Why Christian Music Sucks

Don't mean to rant, but...

There is a little-known side to the myuzik-biz as pertains to religious music. I suspect it is due to the religious right's natural aversion to rock music amid the paranoia of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, but as Christian Rock (or more appropriately, Christian pop) become more and more popular, Christian artists still needed to segregate themselves from their secular counterparts to be accepted by the religious community. ...which is why there are Christian record companies and (peculiarly) why a Christian album will have a separate company that distributes it to the secular market.

Christianity is an unusual religion. `Course every religion is unique, really. But with Christianity in this enlightened age, the non-believers are no longer persecuted for heresy. Instead, they are relentlessly pursued by the devout out of fear of their damnation. A true Believer is in a unique position because according to their faith, everyone they meet is in Very Grave Eternal Danger. Immense pressure, really, on the devout. Hence the fanatical urgency of Christian evangelism - the need is so desparate.

Your average Christian musical artist tends not to be encouraged by the audience - or more significantly, the market - to create good music to create good music. Their efforts all must stem back to dispersing a message. There is no greater cause than to rescue the lost. Anything short of that is (at its most noble) wasting valuable time or (at its most pagan) guilty of pride - which is Mortal Sin #1 by the old catechism.

So which is better for Spreading The Gospel? To mass produce watered-down artless music that nobody likes? Or to finely craft a body of music that leaves "finding Jesus" to the listener through artful description of Christian themes?

I will take the 5th on this one and simply contend that they both suck. And I will go further to say that music made for the purpose of evangelism will always suck. I can't speak for Spreading The Gospel, but people listen to music because they like listening to music. Not because they feel like they need saving. Most of the people who listen to Christian Music are Christians, Christian artists are literally preaching to the choir - they tend more to be Christian cheerleaders.

There are other Christian artists out there and we don't know they're Christians. And that's cool. Because it shouldn't matter. Christian artists shouldn't try to separate themselves from non-Christian artists. In fact, as far as art and Christianity go - the responsibility is invariably on the viewer. Back when I called myself a Christian, such "heretical" works as XTC's "Dear God" and Scorcese's film The Last Temptation of Christ reinforced my Christian faith - because I participated in them as a Christian Viewer - irrespective of the faith of the artist.

not to say that exhortative "for the Church" works are bad or artless. there are tons of non-Christian hard-core fans of traditional shoutin' black gospel for example. but the aim of traditional shoutin' black gospel is not evangelism, now is it?

I crave a time that the Christian church starts to see itself, not as God's chosen, nor the sole bearer of truth, nor again the light of the world, but as adherents to the ever-evolving Christian religious thought. They need to shake this "need for salvation" business. Christianity needs a good, solid dose of intellectualism if it is going to make it to the future with any kind of class. They need to read their Bible as a piece of literature and not as a collection of edicts. The Christian faith needs intellectual leadership that pursues cohesiveness with other faiths and rejects fundamentalism.

It cannot survive on its present course. The Church needs another revolution.