WHERE DOES IT GO FROM HERE?
Thirty years ago I can remember when most fundamentalist Christians thought rock and roll was the Devil’s own music. If you wanted to buy Christian music, it was usually stuff like Guy and Ralna , or the Gaithers. A few brave singers and musicians defied the dogma and started making some weak-sounding but heartfelt Christian folk-music styled albums.
What happened? Today “Contemporary Christian Music” is a huge money-maker. The production values have gone way up, and the music itself is often tasteful. An example of such a musical endeavor is the Hillsongs group. Artists such as Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and others have helped close the quality gap between secular and Christian pop/rock to the point where someone driving along searching for music on the radio might find something catchy, and at first listen it would sound just like some of his or her favorite pop or rock artists. It would only be upon closer listen that we would discover the song’s lyrics, which would be the profession of love for Jesus. A number of Christian musicians, including th epopular Stryper, are playing heavy metal! You've come a long way, Baby!
Many fundamentalist Christian churches have their own bands, and the music is often electric. Church services I have seen tend toward lots of participants standing up with their hands in the air, joyfully singing along with lyrics that are posted on the front wall of the sanctuary via an overhead projector. Before a more traditional “church service” begins, if it even does, there can be an hour or more of such jubilation. This brings in lots of young people. At the services I attended, the congregations tended to be in the birth-to-50 age range... very few elderly folks.
I find it both amusing and frightening that fundamentalist Christianity has co-opted rock and roll, something it considered satanic a short time ago. What other things could such a co-optive approach suggest? If churches consider public schools satanic, will they eventually integrate themselves into our system of education? Sure! How about government, which seems to be a Big Satan to many believers nowadays? I think we are already seeing a gradual blurring of the church/state lines.
But education and government are broad topics. What if we get more specific? How about other things, like fashion? We’ve all seen what has happened with fashion in the fundamentalist Muslim world. What could happen with food? Medicine? Advertising?
Hollywood and television look like good candidates for a fundamentalist takeover. I rarely watch prime-time network TV programming, but it seems like there have been a few Christianity-influenced shows recently, like Joan of Arcadia and a couple about angels. These shows are striking a chord with the “it’s about time” crowd which likes to blame TV and movies for many of our societal ills. Given the immense popularity of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ”, I’m looking for Hollywood to produce more films based on events depicted in the Bible, which after all contains a lot of violence and that could lend itself to good action sequences. There are parts of the Bible that would lend themselves to romance too. Comedy? I doubt it... But if the fundamentalists can get it to where about a fourth of our TV shows and movies have a highly-visible Christian influence, they will be having a good time.
What about the rest of us? Will WE be having a good time?
Here are a few links to interesting articles about Christianity and Rock music:
http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF0405/Kaye/Kaye.html
http://www.bibletruths.org/living/RockMusic.html
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/7895/gosrock.htm
What happened? Today “Contemporary Christian Music” is a huge money-maker. The production values have gone way up, and the music itself is often tasteful. An example of such a musical endeavor is the Hillsongs group. Artists such as Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and others have helped close the quality gap between secular and Christian pop/rock to the point where someone driving along searching for music on the radio might find something catchy, and at first listen it would sound just like some of his or her favorite pop or rock artists. It would only be upon closer listen that we would discover the song’s lyrics, which would be the profession of love for Jesus. A number of Christian musicians, including th epopular Stryper, are playing heavy metal! You've come a long way, Baby!
Many fundamentalist Christian churches have their own bands, and the music is often electric. Church services I have seen tend toward lots of participants standing up with their hands in the air, joyfully singing along with lyrics that are posted on the front wall of the sanctuary via an overhead projector. Before a more traditional “church service” begins, if it even does, there can be an hour or more of such jubilation. This brings in lots of young people. At the services I attended, the congregations tended to be in the birth-to-50 age range... very few elderly folks.
I find it both amusing and frightening that fundamentalist Christianity has co-opted rock and roll, something it considered satanic a short time ago. What other things could such a co-optive approach suggest? If churches consider public schools satanic, will they eventually integrate themselves into our system of education? Sure! How about government, which seems to be a Big Satan to many believers nowadays? I think we are already seeing a gradual blurring of the church/state lines.
But education and government are broad topics. What if we get more specific? How about other things, like fashion? We’ve all seen what has happened with fashion in the fundamentalist Muslim world. What could happen with food? Medicine? Advertising?
Hollywood and television look like good candidates for a fundamentalist takeover. I rarely watch prime-time network TV programming, but it seems like there have been a few Christianity-influenced shows recently, like Joan of Arcadia and a couple about angels. These shows are striking a chord with the “it’s about time” crowd which likes to blame TV and movies for many of our societal ills. Given the immense popularity of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ”, I’m looking for Hollywood to produce more films based on events depicted in the Bible, which after all contains a lot of violence and that could lend itself to good action sequences. There are parts of the Bible that would lend themselves to romance too. Comedy? I doubt it... But if the fundamentalists can get it to where about a fourth of our TV shows and movies have a highly-visible Christian influence, they will be having a good time.
What about the rest of us? Will WE be having a good time?
Here are a few links to interesting articles about Christianity and Rock music:
http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF0405/Kaye/Kaye.html
http://www.bibletruths.org/living/RockMusic.html
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/7895/gosrock.htm
3 Comments:
Good article. Michael Medved was talking about the relationship between Hollywood and Christianity the other day. He feels like there is a real prejudice in the movie business toward organized religion.
I think he's somewhat on the mark. However, in my opinion, it's not an organized movement or anything but just one of mankind's classic conflicts: interesting art and conservative ideas rarely mix well.
It will be really interesting to see if there's a rush to make religious-oriented films since the Passion was so successful. I have a feeling a lot of ideas will get tossed around in meetings but the studio heads will still be slow to put up really big money.
Don't forget the Left Behind series...they've already invaded the world of crappy popular fiction, it's scary. I'm glad you stopped by Snave, it's nice to find like-minded bloggering. When conservatives categorize you as "bad" you know you're doing something extremely right. Take care!
Good question Ric! I'm not sure one can. I really don't care for abortion at all unless it's performed in a situation that threatens the life of a mother giving birth, or maybe if the pregnancy is the result of incest or rape. I certainly agree with you that having kids of one's own can make a difference re. feelings about that issue. I have a couple of great high schoolers! I don't care for the death penalty, either.
I think it could be hard to claim intellectual consistency if one favored abortion in general but didn't care for the death penalty, but... "that's just my opinion! I could be wrong!" It seems to me that if someone regards all human life as sacred, they might be against the death penalty and also be pro-life re. abortion. And possibly anti-war as well.
I mentioned somewhere way back in this blog's archives that one of my major concerns about the abortion issue is that while many pro-lifers are very vocal about saving the fetuses (fetii?) they don't seem to care as much about what happens once the baby is born, just so long as it is born. If our government makes abortion illegal in the USA, I hope they will be willing to compensate by stepping up to the plate to help the babies that are born into bad situations.
I don't care for the death penalty, either. The angle about possibly executing someone who may be innocent is one I always seem to forget to consider! In your line of work, you must run into a lot of situations that are extremely difficult to sort out. My 10th grade daughter is interested in law, and she has joined the local high school's "mock trial" club. I know little about law, but I always tell her that not all lawyers are like the stereotypes that get sent around. I know one lawyer in our little town who is a jerk, but I know five others that are very honest, caring individuals.
I also have told her my best guess is that a lawyer earns his or her money due to long hours, difficult choices/decisions, and sometimes it can take a high emotional toll... possibly from having to keep one's emotions in check? I know I wouldn't be able to make a very good lawyer because I get way too emotional at times! Anyway, I must be an oddball, because I generally like lawyers!
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