Help me, God

In my experience with the Christian contemporary music (CCM) scene, I've picked out a couple of song archetypes. There's the elementary song-as-psalm, songs expressing personal faith in and love for God, a favorite of songer-songwriters like Jeremy Camp and Matthew West (see "You Are Everything") and affecting much of Building 429's catalog. There is the high-octane, hands-in-the-air worship song, a specialty of, say, David Crowder Band and Chris Tomlin. ("Our God") There's the faith-inspired story, as Mark Schultz is known for. ("Letters from War") Casting Crowns directs many calls to action to the church, as in "If We Are the Body". The song-from-God's-perspective. ("I Am", also by Mark Schultz) The revived-and-rearranged-hymn, of which my church is so fond. There are probably more archetypes I'm forgetting, but I'm writing about one in particular that seems about as ubiquitous in CCM as the power ballad in '80s rock. That is, the help-me-God song, of which all of the aforementioned artists have made at least one (some quite a few), but of which Tenth Avenue North is the best example, with this archetype composing at least half their catalog. ("Hold My Heart" is an outstanding example).

Based on some of my previous work, you might think I am going to criticize or explain what is wrong with this archetype, or all of them, or the whole system of archetypal songs. I am not. In fact, I enjoy all of the aforementioned songs, though not as unreservedly as I used to. Help-me-God songs in fact have quite a bit of Biblical precedent in the form of the penitential Psalms, all of which are cries for help to God from a place of guilt, loneliness, darkness, or despair. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with these Psalms (or the even-darker Psalm 88), or the modern songs that are their spiritual successors or sorts. They clearly realized the truth that we are like lost, helpless sheep and God is the Good Shepherd who alone can save us and truly supply our needs.

But now I arrive at the reason for this post, which is that if in our hour of darkness we identify too much with the help-me-God songs, if we allow our broken neediness and God's all-sufficient generosity to define our relationship with Him, we run a risk of missing the Point. There's not much difference, at least for me, between fully realizing the extent of our own depravity and need for the salvation of the gospel, and making it all about our needs, and maybe our wants, and whether God is satisfying them.

I have spent most of my life suspended somewhere between the two extremes of deriving my sense of purpose and deep-seated fulfillment, what a theologian might call "justification", from the love and acceptance of those I value; and getting it from my own abilities and accomplishments. Nevermind that all of these things are from God! Putting my faith in God has been hard because I keep consciously or subconsciously expecting Him to fill me in the same way these things did, only more and better. Because of this expectation things kept getting twisted. Earnest passion for Christian community fed right into my tendency to look for meaning in others; calls to be sanctified and excel in righteousness catered to my tendency to look to myself.

All of this because I keep seeing God merely as the One who meets my (real and legitimate) needs when he is much more. Besides being the Healer of the brokenhearted (Psalm 147:3), He is the Creator of all things from before the Dawn of Time (Genesis 1), the great self-existent I ΑΜ (Exodus 3:14), Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), the One who veiled His glory in flesh and died for the sins of the fallen world and will be exalted to the highest place (Philippians 2:6-11), the just and the justifier (Romans 3:26), the Alpha and the Omega, the First and  the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22:13)! He is the author and main character of the greatest book ever written! As my pastor Steve likes to say, whatever your view of God is, it is far too small! How we diminish the Infinite Almighty when we reduce Him to a genie in a bottle who exists for the fulfillment of our wishes!

God was love and full of justice and mercy and perfect glory before the world began. It's impossible for how you happen to be feeling today to ever change this. Yes, God has promised to heal and comfort us, but to what end? So we can feel better about ourselves and be empowered to be better people and enjoy life more? For His glory, honor, and fame, which are what it has been about from the beginning. If he binds up our wounds and sets our feet back on solid rock, it's so we can make much of Him; if he leaves us in what we ask Him to take away, it's to teach us to worship Him alone, not our circumstances.

"Christian" Music

This post is an offshoot of the ones on my main blog about To Change the World by James Hunter. It also steams from a teaching session on culture I attended at my church's spring retreat, where the topic came up pretty prominently. Specifically, the topic: why are none of my posts any longer tagged as "Christian" music?

Like so many others, I used to divide music into two camps: "Christian" and "secular". "Christian" music had lyrics specifically about God/Jesus or Biblical doctrine, "secular" music was everything else. You see this divide reinforced in many places; "Christian" music has its own radio stations, its own places of performance (churches and festivals), its own record companies, its own sales charts and awards. It's closely tied in with modern styles of worship and sung at many churches and Christian student groups, and is a central part of what I would term the "Christian subculture" in America.

To quote James Hunter, the only problem with this view is that it is mostly wrong. And I think this view has consequences on the witness of Christians who buy into it. For one thing, music of course does not fall neatly into these two camps; if you ranked bands by "Jesus" density in their lyrics (or some other absurd metric), you wouldn't get two clusters but an even distribution. Why is Switchfoot commonly considered to be a "Christian" band and Anberlin considerably less so? What about music about Christianity written by non-Christians? (I think of "Spirit in the Sky" by the Jewish singer-songwriter Norman Greenbaum)

Additionally, music determined to be "Christian" is accepted and embraced uncritically by Christians. I even felt a bit of subconscious pressure to listen to "Christian" music, as if my relationship with God depended on it; for a while I didn't let myself replace "Christian" songs in my main playlist with "secular" ones for fear that this would lead to my faith slipping. I was doing this up until last year, even when I was thinking out so many other parts of my faith. At the same time, this divide leads to unmerited suspicion of "secular" music that isn't about Jesus, no matter its other redeeming qualities. The unspoken question "Why are you listening to this instead of ["Christian" band]?" seems to hang in the air. I've sometimes been hesitant to voice my love for European metal for fear of being superficially judged for it.

This dichotomy is another example of dualism, the sharp division of life into the spiritual, or "Christian", and the worldly, or "secular". Though most Christians rightly claim to be opposed to this philosophy, they often unintentionally reinforce it in their actions with the best possible intentions. The whole (mostly Evangelical) concept of developing institutions that parallel those of the world with a Christian twist, including the music industry, is another. I'll get into this much more in my response to Hunter's book, but dualism is antithetical to Christianity (at least, how we are to live and witness as Christians) because just like Jesus, we are not trying to push away or overpower the things of the world to let distinctly transformed "Christian" versions replace them, but are growing the new like a mustard seed precisely in the midst of the old. Trying to simply replace the institutions of the world with parallel Christian ones leads to many dangers I'll get into in other posts.

I also see dualism played out in a different way within "Christian" music itself, in how the music, song structure, and even lyrics often seem to be instrumentalized (pun intended) to serve as vehicles for the message, as if the aesthetic and intellectual value of the work don't matter, only how "inspirational" it is or if it gets people to believe in Jesus. So you get music that seems to almost slavishly follow the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus model of popular music, written with utterly simple instrumentation and chord progressions and lyrics meant to be taken entirely at face value. If the subject matter were any different I never would have been the slightest bit interested in this music; why does it get a free pass? (I will refrain from naming any names) On an even deeper level, this dualism is somewhat subverted by the nature of the financial relationship between the big "Christian" record companies and the heavily profit-driven "big four" music labels.

I fear I'm getting far too negative and that this post is turning into a tirade. Of course it's not bad for Christians or anyone to listen to "Christian" music, and to the extent that it does awaken people to the glory of God and the goodness of the gospel, that really is a good thing. What I'm getting at is that in the Christian subculture (the existence of which is another matter entirely), music itself just doesn't seem to be as appreciated or valued as it is in the larger culture, instead being seen largely as another medium for the Christian message. Concerns of aesthetics and songwriting are often subordinated next to simply getting this message across. And for a lover of music like myself, this is a tragedy.

This makes it all the more reassuring when I find music that is inspired by the gospel, but also makes a priority of aesthetic legitimacy. And now I will name some names--on the lighter side, I think artists like Gungor, David Crowder band (requiescat in pace), Needtobreathe, Mumford and Sons, and Jars of Clay, to name a few, do a great job of meshing beautiful, thoughtful, joyful lyrics with solid music. For my fellow metal-lovers, I cannot recommend bands like Theocracy, Becoming the Archetype, and Demon Hunter highly enough.

I'm getting a little preachy and not answering the big question--how are Christians to engage in music culture? What is the way past this "Christian"/"secular" dichotomy? I sure don't have the whole answer. But I think part of it is recognizing that Christians don't have a monopoly on truth--on the Truth, yes, but not on the ability to make true, good, and valuable statements. Following Paul's lead in Acts 17, I think we should be seeking to understand the culture we're in and seek out truth in it to affirm. This means not just sticking to a parallel, largely insular music industry but listening to "secular" music, understanding it, being able to think and talk about it. This is one manifestation of a larger paradigm that James Hunter calls "faithful presence within".

In the Name of God

Why is this prog metal gem from Dream Theater's "black album" not on my music blog? Because I have more to say than just "listen to it". "In the Name of God" is an indictment of religious extremism and a warning of its dangers. Specifically it refers to American cults that are distant offshoots of Christianity--apocalyptic doomsday cults, leaders taking plural wives, and works-based perversions of the gospel. I was listening to the album while grading tonight and suddenly the third commandment (Do not take the Lord's name in vain) came alive to me. This song is filled with examples of how to break it. Exploit peoples' faith for selfish means, live a life of hypocrisy and lies, try to convert the spiritual authority God bestows on you into worldly power, or just spread false teachings and pervert the gospel. All these are taking God's name in vain--doing things and living contrary to His character and will for our lives while maintaining the pretense of being on His side. Please know that people who do these things don't stand for God or His church.

It's a bit staggering to realize that God has made us as Christians His representatives to the world--His image-bearers. Those who don't know God form their view of what He must be like from watching us. With all the abuses of religion that have happened in the past fifty years, it's hard to blame people who have become hostile to the church and want nothing to do with God. Obviously no one can perfectly represent God, which is why it's important to work towards developing Christlike character and to be honest about times when you fail to live up to His image.

Idols

As some of you may have gathered, I've had a rather bad last few days due to a certain happening in the music world. Last Thursday, Mike Portnoy, drummer, songwriter, lyricist, public face, and creative driving force of my favorite metal band Dream Theater, abruptly left the band he's led for the past 25 years. Let me make this perfectly clear: Dream Theater is not Dream Theater without Mike Portnoy. And by leaving one of the best bands out there at the height of its career, he has lost whatever respect I had for him. I won't say any more on how heartbroken and angry I am on the subject. Maybe I'll post a rant on my music blog sometime.

Anyway, off on a reflective tangent. I was basically in grief after I heard the news. In fact, I went into denial for a day or so, thinking there was no possible way that he could leave--I couldn't even imagine Dream Theater without Portnoy. I thought it was some kind of bad joke. Once it became real to me, I became quite angry. No idea if I'll start bargaining next or how that would work here. Putting this into perspective, I was shocked by how broken up I was (and am) about it; it was like I'd lost a loved one. All this for a lousy band? For something that doesn't personally affect me at all? What's wrong with me? Maybe the sad news was a much-needed wakeup call.

This led me to thinking about how much trust I put into temporary things. Even the things we feel most secure in could be gone tomorrow. The impossible can happen without any warning. I'm sure you all have your own experiences proving this. Does it really make sense to look for happiness in things when we might not live to see tomorrow?

Jesus told a parable about this in Luke 12, which I think speaks to Christians and non-Christians alike.

 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

The parable is a sober warning for anyone who focuses on temporary, worldly things instead of eternal things (which we find by knowing God). So instead of storing up treasures you can't take with you, seek to become "rich toward God"--rich in eternal treasures like love, joy, wisdom, and a relationship with God.

And while you're still on earth, stick it to Dream Theater--listen to Queensrÿche!

On my Other Blog

Yes, blogogrid, apparently I need two blogs even though I can barely maintain one. I've made a side blog for posts on music to avoid cluttering this one; it can be found here. I'll leave the posts on music that are already here as well as bring them over to the other one; any new posts on bands, albums, songs, etc. will go there. General ruminations on music or musings about high-end audio will remain here. Enjoy!