Secular Music

To tell you the truth, I cannot stomach some of the reasons people come up with for watching raunchy and disgusting TV shows and movies. "But it's FUNNY," they say (The Office, That 70's Show, Friends when it was popular, Family Guy, The Simpsons). "I just like it," they say (House, and other overly dramatic and stupid shows of the like). These are the least thought out excuses I have ever heard, even though the last one is not necessarily wrong as you will soon see.

I take a purely Schafferian view of art movies and most of the well thought secular music of today. There is something, particularly about music, that holds the finger to the pulse of the culture at large. Not artists who are only in it for money (like Britney Spears...blech) but artists who ditch labels so they can make their music, movies, and art the way they want to how they want to. These people are making an incredible value statement, and dare I say a worldview statement, simply by making their music independently. These people, generally, have something to say and love music because music is wonderful and if we would prefer not to remain ignorant to just what the young people dying for truth believe today we would be wise to introduce ourselves to it.

Not only that but some art, especially good art, is to be enjoyed simply because it is good art and then critiqued and only then possibly rejected. Just listen to Schaeffer,

"A work of art has a value in itself. For some, this principle may seem too obvious to mention, but for many Christians it is unthinkable. And yet, if we miss this point, we miss the very essence of art. Art is not something we merely analyze or value for its intellectual content. It is something to be enjoyed. The Bible says that the art work in the tabernacle and the temple was for beauty. . .As a Christian we know why a work of art has value. Why? First, because a work of art is a work of creativity , and creativity has value because God is the creator. . .Second, an art work has value as a creation because man is made in the image of God, and therefore man can not only love and think and feel emotion, but also has the capacity to create."

And further,

"Many modern artists, it seems to me, have forgotten the value that art has in itself. Much modern art is far too intellectual to be great art. . .[they] seem not to see the distinction between man and non-man, and it is a part of the lostness of modern man that they no longer see value in the work of art as a work of art. I am afriad, however, that as evangelicals we have largely made the same mistake. Too often we think that a work of art has value only if we reduce it to a tract. This too is to view art solely as a message for the intellect."

To tell you the honest truth I listen to a lot more secular music than your average fundamentalist Christian attending a Plymouth Brethren Assembly. I won't go near movies or TV (I have willingly only watched Ratatouille, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Luther and one episode of The Office because I was on an airplane in the last three years) but I listen to greats of our day (of course by greats I may mean totally obscure independent artists who sound great) every day. Like who? To name only a few Postal Service, Jack Johnson, Bob Dylan, Dave Brubeck, Norah Jones, Her Space Holiday, Andy Hunter, Juno Reactor, George Winston, Kaki King, Trentmoeller, Telepopmusik, DJ Shadow, and many others. I am not in poor company either. Would you believe Mark Dever listens to and quote, "loves" Jack Johnson? Or that Josh Harris and his brothers do the same?

Mind you, we need to be very, very careful how we put this into practice. Schaeffer again,

"Not every creation is good art. Nor is all that man makes good either, intellectually or morally. So while creativity is a good thing in itself, it does not mean that everything that comes out of man's creativity is good. For while man was made in the image of God, he is fallen. Furthermore, since men have various gifts and talents, everyone cannot create everything equally well. However, the main point is that creativity is a good thing as such."

I think it is wise that we move past our ugly fundamentalist roots in this area and listen to the man who could give that caution but who also actively listened to Jefferson Airplane and The Beatles (and ENJOYED it), the man who considered himself largely a separatist but who watched the art films of his day and perused and understood (and ENJOYED) the work of Salvador Dali (who was the most messed up of the surrealists), the man who ached for the lostness of these souls and longed with every ounce of his being to bring them into the fold of God which in no small way required his interaction with them and enjoyment of them.

Secular artists are not speaking into a vacuum and are not speaking for no reason. Much of their art is of a far greater and superior quality to most Christian art and they are asking far deeper questions than most Christians are asking which is proved almost every day when I listen to Christian music or look at sappy Christian "art" or read some of the awful modern Christian writing that passes for fiction. I believe we ought to very carefully, cautiously, and discerningly be engaging in secular music and art 1) because a whole lot of it is fantastic in and of itself and 2) because we do a disservice to the people we preach to by alienating ourselves from them in this way.

Not that you won't get the gospel across if you don't, but it is a whole lot more helpful, and even introduces new evangelism inroads, if you understand this cultural pulse.

Loving our wonderful Christ who died "on our behalf" with you brethren,

R.D. Thompson