I am speaking today at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at their Christian Faith and the Arts Conference. My topic is “Christians, Music and Christians Who Make Music.” Many of the thoughts have appeared in sorted blog entries here before and this presentation (I hope) pulls some of those thoughts together a bit. I’ve had several requests for the manuscript, so I just thought I’d post it here for anyone interested (yes, it’s a bit long for a blog, but that’s not what it was intended for, sorry!). Enjoy and please reply, I’m very interested in feedback:

There’s a quote attributed to Thelonious Monk, Elvis Costello, or Frank Zappa among others. Regardless of who said it, it sums up what we face today: Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Here we are to discuss Christians, Music, and Christians Who Play Music.

Harold Best writes in Music Through the Eyes of Faith of growing up with parents who loved music, particularly a dad witha love for classical music. He says that his: “father did not find popular music acceptable.”

He continues, relating how, in spite of his father’s frowns, he discovered other kinds of music:

“I got wind of popular music, on the radio and from my friends: semiclassical, popular ballads, the emerging style of boogie-woogie, and swing. I also heard what we now call ethnic music. I knew that I needed all of these kinds of music as much as I needed the classical music that my father had personally singled out. To me, it was all one enchanting world, each part merging with the rest.”

But he soon experienced a shock to his newly developing musical sensibilities:

“Enchanting, that is, until I began to hear that all of this popular stuff wasn’t spiritual – that it was the music of the world, therefore of worldliness. Thus my one world of music became divided, not aesthetically, but spiritually, into “good” music and “bad’ music.”

Best’s account reminds us that. 1) For many, music is an integral part of life. Many, including myself, find that music accompanies us most of our days in most of our ways, there isn’t much of my life that’s not to the tune of music and many of my memory’s timelines are actually music-based. 2) There is terrible misunderstanding among many Christians regarding the ideas of “sacred,” “secular,” and “good or bad,” to the point where many argue that if Jesus is not explicitly mentioned, then it’s not “Christian” music, and therefore, it isn’t any good.

But it hasn’t always been this way. There was once a time when Christians were at the forefront of the arts, and music was no exception. Christians were once the trendsetters, the true creators in the arts, being fueled by their faith and inspired by their Lord. However, recently, most Christian music has lost credibility among music fans interested in creativity. To a large degree, the rest of the world looks at Christian music as sub-par mimicry and I’m not sure that, for the most part, their assessment is wrong.

Mimicry rather than creativity is par for the course. How many of us have ever looked at one of those “If you like this band, try this Christian version…” For many, the form is willingly sacrificed for the function, that is to say, they’re not concerned with actually being creative, they’re not interested in pushing boundaries, they just want to be sure they message is there and clearly understood. This is the banner under which much Christian music marches.

Francis Schaeffer in his booklet Art & The Bible notes that for some:

“art is only an embodiment of a message, a vehicle for the propagation of a particular message about the world or the artist or man or whatever.”

In other words, for many, the deciding factor in determining whether or not art or music may be understood to “Christian,” has become the message and nothing else. Not only the message, but is it explicitly stated? William Romanowski argues that by making faith the only issue, much Christian music has become nothing more than religious propaganda. It has ceased to be art and has become a billboard. Therefore, much of it has lost any claim to quality in the process.

For many, Christian music is not to be taken seriously. In an article entitled What Would Jesus Do: But More Importantly, What Were Jesus’ Fitness Secrets, GQ’s literary editor writes about Christian musicians, touching on the lack of quality often present, but also touching on the idea that much Christian music simply mimics the rest of the world. Kirn says:

“They’re not bad at all. And yet, in the same way one sensed that groups like ABBA were singing in a language they didn’t speak, one detects a certain falseness in these bands’ sound. They’re trying too hard, somehow. They sound a bit like foreigners – highly trained Asian prodigies whose governments have equipped them with guitars and trained them in some elite punk rock academy. These new Christian bands rock like Americans play soccer; skillfully but somehow not convincingly.”

For many artists, this actually becomes part of why they don’t wish to be identified with the moniker “Christian music.” While open and adamant about their faith, artists such as Sufjan Stevens or Mute Math and even U2 have intentionally distanced themselves from the Christian music scene for artistic reasons. In an interview with the Tucson Weekly, Paul Meany of Mute Math recounts how they actually broke from their record label because they were being pushed in the Christian market when they didn’t want to be. Meany explains:

“All of the sudden, we began to see ourselves getting pigeonholed into this particular world that we weren’t necessarily proud to be associated with, because we aren’t really fans of the music or fans of the cause of the music.”

Meany goes on to explain:

“We’ve always conditioned our show universally, and (we’re) just trying to speak to human beings; (we’re) not really conditioning it down to Christians, and that’s what the Christian music industry does. It’s for a certain sect of people. I don’t have anything against that-I’m one of them- but I don’t want to taper it just to that.”

There’s growing frustration within the artistic community at the way faith has become a marketing commodity rather than a point of artistic exploration. Non-Christians have seen it for years as Kirn reveals. Why is it that so few Christians see these same problems? I think that part of the problem is, as we’ve discussed, Christians have so focused on explicitly showing their faith that we’ve sacrificed quality. We’ve allowed the world to define the artistic elements; we look to see what they’re listening to, we try to replace the content and feed it back to them, but we don’t do it as well and then we don’t understand why Christian music isn’t more broadly accepted, but all the while, we limit what the artists are able to address if we’re still to consider it “Christian!” No wonder some Christians want nothing to do with it!

As for the content, broadly speaking, most “Christian” music falls into two major camps. Either “praise and worship”, or evangelistic (which poses the problem of a “Christian” Music market in which “Christians” are presenting the Gospel to other Christians) and you’ll be hard pressed to find much more in the mainstream Christian market. These messages must not be in question, they must be explicitly clear and if they’re not, it’s not uncommon to question the artist’s faith!

But why do you listen to music? Whatever the genre, whether it be classical, jazz or lyrical popular music. We listen to music because it connects with us at some level. We listen to music because it speaks to our condition, we can relate to it, it comforts us, it causes us to think, it challenges and soothes. For all these reasons and more, we listen to music.

In 1971, Rolling Stone editor Jann Werner summarized the editorial philosophy of his magazine:

“Rolling Stone was founded and continues to operate in the belief that rock n’ roll music is the energy center for all sorts of changes revolving rapidly around us: social, political, cultural, however you want to describe them. The fact is for many of us who’ve grown up since World War II, rock n’ roll provided the first revolutionary insight into who we are and where we are at in this country.”

Werner carries the radical idea that music communicates something about society, something that matters, something we connect to, and whether or not we realize it, we all agree, or we wouldn’t listen to music. However, by limiting the content, much “Christian” music lacks these very qualities for a large segment. There is nothing there for the world to connect to, thus removing the evangelistic component so strived for. Most “Christian” music is not about expressing a Christian worldview, it’s about reassuring already professing Christians about their faith, either recapping the Gospel or praising Him for it, both of which are appropriate, but both of which are not comprehensive.

For many, Christian music has no connection because, they’re not Christians, they don’t like being preached at and they’re not interested in praise and worship. We have performed a great disservice by allowing the development of such a “Christian” music market because we’re telling the world that the Gospel is limited in what it has to say to life and we’ve also subtly allowed the message to slip out that becoming a Christian robs you of creativity!

Instead of making content the only criteria in terms of asking whether or not it is “explicitly Christian,” we ought to be encouraging artist to put forth a body of work that demonstrates the true impact of the Gospel over all areas of life. In the words of William Romanowski:

“Christian artists should not just be singing that Jesus is a light unto our paths; they also need to create popular artworks that show how God’s Word is a light and direction for our journey in life.”

In other words, what we need more than explicit mentions of God is the demonstration of how He is Lord of our lives. We need expanded artistic palettes addressing real life; we need to encourage our artists to be real, to show when they hurt, to admit when life seems too big, because it’s exactly in those moments that we most connect with the rest of the world, but it’s also when we have the most opportunity to demonstrate the hope that has been implanted in us! It’s when we move into addressing real life that the opportunities for evangelism abound, not when they’re forced as an agenda.

We must be willing to show the world just how big the Gospel is, but this won’t happen until we drop the false notions that every sentence from an artist’s mouth must explicitly name God. If that’s the only criteria, then the book of Esther is questionable, isn’t it? If the Gospel is about all of life, then so should our music!

Returning to Schaeffer, he proposes four basic standards for judging works of art and I propose that these apply to music as well: 1) technical excellence, 2), validity, 3), intellectual content, the worldview which comes through and 4), the integration of content and vehicle. Adopting such criteria moves us beyond mere consideration of explicit content to incorporating the song itself as well as the integration of message and medium. It forces us to consider music as more than merely propaganda.

The medium matters and we cannot allow musical quality to be sacrificed on behalf of the message. We must show just how big our God is by displaying our worldview. This forces us to take a bigger picture view than an isolated song and such an approach would help to take some of the pressure off of the rigid classification systems we’ve come to adopt. We must be willing to re-examine what may be considered Christian and non-Christian music.

In all of this, we must remember that we are dealing with artists who claim the name of Christ as Savior, and therefore, must be expected to voice a worldview consistent with His Lordship. But many consumers have lost the art of discernment, or rather, it might be more appropriate to say that they have abdicated that role to Christian marketers. Because marketers have set up what we now call “Christian” bookstores, for many, the point of purchase determines the acceptability of content, not the actually content itself. Thus, if purchased at a so-called “Christian bookstore,” then its safe, but don’t go buy a CD from Best Buy, they’re not interested in content, they’re just out to make a buck.

The result has become a severe fracture among Christian artists and poor discernment from the masses. The artists lacking the explicit content are relegated to non-Christian outlets, and are therefore judged as inferior, if not even “worldly” by those shopping only at “Christian” stores. The questions of content and quality never come into play for some and this is just the way the marketers want it.

One artist who falls outside of the CCM market but with solidly Christian content would be Sufjan Stevens. Though open and even “explicit” with his faith, Stevens for many, is not considered to be a Christian artist at all. In a Reuters article discussing why Stevens is not considered a “Christian” artist, John Styll, President of the Christian Music Trade Association quips that Stevens “just doesn’t want to play the Christian music-market game, and that’s OK.”

In other words, Stevens has not sought distribution through the right channels, nor does he play the right venues or work with the right marketers. Apparently, good business means more to the CMTA than good theology. If Stevens has Christian content, which we’ll see he does, what is “Christian” music? Styll says that:

“albums must receive some national play on Christian radio, 25 percent of sales in the first week must be in Christian shops and lyrics must have some ‘Christian content.”

Styll goes on to say that lyrics must be in line with Scripture, but he acknowledges that these boundaries may be a “little loose.” That’s a problem because who defines what’s within the boundaries of Scripture? In most cases, no one as long as the business end is there.

Nashville independent artist affirms these thoughts, particularly relating to Sufjan Stevens. When asked his opinion why Stevens, openly Christian, was not considered a “Christian” artist, Casella says that Stevens

“is not considered one of the CCMers or GMTA’ers because his music doesn’t run in CCM industry circles. No business connections or touring connections. No label connections. No affiliation really. No Nashville bloodline/money.”

In other words, for the most part, the decision about what is and what is not to be sold in Christian bookstores, and therefore for many, considered “Christian” music is a business decision, not a question of content. We now have a situation in which an artist such as Sufjan Stevens is not available in “Christian” bookstores, while Phillips Craig and Dean continually top the Christian markets, while it has been demonstrated that all three deny the Trinity . Orthodoxy is certainly not the password to being sold in Christian bookstores. Marketing becomes the password to the Christian market, not content!

So we have told the world that the Gospel has little to say to everyday life, thus robbing ourselves of the very evangelism that so many chase after, we have allowed the lowering of discernment to a point of purchase decision, we have exiled openly professing Christians who either don’t use the right words, or choose not to play the marketing game or care about artistic integrity as much as content. As you can see, the current scenario is fraught with problems that the Christian community has brought upon itself.

While I realize that much of this raises more questions than it answers, it forces us with the realization that, to a large extent, we’ve been poor stewards, we’ve thought poorly about art, particularly about music, and we’ve needlessly alienated large segments of the population, both within our camp and outside!

We must encourage discussion, we must call for reform of the “Christian” marketing system, we must support artists who openly express their faith in other areas of life. We must broaden the lenses of our art that we

“may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19).”

Next I want to play some clips, look briefly at their lyrics and then have some time for discussion. I want to start with Sufjan Stevens and Mute Math, two artists that are not well-embraced by the Christian mainstream and I want to show that it’s for marketing reasons:

Oh God, Where are You Now…. By Sufjan Stevens (from Michigan)

The Transfiguration By Sufjan Stevens (from Seven Swans)

Peculiar People by Mute Math (from Reset EP)

I don’t want to leave you with the impression that the only people doing it well are outside of the Christian music industry. For example:

New Law by Derek Webb (from Mockingbird)