Now I have encountered many erroneous and unjustifiable beliefs about the alleged sinfulness of secular music or even Christian Rock or metal music offends God. Really? So certain sounds produced by instruments really carry some innate evil presence or message even apart from lyrics? According to some people, yes. But music itself does not convey a particular moral or sinful tone; after all, it's just sounds generated by instruments. These critics cannot appeal to any passage in the Bible or any objective moral principle to condemn these genres, but they continue to invent and defend such baseless ideas. I've even had someone inform me that music which "makes" someone shake their head is permissible but music that "makes" someone lift and drop their feet on the ground goes too far. Besides the obvious fallacy of saying that music can make someone do anything, I love the wonderful nonexistent moral line drawn here. As for the belief that non-Christian songs disrespect God, it is obvious that secular people also have reason and a conscience (Romans 1-2) and that they can grasp truth just like Christians can, even if in a more limited or incomplete sense. And nothing about shallow, repetitive, irrelevant Christian lyrics combined with an absence of any deeper theological or intellectual substance and (in many cases at least) any musical creativity and sophistication glorifies God. I just wanted to say that. I am not arguing that some rock/metal singers like Marilyn Manson aren't disgusting and evil, I am merely rebuking attacks on the genre as a legitimate and allowable style of music.
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| Legalists who condemn music produced by certain instruments like electric guitars can only appeal to fallacies and subjective extra-Biblical preferences to ground their ideas. |
My favorite bands--Disturbed, Device, and Breaking Benjamin--are undeniably secular metal or rock groups, though David Draiman has expressed a belief in some supernatural force and the singer for Breaking Benjamin is a professed Christian. But there is no sinful aspect to their selected genres. Actually, I've sometimes heard far more sophisticated, relevant, deep, meaningful, and ethical statements in songs by these bands than in many Christian songs.
Disturbed in particular enjoys addressing social or moral issues. Interestingly, the singer, David Draiman, is a proud Jew who obtained a degree in philosophy of all things. He speaks more passionately than many in our current society do about issues he feels attached to or a special obligation to immerse himself in, and the band's lyrical content can be quite fascinating as a result. Never Again acknowledges the depravity of the Nazi Holocaust and demands that we never again allow something so perverse. Innocence rages against a corrupt and futile justice system that entraps innocents while subtly asking if anyone is truly innocent. Facade sympathizes with a female victim of domestic abuse at the hands of a boyfriend or "lover". Believe criticizes people who use religion to oppress others, labeling their lifestyles a "lie" and repeating that "penance can't absolve your sin". Prayer presents a conversation between David Draiman and God, inspired by the story of Job, where David discusses the renowned problem of evil with God, saying "You made me turn away". Liberate declares that we still await our "modern messiah" who will erase hatred, adding that we are "still awaiting I". I could continue listing songs like these with relevant worldview ramifications or statements that people should learn about. Holocaust awareness, a disgusting legal and prison system, religiously-motivated atrocities, the seeming problem of evil, and the other subject matter in lyrics by Disturbed should be directly confronted and correctly assessed by Christians, and we should applaud any talented secular musicians who seek to join us in these endeavors. Christians can attack Disturbed for their unique but dark album artwork or their prominence in the world of metal, but they cannot say David Draiman doesn't have a strong conscience or natural intelligence. For various reasons Disturbed has provoked more thought out of me in one year than years of Christian music has. Honestly, I wish a Christian band would imitate their style and willingness to approach legitimate problems and philosophical positions like Disturbed does. Most Christian material scarcely even attempts to mention or dissect anything beyond yet another repetitive reference to God's sovereignty or very generic, cliché struggles. I would certainly appreciate more.
Do all Christians need to listen to secular or metal music? Of course not! But let us not pretend like some imaginary Biblical restriction opposes them or that God dislikes a song just because non-Christians designed it. We can indeed learn from secular sources just as we can glean something from many people. Seeing as I had already posted refutations of misguided Christian beliefs about other practices, I, as someone who enjoys the metal genre for many reasons, wanted to clarify some crucial facts about this issue also--that the Bible does not condemn metal, that no musical style could possibly be sinful, and that secular musicians can honor their intellects and consciences despite not being Christians.
While I agree with your overall point regarding the excessive and poorly thought out revulsion towards harder music genres that pervades the thoroughly conservative portion of Christian culture, I will say though that in many if not most notable cases, the hard music figures aren't exactly doing a good job of proving that they can engage with religious topics in an intelligent manner.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that your big example, Disturbed, would actually be the largest indicator of that, as your description of the band's front-man really seems to paint the picture of a rather self-righteous hypocrite throwing a stereotypically adolescent tantrum about how things aren't going the way he wants them to go. Which is how a lot of musical acts are in these times, regardless of the religiosity of the performer in question.
Even if I can agree with some basic points that he makes, even those are founded on rather frail grounds. In regards to the use of religion to do harm, that is true, though in as much as it is also true that non-religious ideologies have been just as (or in many cases more) morally heinous or have been platforms for reprehensible things themselves. Interpretation of messiahood has largely been more based on extra-textual expectations on what the messiah is supposed to do or has done, often times coming off as though we are the ones who tell them what to do so that we would call them messiah, which reeks of moralistic therapeutic deism. Penitence doesn't get rid of sin and it isn't meant to, though I concede that it is often understood that way because it's often linked to repentance as a work relating to it.
As for why he finds himself turning from God? Well, that is really more revealing of the person than it is of God. It's the same common stupidity that assumes that God has to obey someone else's standards of right/wrong and should/shouldn't, or that there's an external standard of morality that God is held to by others. A person turns from God on a moral basis because they're too up their own colons to even consider the idea that maybe their own understanding of goodness is flat out wrong. But again, the refusal to even consider that is much of what makes today's debates on theology and morality so subpar in intellectual content (and your mention of his education in philosophy isn't making the case better for him, considering that of all the academic fields today, that is the one that breeds the greatest kinds of self-congratulatory stupidity that we find today).
With all that said, I will reiterate that I do agree with you on this in general. The music itself is often good, though the problems come in when one actually tries to understand the lyrics. And I will agree that much of the Christian music scene is rather weak in the quality of its sound and lyrical content.
If I may make a recommendation though, I have found a liking for Christian Metal (or metal made by Christians who at times make their belief clear in their material). My personal (very short) list of notables are the bands Harmony (when Daniel Heiman is the main vocalist), Northern Flame, and Theocracy. I put this forward with the caveat that they do abide by relatively orthodox interpretations of Christianity and that their lyrics don't tend to go into questioning their own faithfulness or the nature of things related to faith. I will say though, that I think it sounds pretty good even with that.
Most people, Christian or not, are pretty intellectually pathetic when it gets down to it, so it is indeed the case that non-Christian artists are usually not amazing at handling any sort of theological or broader philosophical issue in their songs or in their comments. I have just found that they try harder to address more subjects that need to be engaged with, ranging from the desire for autonomy to the existential or moral matters that the average Christian might just totally ignore. Even then, there are metal/rock songs or artists I love musically and which are still at least somewhat deeper than most of their Christian counterparts that, all the same, fail spectacularly at rationally handling some of the genuinely complex or significant things they try to tackle. Deep subjects are not a guarantee that people will approach them in a thoroughly deep way, sadly.
DeleteSome examples are No Gods, No Masters by Arch Enemy and The Human Paradox by Dynazty. Musically, these songs are superb, but the philosophical conclusions behind them are at best contradictory or assumption-based, nothing but emotionalistic nonsense that is meant to feel empowering. However, I never listened to music to learn general philosophy because anyone can do that just by thinking rationalistically, just like I never listened to songs from some Christian artists to learn about Christianity because anyone can do that just by reading the Bible without making assumptions. What is unfortunately true about plenty of non-Christian metal bands I've heard, though, is that they are at least trying to be more honest about themselves and their beliefs in their lyrics than Christian singers/songwriters are. Other than a few exceptions, I can't even think of a Christian song I've heard in the past 10 years that even tried to go beyond the incomplete, shallow "Jesus loves you" theology that ignores almost everything important about Christianity and philosophical truths as a whole.
There is also the fact that the lyrics are often the weakest part of many songs because they are only there to vocally accentuate the instrumentation instead of provide anything deep or consistent. Even some secular bands who are more willing than the typical Christian artist to explore foundational or personal issues can lose some of the accuracy they were striving for, and I can think of mutiple songs from Disturbed that do this. Disturbed's singer simply grapples with specific issues more openly and consistently than many other singers I know of. What I meant by emphasizing his background with studying philosophy (not that people need formal education to think of and about the philosophical things that are an inherent part of every aspect of life) is just that he gravitates towards thinking and talking about various issues of substance more than many musicians I have heard of. Absolutely everything is philosophical, from music to introspection to theology to anything else, because every idea is either true or false and thus no truth, experience, or belief is outside the scope of philosophy, and David Draiman happens to care a little more overtly about acknowledging that than the usual person, which I welcome even if someone is otherwise an imbecile.
DeleteThe tendency for secular artists, including Disturbed, to think that their conscience proves that the moral obligations they feel comfortable with are the real obligations is nonetheless an enormous problem. Whether or not Christianity is true, conscience is nothing but a subjective, malleable set of emotions that lets a person know that he or she feels a certain way. There is of course no basis at all to criticize other humans, much less God or various ideas about God, because of conscience because it is irrelevant to the very existence and nature of morality. This doesn't stop most people from criticizing God or other people for things they emotionally dislike as if their own moral preferences are automatically valid, but not the moral nature of a deity! Again, David Draiman is guilty of this, like all but a few people are--only consistent rationalists and theonomists are not like this. It is just that the quality of current academic philosophers has nothing to do with philosophical truths or issues themselves, so Draiman's interest in philosophy and his educational background do not absolve him of his fallacies or errors, all of which are completely avoidable.
Just to clarify, I do not at all believe that Christian music is incapable of being artistically and philosophically/theologically excellent. This is certainly possible, and there are already instances of this one could point to! I have even heard of Theocracy before. I'll make sure I give each of those examples you listed a try and go through some of their tracklists.