Christian Music
Don’t you LOVE music? I certainly do 
Joy, sorrow, hope, and so many other special messages can be expressed in one single song. Music also happens to be a very controversial topic in today’s churches. Let’s start out with this verse from Ephesians:
“Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” – Ephesians 5:19
I think that all Christians can agree on a “common ground” that we should sing songs of praise to our Lord (Personally, that was my favorite part of Sunday at my old church). The big disagreement is regarding whether contemporary music (Christian Rock, Rap, Metal etc) is acceptable.
Some believe that only hymns are an acceptable form of worship music because they are ‘perfect’, while rock and roll is an ‘abomination’ and anyone who listens to it must be evil. The only difference between a Hymn and a Christian Rock song is the beat. The words of both songs praise the Lord; both artists are Christians, and both wrote the song to honor God. So, why is the rock song being placed in the ‘evil’ category, while the Hymn is being sung every Sunday?
Although many will not admit it, this isn’t a religious issue. This is a personal issue. The Christian’s that believe Christian Rock is evil are generalizing that Rock and Roll are the source behind the sinfulness of this generation. Sex, Drugs, Immorality… “That must all be caused by the Christian Rock music teenagers listen to.” Sorry, but I don’t think so. Those problems are caused by many things, but Christian Rock music PRAISING God is not one of them.
One of the most common arguments against Rock and Rap music is the beat. Take this into consideration… In the song Handel’s Messiah, Violins are being played 16 times per second. The best rapper in the world has yet to go over 11 words per second. By this logic Violins should be banned from churches too.
Others believe that violence is the reason Rock shouldn’t be played in Church. They reason that it will encourage children to become ‘killers’ and commit sinful deeds. I defy anyone to find ONE Christian Rock song that promotes violence and murder. The people making this argument are generalizing that because some Rock and Roll has violence in it, that Christian Rock must have it too. This simply isn’t true, and is very poor logic on their part.
The “It’s not the hymns” argument that you will undoubtedly encounter when debating this subject simply proves my point in paragraph 5. This is a personal issue, not a religious one. Do you think God is really going to reject a rock singer’s worship and praise simply because they have a more ‘lively’ beat than a Hymn? Or because a few people in the congregation are biased towards rock-style music? I don’t think so.
I believe that God looks for what is in our heart when we worship; not what chords we play or how fast we play them.
September 25th, 2006 at 11:52 am
The arguments I’ve heard are more along the lines of “Christians musicians shouldn’t be emulating worldly artists. The other is a rather odd one from a guy named Gothard that the heavy bass beat is demonic and does bad things to your mind.
I have a bit of sympathy for the first, I’ve been surprised to hear of some songs or artists that are considered Christian because one of the band members is Christian or because the song has a couple Christian-like lines. If real Christian artists are so blandly Christian that secular artists can be confusedly mixed in, then there’s a problem. But that isn’t really a problem for truly Christian music or praise music, it’s slander by association.
Gothard is off in a world of his own, but his views on rock music echos a lot of vague thoughts out there – rock and roll is inherently evil. Why? You’ll get a few answers, but they’re never anything credible or truely a part of the music. Once again it’s bashing a style by association.