preachers who, unlike most Preachers Kids I knew at the time, neither binge-drank nor shot heroin nor slept with an endless series of college and high school girls - asking "so if you're a Christian, why don't you play in a Christian band?"

"Because 'Christian Rock' bores me stiff, and it preaches entirely to the choir. The best "Christian" music - in fact, if you really take Christ's admonition seriously, the only real Christian music - is real rock and roll, not labeled "Christian", but written and recorded and performed by people who are Christians. People like U2, Simple Minds, the Alarm..."

The Infinite Monkeys address the issue:

"Speaking of bad Christian music, the other day I was at the gym and Clay Aiken's (from American Idol) 'Invisible' comes on. I scream 'God, this is like bad Christian music!' My workout partner laughed and said, 'Isn't all Christian music bad?'

It's a crying shame. There's good Christian-- it's called Gospel. The Authentic Gospel. Not the 'we're gonna R&B-hip-hop it up Gospel'-- just the plain Gospel music y'know. Now that is good Christian music. This whole thing to make Christian music contemporary-- bah humbug. I say let the fat ladies with soul make a joyful noise unto the Lord. That's my opinion."

Close, but no cigar.

There are three kinds that work:

• Bach, Mozart, and the other baroque and pre-classical composers, whose output was done to the glory of God, and showed it. This was music done with the same attention to detail that the theologians of the day brought to their studies. Only more fun to contemplate, 300 odd years later.
• The "Authentic Gospel" the Monkeys discuss: Mahalia Jackson, Rev. James Cleveland, the whole crowd up though the young Aretha Franklin. Stunning stuff.
• Yep, those same rock and rollers that I was yakking about 20 years ago - U2, the Alarm, T-Bone Burnett, and quite a few more. At their best, they were very good indeed.

Specifically excluded? Just about anything you buy at a "Christian Music" store.

Posted by Mitch at December 15, 2003 05:42 AM