Listening outside the bubble

For most Christians, popular music falls into two categories: Christian or Secular. Youth groups are told they should promote Christian artists and music as the artists are better role models than their secular counterparts. Christian radio stations exist to provide positive and uplifting entertainment to the churched masses as an alternative to the “sin-saturated” channels that make up the majority of the dial.

The Christian music industry is a fast-growing slice of the Christian subculture (or “bubble” as some of us call it) - our own stores, our own food, our own music, our own television channels, and even our own logo (the fish). We live in a world where, if you wanted to, you could ensure that your children are only taught lessons sanitized from anything that is not deemed holy, you could ensure that you never have to listen or watch anything that isn’t specifically Christian in nature, and you could ensure that everything you purchase in some way goes to further the Gospel somewhere. Friends - there is no way this is a good thing.

While there is nothing wrong with an artist specifically and explicitly writing songs that are moral and uplifiting and there is certainly nothing wrong with a song specifically and explicitly worshiping God for what He’s done - the categories are false. Historically, the only categories have been songs specifically designed for corporate worship and… everything else. Today’s categories don’t reflect this in any way. (In fact, we created a third category called “worship” for the stuff explicitly written for corporate worship.)

Music is music. Worldview is worldview. Some music is incredibly creative while the worldview espoused is incredibly depraved. The creativity in the music and lyric belong to God - all creativity is borrowed creativity. Just because someone isn’t glorifying God with their content… they’ve completely missed the fact that what makes their song “good” is something that only God can enable… the creative spark.

I like music. I listen to a wide variety of musical styles and worldviews. I’m amazed at the insight that I’m granted when I hear something that so obviously espouses an incorrect worldview. I’m also amazed at how my singing and playing are improved when I expose myself to other influences. While we should be discerning about what we pump into our brains… we should not allow another person’s label to exclusively determine whether or not we should listen to something. We must be guided by the Spirit of God in wisdom without labels.