The Unchristian Idea of the Christian Music Industry
Part 1 of 2
I'm not against Christian music. In fact when I listen to music on the radio I probably listen to a Christian station a third to half the time. But have you ever wondered what makes Christian music Christian in the first place? Based on a completely unscientific survey of my own listening habits since thinking about this question, I would say that Christian music, as defined by today's practice, focuses on (1) worshipping God, (2) considers human struggles from the perspective of divine involvement, or (3) expresses personal faith and the struggles related to that.
When I think back on various music ministries (from bands to radio), their purpose varies from evangelism, to strengthening the lives of Christians, to promoting mission work. Again, this is highly subjective, but as I have thought back on my various run-ins with Christian music, I cannot think of one band or radio station that did not think in purely functional terms. The music served the purpose of "ministry" however that was defined. (The one exception to this might have been Larry Norman's "Solid Rock Records." But my connection to Norman was long enough ago that I'm not sure.)
Above I have proposed two possible criteria for Christian music as it is played today. The first has to do with content (worship, divine involvement with life, struggles of faith) and the second has to do with function (Christian music should be a function of ministry).
But is that a very Christian approach to something as fundamental to our lives as music?
I'm not sure it is, so I would like to begin again, but this time from a different starting place that has little to do directly with music.
Christianity, in its fullness is not only about my relationship to God, but also my relationship to creation. The problem that Jesus Christ came to solve is not only that I am not in fellowship with God, but also that the inter-relationships of all creation are out of whack. When the relationship to God is severed, the relationship to everything else is at least strained, but more often is perverted into something else.
Christianity therefore speaks not only to issues of spiritual hunger, but also to social justice, human duty (and let me pause here to point out that these three--spiritual hunger, social justice, and human duty--are the three purposes of music mentioned near the beginning of this essay) . . . But I digress, let me begin this thought again:
Christianity therefore speaks not only to issues of spiritual hunger, but also to social justice, human duty, beauty, human emotion--from terror to sadness to exhilaration. Being Christian, therefore, is not just giving your heart to Jesus, it is living your life, your whole life, every aspect of your life, from a certain perspective, in a way that is transformed by a renewed connection to the Creator God.
If Christianity is about all of that, then I would propose that sometimes the most Christian thing we can do is to be rather unchristian, because being unchristian (at least in terms of what we typically think that means) takes us into these other realms that authentic Christianity touches.
Take Psalm 88 as an example. I won't quote the whole thing, but rather paraphrase it.
The first two verses are traditional prayer language; they could come from any psalm:
God of my salvation,
When, at night, I cry out in your presence,
Let my prayer come before you,
Incline your ear to my cry.
From there it "degenerates" (?) into a rant against God. The psalmist says that his life is full of trouble and he will soon die because God has forsaken him and remembers him no more. He says God caused his companions to shun him. He says God doesn't listen. Instead the only thing he has received from God is divine wrath which has swept over him and destroys him. It ends by saying "You have caused friend and neighbor to sun me, my companions are in darkness."
This is bleak. There is no resolution to the psalmist's troubles. Furthermore, the psalm is factually wrong. Is it true that God no longer cares and is simply spiting this guy? No. This psalm is instead a stark expression of some very bleak feelings and it includes no resolution.
This psalm has to do with pain and misery. I suspect that one of the reasons it is included in the book of Psalms is to remind us that we sometimes jump too quickly to resolution. Some problems defy resolution. Some problems demand that we simply wallow in the problem itself, allowing God to enter into that problem rather than us crawling out and going to God.
Copyright © 2004 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
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