I have been raised in my faith by an extremely insightful group of followers–ones who encouraged me not to just be a Sunday Christian, but to examine how my faith is reflected in all aspects of life.
One of the most interesting ways for me has been to see how God’s message is woven into art, music and movies, beyond the “Christian” genre.
Too often such pieces of work are discredited unless created by someone who markets themselves as Christian, which seems ludicrous to me. An old roommate of mine used to listen to a local Christian music station that always played this lame, watered-down remake of “Bridge over troubled water.” But they’d never play the Simon and Garfunkel version because the remake was by a Christian artist.
I found this very irritating.
On the flip side, I once got to interview one of the musicians in the band Lifehouse. I knew the group had a pretty strong Christian following and had even seen their music sold in a Christian book store once. Plus the band is listed on some Christian music lyric Web sites. So I asked him about the spiritual side of their music.
He was very confused by the question.
“Spiritual?” he said. “They’re just love songs.”
Either someone forgot to tell the drummer what kind of songs they were singing or indeed some people are digging deeper into the band’s music than even they intended. And that’s OK. In fact I think it’s great.
Really, aren’t all worship songs love songs? It all depends on who you’re serenading I suppose. For example, if you look at the song “Take me away” by Lifehouse, it’s not so different than this song by a group called Avalon.
And has anyone noticed that sometimes the worship songs almost get too intimate? A few have had Randy and I in stitches because it sounds like the artist is propositioning Jesus for sex. If I find some examples I’ll post them. Maybe I just have a dirty mind.
How about you? Do you have any music that isn’t Christian but still moves you spiritually? Ever been off-put by music that is labeled as being Christian?
Addendum: This article should clear up some of the questions about Lifehouse’s vibe:
Painting Faith 