Comments on: Run On

By: chemicalscum

chemicalscum — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:07:17 +0000

@Rhys
I love Handel’s Messiah but I guess that must be OK because the music was written by an atheist. He only did it for the money. I also love Bach’s St. Matthew Passion – Oh got a problem there. So you must be right.

@Elliot
I am also a punk from back in ‘77. I still listen to punk music. Every month I check every new CD acquired by my public library that has a punk tag and reserve the ones I want. A month or so back I reserved them all without checking if I really wanted them. I got an album by MxPx among them. It seemed like just another boring pop punk album. I thought I would check out the lyrics so I read one from the albums liner – looked pretty meaningless to me. I later discovered that the are a Christian band. So I returned the album PDQ as I didn’t want it to be seen in my possession as it might destroy my street cred.

By: Rhys

Rhys — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:53:53 +0000

“Spiritual” is an unnecessary word here. Music causes strong emotional responses, and that’s good enough for me. The reason I can sometimes enjoy music with religious themes is that it conveys emotions with which I can identify. This is true despite the fact that the composer may have been inspired by a belief I find absurd.

By: Josh Smith

Josh Smith — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:17:32 +0000

Sean, whenever I explain to people my deep love of religious choral music, I always send them to this short piece in The New Republic. If you're not familiar with him, do try to listen to the pre-Renaissance choral music of Josquin Desprez. It's just magnificently beautiful each and every time I listen to it. Certainly ironic for it to be a passion of an atheist, but by no means absurd.

By: per

per — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:50:12 +0000

And I can’t be a very good man of God (albeit in a somewhat different way than people tend to think about them on this site) since I like this blog

By: Elliot

Elliot — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:31:36 +0000

I think that one of the reasons Christian Rock tends to suck is that it is an oxymoron. Rock is the devils music. The music that black people invented which was stolen by the white folk, is purely sexually primitive in nature cannot be the music of God.

Actually it mostly sucks because the lyrics are so lame. The music sometimes isn’t half bad.

By: ropata

ropata — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:16:28 +0000

Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Music is intrinsic to humanity, created in the image of our Maker. One of the most powerful expressions of mass worship I have ever seen was a clip of a Michael Jacksom concert. People were crying and adulating the dude.

why then is Christian rock so bad?
Excellent question, addressed thoroughly by The Internet Monk: The Missing Voice of the Christian Counter-Culture

Predictably, many of these artists are far outside the evangelical Christian mainstream, having found out that, like artists from Bono to The Call’s Michael Been, there is more freedom and a far more receptive audience outside the boundaries drawn by the church.

Christian radio will not play these voices. They will not be leading the bouncing worship songs at your next youth event. They are not entertaining the sheep into a state of altered- and largely insensitive- consciousness.

Evangelicals have now produced a massive consumeristic niche ready to buy, wear and applaud whatever fits in its pre-described mold of entertainment oriented discipleship and warm, fuzzy, evangelical experience.

By: Jacob Wintersmith

Jacob Wintersmith — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:51:54 +0000

An excellent song, although I prefer Moby's rendition.

By: Tom Walker

Tom Walker — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:05:56 +0000

Heh, I got a little off-track there. My point being that I see no reason you have to exclude appreciation for any art or other creative efforts just because they have religious significance. I first heard the Blind Boys when they did the backing and chorus for Peter Gabriel’s song “Sky Blue”. Regardless of the message, it’s good stuff.

By: Tom Walker

Tom Walker — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:03:31 +0000

Being an atheist myself, I have to admit that when I travel to England (where I grew up) or any place older than this country, one of my favorite things to see are the old cathedrals and churches. I think it’s because despite their reason for being they are still magnificent testaments to human ingenuity and determination. There is irony in the fact that my engineering profession came about basically because people wanted to build religious monuments. You have to start somewhere, right?

By: Elliot Tarabour

Elliot Tarabour — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:34:09 +0000

Matt,

I’m with you regarding music being very close to spiritual. From Mahler’s 2nd to Jimi Hendrix to Emmy Lou Harris to a great gospel version of “Amazing Grace”, I get goosebumps at times when I hear music. It is quite unlike any experience from the visual arts.

If you haven’t read “The Sparrow” it touches on this theme.