The Music

On Saturday night, before Doubt Day, I laid my head down on my pillow, and in the darkness of my bedroom I confessed something to Corie, and I thought I'd confess it out here too. But before I do let me give you the context.

I had just printed out and played through several songs that we would play on Sunday morning prior to the discussion. (Shout out to Drew Harrah, (drums) and Chris Bell (guitar)) The songs included: Who'll Stop the Rain (CCR), Knocking on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan), Free falling (who ever sings that), and Spirit in the Sky. None of them too edgy of course, but from this came my confession.

I told Corie that I was not comfortable playing those songs. She asked me why I was playing them and this was my explanation...

When Paul went to the Athens in Acts 17 he led a discussion, his own Doubt Day if you will. When he started, he did so by quoting popular philosophy of that day. "In him we live, and move, and have our being." In the 80's that was made into a praise song, interesting as it was a pagan philosophy related to the "unknown god". Paul started with this pop philosophy and then said, let me tell you who this is. Let me answer the question that your philosophy asks.

I chose the songs that I did because I believe pop philosophy is expressed in our contemporary Athens (Arnold, Annapolis, wherever you live) through music. Does anyone believe that Dylan was anywhere close to Heaven's door? No, but he was expressing a metaphor of depression and loss and was looking for a way out. Besides being three chords, is there significance to free falling? Well, considering it's about the quandary of love apart from Christ between good girls and bad boys, I would say that there is a common philosophy of escapism and fulfillment is only found in Christ. And that was the point, to engage the popular philosophies of human experience and then present a contrast and truth in the midst of that tension.

Why was I uncomfortable? It's because I know that we are prone to enjoy music, and that music is often a great tool for feeding us lies that are contrary to the gospel. I was hesitant because, well do you know that old adage "if you tell a lie long enough you begin to believe it?", that's the problem with music expressing popular philosophy. If we sing along long enough we embrace it as truth and the way life is, but life with Jesus is not that way. Toby Keith sings "raise a little hell, laugh till it hurts, put an extra five in the plate at church" That is a philosophy that many embrace; I can live a double life, one in which I can do things I know are wrong, and one in which I can redeem myself by doing something good for the church. This is just not in keeping with scripture. While it is a tool that starts with the unbeliever and can offer them truth (i.e. James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.) My concern was that Christians should not interpret the use of popular music for the philosophical debate as an acceptance of it as a steady diet of interpreting life. As followers of Jesus we should be looking to God's word as our rule of faith and practice, and all to often we meditate a lot more on philosophies that are counter to His word.


Music is amoral that is, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with any kind/style of music. It is it's manipulation (read lyrics) that causes things to be right and wrong with it. If you're looking for me to condone music, then my recommendation is this, enjoy music. Enjoy all kinds of music. But remember that what you are feeding your soul will produce fruit in keeping with its kind. If you're listening to too much popular music of whatever variety that is what you will mediate on. And if we're pursuing a lifestyle closer to that of Jesus we may need to change what we meditate on.

--Ben