ASNN

great christian artists versus great christian songs

This post on ThinkChristian got me thinking. As I tried to post my top ten Christian songs, I found that I couldn't even come up with TEN that came to mind as truly excellent songs. I ended with the lament, "There just doesn't seem to be those 'Hotel California'- or 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'-type songs out there in Christian music."

Granted those types of songs are rare even in secular music; there are probably only a few dozen songs from the past 50 years that truly transformed music. Yet there are plenty of secular songs in the "great, even if not totally revolutionary" category. I continue to be unable to come up with any Christian songs in either category. Part of this post is to ask you to help me come up with those.

The other part of the post is to share what happened when I turned my focus from great Christian songs to great Christian artists. Again, there's an enormous hole where the list of groundbreaking, revolutionary Christian artists should be. But where there are no great Christian songs (that I can think of), I can immediately think of a number of Christian artists whose body of work qualifies them as very good, or even "great, even if not totally revolutionary". Jars of Clay, Third Day, Delirious?, Kutless. Those are all from the past 10–15 years, and all with my VERY limited taste in Christian music.

Is it just a misperception, or is it easier to find great Christian bands without ANY great Christian songs? What should I be listening to, if I'm missing the boat? What songs have I egregiously forgotten?

American Idol fallout

I think there's something wrong with me. You see, there appear to be two appropriate reactions to American Idol singing "Shout to the Lord", and I'm not experiencing either of them.

Reaction 1: Ecstasy that American Idol chose for its contestants to perform "Shout to the Lord".

Some people have declared that any exposure is good exposure. Here are some of the comments I've scoured from around the Internet. (Unless noted otherwise, all comments are unedited.)

• "Praise God! I am so happy that The Lord was represented last night!" I am unable to find a definition of "represent" for which this might be true. What was represented was the voices of people performing in a talent show.
• "Wow! When we heard with our own ear that they sang 'Shout To The Lord'. Surprised I can say that way. No matter what, May the Lord Name be glorified." "No matter what"? God's name WILL be glorified, but that doesn't mean that's what was happening on American Idol. To say "no matter what" is like saying that God's name is glorified through the rape and death of a 6-year-old girl. It's true that God will be glorified, but that's not what the rapist was going for.
• "I think that is why American idol is blessed of God. They end up honoring Him......not another god! I am thrilled that such a big show gave this kind of glory to God." (This comment holds the distinction of being the thing to finally piss me off and force me to write this rant inspiring this blog post.) There is so much that is wrong with this (excerpted) comment.
  1. American Idol is not "blessed of God"; "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
  2. They no more honor God than our politicians honor Him by working in a building that has a statue of the Ten Commandments. They no more honor God than I am a Mexican when I speak Spanish.
  3. They gave no glory to God. We glorify God by explicitly living for him, by praising Him (which, incidentally, is different than singing a praise song), by sharing our faith, by making God REAL and PALPABLE to those around us. I saw none of that, and I'm not even sure it's possible for American Idol, as an entity, to give glory to God.
• "I think it was awesome! FInally a dedication to the One TRUE Provider!!!!!!!!" I must have missed the part where Ryan Seacrest said, "And now the remaining eight, singing a song dedicated to the one true provider, YHWH."
• "In fact, I think they producers of the show were making a statement that America's principles are based on Christian beliefs and they are appealing to those values of helping thy neighbour to make a difference in the world." This is one of the more rational positive comments, but it's still fatally flawed. Christian values are not "helping thy neighbour"; they are "helping thy neighbour in the name of Jesus Christ". If Christ is not included in the process or is not our motivation, God is not honored with our actions, period. (I will ignore the "America's principles are based on Christian beliefs" thing for now, though there's a whole 'nother blog post waiting in the wings there...)
• "Every year I am amazed at how God allows so many Christians to influence American Idol, sometimes subtle, sometimes overt. And the show constantly breaks ratings records. Coincidence?" No, it's not a coincidence. God is American Idol's marketing director, and He's darn good at His job. (I hope this person's comment wasn't ironic and I just missed it.)
• "I saw this verse ['But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.'] on another website..." Stop — who preached Christ at American Idol? Singing a song does not necessarily preach Christ, no matter the song.

Reaction 2: Moral outrage and righteous indignation that they changed "Jesus" to "shepherd" in the first line of "Shout to the Lord".

Here are some of the comments from people that are just beside themselves at the gall with which American Idol brazenly changed the lyrics of "Shout to the Lord":

• "Why were they so afraid to say the name JESUS? The song is was dead, they took the life out of it. The song was written My Jesus My Saviour not my Shephard My Saviour. It is about 1 person, not a general lets feel good feeling. Why are they afraid of His name or is it that they do not know Him, either way it was very hollow."
• "it seems in tune (pun intended) with the postmodern, universalist, watered-down spirit of "Jesus, Mohammed, Buddah, Krishna, Joseph Smith, what does it matter? Let's just collectively celebrate 'spirituality' and sing Kumbaya - or Shout to the Shepherd-Lord whose name is ___________ (fill in blank, if desired, with whatever's comfortable)!""
• "it's like--hey if you want to NOT say Jesus, sing another song instead of butchering one that some people really love and believe. And YES it was BUTCHERED because Jesus was the focus of that entire song, now it was just about whoever's Lord & Savior."
• "Way to cut out "Jesus" for "Shepherd". They sterilized an explicity Christian song into something vaguely monotheistic."

My response to these comments can be summarized in seven words: "What do you EXPECT them to do?" Why do Christians continue to hold non-Christians to Christian ideals? American Idol is NOT A CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION. Why does anyone expect them to act in accordance with Christian beliefs?

Other reactions

There have been plenty of other, metered reactions to the American Idol/"Shout to the Lord" incident.

• "Consider this, as well: This was about numbers. Christian music, particularly, praise and worship, is a cash cow. And "Shout to the Lord" is one of the fattest of those "golden calves." It sells, that's all." Amen. American Idol is in business to MAKE MONEY.
• "At worst, it is pandering to the Christian audience in order to get them to donate money." In this case, American Idol might have been in business to RAISE money. ("Shout to the Lord" appeared on a telethon-style fundraising episode.) Christians have money and tend to be charitable; this is an easy way to get them to give it.
• "Well it seemed to me odd that they would sing this song [...] I found the song lack depth since none of the contestants could identify with whom they were praising [...] My feelings were the song was out place and I wondered if perhaps they are trying to appeal to the Christian audiences as a lot of song sang thus far in the competition have had some Christian influence. I guess we will never know what their true reason was, but I bet its votes/calls." "Odd" and "out [of] place" are exactly my feelings, and the comment author's conclusion is surely dead on.

And so on. In the end, I think the whole issue is mostly a non-issue. While I started off feeling pretty annoyed at American Idol, I now don't particularly care what they sing or don't sing. Now, I'm more annoyed at the bulk of the reactions from the Christian community, reactions that bely a gross misunderstanding of Scripture, of our place in the world, of America's standing with God, of what it means to praise and worship and glorify.