To Be a Rock and Not to Roll

Occasionally I will use this weblog to post a response/reply to something that other people have said. This is one of those times. Ingrid at is posting again, and has some really interesting stuff up. This post is a response to her position on music.

Ingrid's Post:

A commenter on the post from Monday regarding the YouTube dancing boys claims that we can’t judge whether music is pleasing to God. I hear this often. “Don’t substitute your taste for God’s!” or, “Things vary from one culture to the next. It’s all contextual.” (This is the emerging church philosophy applied to music that’s been around for years.) Here is my response to “Neil” and his objections to passing judgment on music that purports to be worship.

On neutrality in music, I think it is safe to say the music used for a stripper show would not be acceptable as worship to God. Music itself has a message and an attitude. Haughtiness/arrogance, sensuality (think dirty sax), hard driving rock and death metal that speaks of hatred and wrath, the rebellion of rap, none of this speaks of holiness, majesty, honor and love for our monarch, Jesus Christ. The aforementioned music is about our flesh, all of it. Scripture tells us that those who are operating in the flesh cannot please God.

Further, can you imagine Queen Elizabeth II stepping out of the limo at the White House and being greeted by the sounds of a sleazy saxophone or some rapper with pants falling off, doing his street thing? She is a monarch. You don’t throw anything you want at a monarch and call it honor. How much more so for the King of kings, Lord of Lords? How dare we throw our filthy cultural music at Him and call it worship? It’s Cain worship that God will not receive. Those kids in the video have been trapped by the world and its system and it shows in every arrogant line of their moves and in the music Carman sings. I wonder how willing this bunch would be to identify as “People of God” if a terrorist or police squad waving guns kicked in their church door and asked for Christians to identify themselves. “All people of God, stand up! …and die.” The music is Carman’s and his self-adulation show is nauseating to watch. (Click here and see the video of his show.) I have seen video of his concerts where the women scream when he comes out as he flexes his muscles and struts his stuff in the name of Jesus. Please see the Tozer quote I posted yesterday. Flesh, exalting itself, in the name of exalting Christ. That, Neil, is blasphemous.

My response:

The truth is Ingrid, what you’ve said here proves the anthropological point of whoever said that “it is all contextual.” Look at your first example: “I think it is safe to say the music used for a stripper show would not be acceptable as worship to God.” I’m not really even sure what kind of music you’re talking about (I’ve never actually been to a strip club), so given that, what I saw a stripper show and the girl was disrobing to an organ and hymns? Would that make that hymn unacceptable to God as worship then, because it had been used in a stripper show? That’s the converse of what you’re saying. I don’t think so, so how are you going to tell a saxophonist that his passion isn’t pleasing to God? You’re ascribing spirituality to the object of music here, which is quite the pantheistic thing to do.

How does music itself have a “message and attitude?” Please explain that one and remain faithful to your beliefs as a Christian. Music is just compression and expansion of air interpreted by our auditory systems. The “message” that you’re saying is intrinsic to music is actually just our emotional interpretation of those compressions and expansions. If music has lyrics, the lyrics may have a message, but the music itself doesn’t beyond what we, as listeners, ascribe to it. Without citing any research, I’m going to offer that that interpretation is culturally (and in my opinion personally) contextual. Please, provide for me an example of how rock music is “about our flesh.”

I think that it is very reasonable to think that some world-class rapper, or ballet dancer, or skateboarder, or contortionist would put on a show for a monarch, and I’m sure that many examples of that could be found within a few minutes on Google. Why shouldn’t we present the best of the talents that God has given us to Him? Are you saying that talents in playing the electric guitar or drums are evil?

You cannot circumvent the fact that your line of reasoning in this post is flawed. You’re viewing your culturally influenced interpretation of certain types of sounds as interchangeable with what pleases God. You cite no scripture to support your claims that these types of music are inherently evil, so it must be assumed that your assertion is based on your own personal conclusion. The implication is absolutely that your tastes are the same as God’s.

Some of these critiques I think you can make about an individual song or artist, but an entire style of music? I’m sorry, I just think you need a far more in-depth argument if you’re going to make that claim.

-Spencer-

Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and said, Bob, why are you resisting me? I said, I'm not resisting you! He said, You gonna follow me? I said, I've never thought about that before! He said, When you're not following me, you're resisting me.