I’ll admit that I typically don’t care for Cameron Crowe’s movies. I often find the characters shallow and contrived and I think Tom Cruise is a well below-average actor. However, one of the things that I’ve come to appreciate about Crowe is something that he and Wes Anderson share: they understand the power of music.

My wife and I recently watched Crowe’s Elizabethtown. Having spent several years in Louisville, it was neat to see some of it in a film. But what was interesting was Crowe’s use of music to convey much of the weight in powerful scenes to great effect.

After the movie, it wasn’t the story that stuck with me, but the way so much of the story integrated music. At one point, Orlando Bloom’s character is sent on a road trip with an accompanying soundtrack. Hearing U2’s “(Pride) In The Name of Love” while seeing the balcony where Martin Luther King was shot was indeed powerful. It was the music that made so many of the scenes work as well as they did.

All of this sent me to thinking once more about the role of music in the lives of Christians. Music is a powerful medium and many people connect with it in ways they don’t with other art forms. It is one of the few art forms that becomes wholly integrated into people’s lives. We might drive to an art museum, but chances are, we listen to music while we do, there is often music playing while we experience other art forms, we get back into our car (where music is playing) and go to a restaurant where music is playing, and on and on. For many, music becomes a mental timeline of sorts. “Oh, I was listening to so and so at that point in life,” or “I distinctly remember what song was playing when that happened” and the ubiquitous “that’s our song”. Many of our lives truly do have a soundtrack.

I’m coming to the point that I no longer think all music made by Christians must be “explicitly Christian” (read here and here). But does that mean that a believer may listen to “secular” music? That’s a difficult question because I’m beginning to think that the question itself is flawed. Christians must question the “sacred/secular” distinction as if we have bubbles in which everything is acceptable. Such is not the case and much of what is sold in “Christian” bookstores is far more detrimental to the soul than what we might buy elsewhere. Rather than asking if its “sacred” or “secular,” we must be actively learning to filter everything through the Gospel, asking whether or not it is glorifying to God.

If music made by Christians is not necessarily “explicit” and seeks to address every area of life, then is it a jump to incorporate music made by non-Christians? I’m not so sure. We cannot allow profanity, lyriacally gratuitous sex or violence. Blasphemy is obviously out of the question, but is anything written by a non-Christian also automatically “out of bounds”?

The question really becomes this: can non-Christians lead us to glorify God in their art? I’m beginning to think that they can, even if they don’t realize it. For example, non-Christians are often endowed with tremendous artistic gifts. The demonstration of those gifts can be praise even if they don’t realize it. What’s more, music connects with us at the basic level of humanity. It explores our emotions and experiences and brings depth to them; it like fiction helps us to better understand the human condition (outside of Christ).

All of this ought to drive the believer to the reminder that while all of these things might be true, and they might be beautiful, they’re not complete. Good music, like good art, will always drive the believer to God. “Christian” art will do so explicitly while “non-Christian” (I use these terms loosely) will do so in a more “roundabout” way.

If listening to the heartache of a singer lament the emptiness of life outside of Christ does not cause us to praise Him, then an “explicitly Christian song” isn’t going to do much more. Engaging non-Christian music, like fiction, reminds just how big the Gospel really is; there is no area of life outside of its scope.

Rather than lower our standards to clear “Christian/non-Christian” or “sacred/secular” boundaries, we ought to strive for discernment in the application of 1 Corinthians 10:31: whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. If you can listen to a “secular” song and have your thoughts moved to Christ, then by all means do so. If you can’t, then don’t. The question is the result, not the source of the music.

This is one aspect Derek Webb gets right on his Mockingbird album when he sings “don’t teach me about truth and beauty, just label my music”. We must move beyond the faith of the artist to our own always asking the question of whether we are encouraged or discouraged in glorifying God in all that we do.