Recently I had a debate with a follower of Tessa's who calls herself Tillie. She claimed this:
There is no difference between christian rock, and Secular rock.
Her reason? The rhythm and tone of rock. Rock is intense, and passionate. It is not dry at all, but full of will. Her argument is that Rock makes you angry and feel aggressive.
On a note I would agree with her about heavy metal, but rock is NOT heavy metal. Heavy metal was created based on hate anger, and destruction. there are some christian heavy metal artists out there, but nothing positive and happy.
Christian rock on the other hand is very often positive, or if not it does deal with a heavy subject. I will not say that all rock is good, but that is more to do with the lyrics than the music. Secular rock on the other hand falls often into bad, or downright evil subjects. Not that it is the rhythm that is evil, but the lyrics.
Now let us look at the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't like hymns. In fact i hate almost every one of them. They are dry and often weak. It occurred to me not that the music was bad, but that it didn't speak to me.
God uses strange things to speak to people, Rock speaks to me, not all the time as I usually am more into Pop than Rock, but it does speak to me nonetheless. It doesn't to Tillie, and in fact makes her upset. That's fine, but that doesn't mean it is evil. The Bible doesn't say what type of music we should play, or even what types of instruments are allowed. there is a huge book of song's LYRICS that we can read.Some of them are good, but most of them yet again i don't enjoy. not my style.
Yet here we are having this conversation. Tillie says that all rock is evil, or at least used by the devil to deceive us all. I say it is a form of art that can either praise God, or be used to praise evil. Just as any art it is a tool. It is up to us how we use it.
In the mean time don't say that something is evil unless the bible explicitly bans that kind of behavior, and until I see something about rock that is explicitly banned in the bible I will continue to listen to it.
6 comments:
"On a note I would agree with her about heavy metal, but rock is NOT heavy metal. Heavy metal was created based on hate anger, and destruction. there are some christain heavy metal artists out there, but nothing positive and happy."
Well son there I will have to disagree with you as you have not listened to it as much as I have. A particular band called Nehemiah, had all kinds of exhortations to live your life wholly committed to the Lord. Their musical bent was decidedly Heavy Metal. There are a number of other groups such as Stryper, Bride, and Rez Band that are excellent representations of positive Christian Metal.
So like you said it is not about the style of music, but the lyrics involved. Your friend needs to learn to think for herself and not parrot the judgmental ramblings of those who simply do not like a style of music.
If she thinks that Hymns are all that then she needs to actually sing "Tell the Good News" without cracking up into wondering what we are telling the gnus (type of African antelope).
Wow Adam, interesting post! Very revealing I thought.
If I may, I would like to correct some of your quotes from me. First of all, never once in our debate did I say that rock music makes you aggressive and angry. You started saying that it didn't, but I had never used that term at all. I did, however, honestly ask you how it made you feel, because I wanted to know. I also never said that the rhythm and tone of the rock music is what makes it bad, just that it was an important part of it. I also never said that rock music "makes me upset". I never said anything about how it made me feel, so I'm not sure where you're coming up with that!
Now, the fact that you said hymns do not talk to you, but "christian" rock does, beautifully supports my point that the words don't matter, the music does.
Adam, I don't doubt for a minute that the music is speaking to you! Rock music speaks to me too. That's what I was trying to say to you. It's the music that does the speaking, not the words. But I can assure you that God is not the one speaking through the rock music.
One more thing, remember that after I started giving you bible verses and stuff, that's when you said that you didn't want to continue the debate, because it just made you mad and frustrated. I still have lots more verses and facts to give, but not to an angry man, as I said before.
As to what you said about rock being passionate and full of will, (Which is actually just rebellion, if you know your music history.) and you're liking it better than hymns, I have just one thing to say about that:
"And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice."
By the way, I mentioned a book to you. Music in the Balance. Since I do not have all the time in the world to be on chat boxes and stuff, I recommend reading this book. Please do, and then tell me what you think. It has all the Bible verses and facts that you need. If, after reading the book, you decide to continue listening to rock music, go ahead, that's your choice. But you will no longer be able to plead ignorance.
And just a side note, I know it's sometimes hard to interpret the emotions behind the typed message, so I just wanted to make it clear to you that nothing I've said here is in anger, and I still bare no hard feelings towards you. You may think ill of me if you wish, but be assured that those feelings are not returned! :^)
~Tillie
By the way, if you have a split track option, just listen to a secular rock song, and a Christian rock song with the lyrics turned off, and then tell me the difference.
~Tillie
Tillie,
While my son may not wish to hear of your biblical support for your position, I am more than interested. As someone who has studied a lot of scripture over the years I have yet to see one shred of real evidence that dictates the style of music we are to listen to. I happen to be very eclectic in my music tastes, from the old hymns to metal, while I will agree that music can effect your emotional state, more often than not my emotional state dictates the music I listen to.
Please understand I have a tendency to look farther than the cherry picked verses that are often used to bolster arguments. And the writings of men are held in low regard when compared to scripture, as often they are simply an attempt to bolster one's own personal views.
I would also like to point out that a lot of hymns are beautiful songs but and many of them are also duds. The Word also has a book of lyrics (which happens to be the longest book) Psalms. In fact if you wish to make style of music an issue, then I would suggest the hymns we enjoy in our churches are not the music we should be listening to, but we need to search out the kind of music played when the Psalms were written.
"By the way, if you have a split track option, just listen to a secular rock song, and a Christian rock song with the lyrics turned off, and then tell me the difference."
~Tillie
That is a non-starter. I could make that comparison, between a number of styles of music, be they southern gospel vs country, classic hymns vs classical music so on and so forth. Not a good argument.
Wow. I find this all quite interesting. I have some things I'd like to say.
As my favorite band, Kutless, (A Christian rock band) was trying to decide if they would accept the offer to a record company and go out and put their music out there, they prayed together and God spoke to them and told them to go out there. This was what they were supposed to do.
Since then, they have been praising God with they're music. During the recording of they're latest album, they started out each day with each other in Bible study and prayer. Many people upon hearing their music and listening to THE LYRICS have realized their errors and given their lives over to Christ. It was one of Kutless' songs that opened my eyes and made ME realize that my faith wasn't real, and eventually led to me giving my life to Him. If it weren't for rock n' roll, I might have been condemned to Hell.
There are a lot of Christian rock bands out there, the people in the bands quite often pray before each show. And I've seen that many of them truly have Christ in their hearts.
If rock was inherently evil, people wouldn't come to Christ through it. Nor would God call people into the Christian rock ministry.
I could keep going, but I think this is enough.
God Bless!
Beth
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