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
“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?
I gotta go raise my ebenezer......
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.
Homer still remembers when he and Marge used to make out to this hymn. Bart hands church goers lyrics and music to a fake hymn called “In The Garden of Eden” by I. Ron Butterfly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4g-wx2Y_wg
I’m glad that I’m not the only one bothered by this. Is God truly honored when we view our relationship with Him with imagery that borders on the erotic?
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
Eeeech
Exclusive psalmody looks better and better.
Criteria for Discerning the Usefulness of Praise SongsDetermining the truth of what someone is saying is impossible if the person isn't actually saying anything. This is the great difficulty of assessing praise songs commonly used in the church. The nature of modern praise songs makes them difficult to make them useful judgments regarding their fitness for use in the church's worship. Often the songs are written in sentence fragments, thought and phrases rather than a regular sentence with an subject, verb and object. Simple questions are often unanswerable: “Who is this talking about?” “What does this mean?” “What is the relationship between one phrase and another?”
When I was a child we would play a game on the 4th of July. Some smarty would take a tub of Vaseline and slather up a watermelon and toss it into the swimming pool. Dozens of kids would try to get it out of the water. Anytime you thought you had a hold of the melon it would squirt out of your arms. This is something of the difficulty in making a clear judgment about such ambiguous lyrics. (Of course this ambiguity is a big part of the problem.)
What is needed, then, is an objective method of judging the usefulness of a praise song for edifying the Lord's church and bringing the comfort of the forgiveness of sins. The following criteria are offered for use in considering the usefulness of praise songs.
Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
20081. Jesus
“Is Jesus mentioned?”
Yes | No
If yes, is it in name or concept?2. Clarity
Is the song clear? Does it use sentences (with subject, verb, object) or sentence fragments?
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very clear Obscure3. Mysticism (Subjectivity vs Objectivity)
Is the song about the things that God has done (objective), or about my own emotions and experiences (subjective)? Does the song repeat the same phrases over and over in an hypnotic mantra?
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Objective Subjective4. Law and Gospel
Does the song proclaim the law in its sternness and the Gospel in its sweetness? (The Gospel is the promise of the forgiveness of all sins won for us through Jesus' death on the cross.) Are law and Gospel rightly divided (and not mixed up)? Is the law presented as something that we can do, or does it show us our sins? Is the Gospel conditional (based on my actions, decisions, acceptance)?
Yes No I can't tell5. Is there any explicit false teaching?
I’m disgusted with the whole Disneyfication of the Mass.