CCM MUSICIANS LOVE SECULAR ROCK: Reasons "Christian" Rock isn't Christian at all!

I don't see listening to The Beatles or Billy Joel or U2 or whatever pop music that comes on the radio when we are driving around, turning the channel when songs come on they don't like, singing along with songs they do like the way the rest of us do, as a SHAMEFUL admission on the level of adultery, drugs and everything else these guys have been accused of by generalization. Good grief, it's a matter of taste. They like to play rock music, chances are they've heard some before in order to have arrived at that affection.

As a musician, I like what catches my ear as being pleasing in construct, innovative, and music that causes a positive emotional response. I lost my love for most Hard Rock and proto-Metal shortly after I became a Christian, because it didn't produce that sort of response in me anymore. If I hear something I used to really like, many times my reaction now is one of puzzlement over what I thought was so good about it.

That being said, there are still songs by Jimi Hendrix that I like because they're good songs, good melodies, well-constructed tunes. I like most of the Beatles catalog, for the same reason. Does that make me apostate, because as a musician I can appreciate excellence in the craft? I say NO! It means that I know my craft, I have an appreciation of music that is not bounded by artificial compartmentalization and prejudice based on personal preference. Would I play a Hendrix tune, or a Beatles tune in church? Most definitely not. In an evangelistic setting? Possibly, if the song lyrically made a point, such as the Beatles tune "In My Life", which compares places and things to people, and with very little stretch, a reference to God.

I hear a collective < gasp! > from some here, that such a thing would be conceived, let alone attempted. I think that anyone who doesn't think that God can and does use the weak and base things of the world to accomplish His Purpose, has a concept of God that is too narrow, and too confined. That is one of the most common traits of man, to reduce God to narrow confines and rigid regimentation. What lies behind that? A desire to maintain some measure of control over one's own life, even a life that has been surrendered to God. Man seems to always want to have more than a passive role in his salvation, and wants to maintain some sort of belief that despite his surrender to Christ in the matter of sin, he is still able to steer his own course, with God as an advisor, rather than as absolute commander.

Does CCM have problems? Undoubtedly! Is secular control part of the problem? Without a doubt! Are there artists involved in CCM that have no business naming the name of Christ? Absolutely! Is there a weeding-out process coming for CCM? I pray to God that there is, and soon! Is it a proper response on our part to stand around and tsk-tsk, to criticize and rail against an entire genre of music because some have mis-used and defiled it? NO!! Our responsibility is to pray that God would raise up artists and businessmen who will insist on and enact change, so that CCM be what it should be: A God-honoring uplifting and positive artform, pleasing to God, and used of Him to bring souls into His Kingdom, and to provide an alternative to the negative entertainment of the secular and God-hating world. Let God sort out what styles of music He will use. He knows much better than we do, what works, and what is useful. The only personal preference that matters is God's Personal preference.

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