Replies

Marbren,

First of all I want to say it’s been a pleasure discussing all of this with you and Quix. Sometimes these discussions can get contentious, but I didn’t sense that from anyone.

I whole-heartedly agree that most secular rock music has degenerated over the last 50 years. Depending on the band, the messages in some of the songs are outright evil and wicked. Then you have hip hop and rap that is so linguistically vile and violent. I don’t listen to secular radio any more unless its the oldies stations and talk radio. I quit listening to pop radio back in the mid-seventies. So much of it now, even the non-sexual, benign stuff is boring with nothing really new or creative. Melody and harmony are not much of the songs anymore - just distortion and screaming.

I got interested in music as a kid when I heard Elvis, but more so when I first heard the Beatles. I LOVED their music. It motivated me to learn to play guitar, then piano. As I got older I began to see their empty lives and the stupid things they got into. I still am grateful to them for a wonderful era of new pop music that is part of my childhood/teen memories.

So, I guess what I’m saying, for me rock music got me interested in music. I eventually majored in music and began to serve God as a music director. Of course, rock music back then is much different now. My children have all gotten into music because of pop music - but we have monitored as best we could what they listened to. Every so often we have to put the cabash on certain groups.

This is one of the reasons I’m not as down on rock and roll as maybe others are. I have seen positive elements of it. But, you have to be discerning - like you’ve said - some of it is downright wicked. I just don’t think that it has to be that way.

That’s why the guy who wrote that article kind of bugs me because he tries to demean a whole genre of music and squelch all argument by calling it Satanic and anyone who uses the style as Satanic. How do you discuss this with someone who has already decided that you are a “tool of Satan” unless you agree with him?

One thing about contemporary Christian worship today is that so many evangelical churches have done away with all traditional hymns and gospel songs. I went to a music seminar for my church a couple of months ago and they had a morning worship time as part of the day. Out of the ten songs that we sang, I only knew one of them because the others were all new (at least to me) contemporary songs.

I think so many Christians today know nothing about the rich, wonderful hymns of faith from our past. There is so much great doctrinal content in hymns - many written during times of great duress, such as “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”.

The hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” was written by a Horatio Spafford. He was a very successful businessman back in the late 1800’s. He was diagnosed with some kind of ailment and his doctor told him he needed to get away from work for awhile. He decided to take his wife and family on a cruise to Europe.

At the last minute something came up at his work and he couldn’t go with them when the ship departed. They decided to have the wife and three daughters go ahead of him and he would meet them in London a week later.

While his family’s ship was crossing the Atlantic, it collided accidentally with another in the middle of the Atlantic. Their ship sank within a few minutes. Of Mr. Spafford’s family, only his wife survived - all three of their daughters drowned. Mr. Spafford immediately left on another ship so he could meet up with his wife. The ship’s captain notified Mr. Spafford when their ship crossed the place where his family’s ship went down. When he went back to his cabin, he began to put down on paper the thoughts and feelings he was experiencing - he wrote,

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll - whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”

What beautiful words of faith. There are many, many Christians today that not only don’t know that song, they barely know “Amazing Grace”. That’s just wrong. The answer is to blend traditional songs and appropriate contemporary songs. It can be a very worshipful experience if planned out correctly.

Okay, I’ll stop now - I keep going on and on.