Posted on 10/21/2011 7:26:41 PM PDT by hiho hiho
Over-sexualized.
Worship songs? No. Everything.
I’ve been both a victim and a participant in the American cultural norm…Scope out opportunities to rejoin comments with, “That’s what she said.”
(To be sure, the phrase was around long before the TV show “The Office”, but a certain Michael Scott character seemed to usher the phrase into a broad and sweeping cultural vernacular. Am I right?)
So now, it seems thousands of words and phrases are hijacked, and church gatherings are not immune to it either. Or, maybe it’s just me. It can be hilarious, dreadful, or just plain embarrassing. Recently, a few worship songs have sort of had their way with me on this, so to speak.
"Bride of Christ" by Marion Coltman (I thought it was entitled: "Jesus, keep your hands where we can see 'em") ...and it's all just a bit too much for me.
I didn’t want to think it at the time, but the Casting Crowns song “Your Love is Extravagant” sounded just a little too much like a “friends with benefits” song. Golly, all you have to do is take the “t” off Christ, and you have a fine mess (in my head):
Your Love is Extravagant
Your love is extravagant Your friendship, it is intimate I feel like moving to the rhythm of Your grace Your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place Your love is extravagant
Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin No greater love have I ever known You considered me a friend Capture my heart again
Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin No greater love have I ever known; You considered me a friend
Capture my heart again Your love is extravagant Your friendship, it is intimate
Don’t get me wrong, Casting Crowns does so many great worship songs I really enjoy. This may be one your favorites, which is fine. I hope it creates a worshipful experience for you, and for everyone, but I get derailed.
Basically, if a worship song talks about touching, my mind wanders. Such as Kari Jobe song:
I wanna sit at your feet.
Drink from the cup in your hand.
Lay back against you and breath, here your heart beat
This love is so deep, it’s more than I can stand.
I melt in your peace, it’s overwhelming.
In his blog, Jon Acuff posted recently: How to make an entire audience deaf. It’s a funny and accurate article about how words can ruin an audience’s concentration. So many comments from readers that followed were of amusing and uproarious stories of double entendre and language malfunctions.
The fact is love is risky. God is risky…Obviously risky and risqué has sort of been a fine line in songwriting. But, to be honest, I realize that love can often feel awkward as it gets emotionally deeper. When it starts to change and effect us–and affect us. The awkwardness is part of the path to greater spiritual maturity. (In this case, I’ll let you know for sure when I get there.)
Admittedly, the psalms that King David wrote got quite amatory, and for some it feels embarrassing. I can handle David getting up close and personal with God. I’m fine with Song of Solomon’s sexy talk, and David’s passionate poem songs, but maybe in singing those things corporately, we confront those issues of intimacy differently than we do in our times of personal devotions, songs, or prayers. What do you think about it?
I think the challenge, for me, is a renewing of my mind a bit more, and praying for better ears to hear. Thank you for your patience with me, Lord.
Lastly, for all you songwriters out there, if you’re writing something sweet to sing for Jesus, please–for me–don’t put the words “intimate,” “secret place,” and “rhythm” too close together. (It can be a “worship hijack” for some of us, okay, for me.)
When was the last time you felt embarrassed/awkward at the worst time?
My wife calls them the “My Boyfriend Jesus” songs.
OMG, srsly, like every Sunday...not a fan of contemporary worship music whatsoever (it just sounds musically clichéd and uninspired) and the sexual vagary of the lyrics can make it just dreadful. Especially in the Catholic Church, yikes!
"He who dwells,
In the secret place,
Of the Most High God,
Shall abide in the shadow of His wings."
Pretty overtly sexual? Sorry, you're the one who is sick here.
Then stay away from Song of Solomon
Yeah that Song of Songs book is too much. /s
9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare
among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels.
11 We will make you earrings of gold,
studded with silver.
“MG, srsly, like every Sunday...not a fan of contemporary worship music whatsoever (it just sounds musically clichéd and uninspired) and the sexual vagary of the lyrics can make it just dreadful.”
You mean you don’t like endless repetition? Hypnotic trance induced by said repetition?
I am always bored out of my skull by musically uninteresting melodies played over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Can’t take it! People around me have eyes have closed, undulating bodies. I am BORED. BTW I could not be hypnotized by a professional hypnotist either. I guess I am too self aware or something.
‘Bored out of my skull’ too. And to top it off, a musician. “Dang, they forgot the fourth beat in that measure. Must be 4 in every measure!” I’d spend half the service griping to myself about the banal songs and bad musicians, the second half repenting. hahah.
Now I will only go to a NO music service — 7:30 am mass is fine by me, and I can keep my eyes on the Lord.
“Praise and Worship” music has always been music from the lower end of the sophistication spectrum, but has the author ever read the Song of Songs?
Agreed
I gotta go raise my ebenezer......
Problem is, you are a musician.
The money is not in Christian music. The best of the best do not gravitate to this genre. But, the expectations are low, and the product meets the expectations. The worst thing I hear is “Jesus gave me this song”. I say, “no he could not have. He is a better composer than that.”
If two guys are friends, well, they must be gay.
A boy and a girl are friends? They must be doing it.
You are dating? Well, then you are humping like bunnies.
Everything is wink-wink, nod-nod, snicker, yaknowatimean until I could scream.
If you want to get off the train, try turning off the TV.
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