"I've been caged like a wild cat
By fools who don't know where it's at"
Iggy & The Stooges

A lot of Christian music doesn't speak to me.  Much of it doesn't do anything for me at all.  Some of it makes me wonder if hell isn't such a bad place after all.  But a lot of it doesn't do anything for me, one way or the other.

Being unmoved by other people's Christian music is a concept that's supposed to be frightening.  And at some level, it is.  And maybe even should be.  It's an honest question:  Do I dislike the music because it's about Jesus Christ, or because the sound is not to my taste? 

It's not the same thing.  But the question is worth asking.

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”  2 Corinthians 13:5

Music may or may not automatically belong to righteousness and holiness, or the devil, but if it does, how do we tell the difference?  Belonging to a culture that celebrates unthinking, default extremes as a matter of natural course, it can be difficult NOT to take a side.  Taking sides and ignoring the other guy without thinking is what we're supposed to be about.  Whatever it is, we're not allowed to explore variations, angles, nuance, subtleties, intricacies of thought, melody, spirit, attitude, rhyme, guitar tone, vocal ability, anything.  We are expected to choose between black and white, good and bad, dark and light, hot and cold, virtue and evil, sin and repentance, in our art, and follow this choice through without the slightest deviation for the duration of our lives.  Whether it's the stripper beats echoing through the pornographic chambers of the legion of new Caligulas who inject children directly into their bloodstreams, or the smiling, Ayatollah-esque monotony of the music created by struggle-proof rich kids who supposedly are virtuous because their sins aren't obvious, we're not allowed to experiment or explore beyond the confines of the morals that have been prescribed to us.

I don't mean in our lives.  I mean in our art.  In our music, our waveforms, the sonic accoutrements we use to accentuate our lives.  They MUST conform to a moral code (or an amoral one), or we can't use them.  It's supposed to be a big deal.

And indeed, it's not un-important.  I've written on the dangers of allowing dark spirits into your life by way of demonic activities, including music.  Spiritually speaking, the reason I can't listen to Led Zeppelin is the same reason I don't listen to Slayer.  Both bands inject dark spirits into their music, making it a gateway for demons to enter your heart and mind.  Don't Do It.  It doesn't matter if one band is full of brilliant artists and another is full of guys who play riff-based, solid-state demon puke about serial killers; I may have more use for one band over another, but I can't listen to either of them, because the spirit is dark. 

I'm not talking about bands who bring occult or Satanic imagery and themes into their cover art and music.

I'm talking about form.  A sound.  A style. 

A way of playing, singing, writing.  Not a moral stance.  The Bible is very clear about taking a clear moral stance, and maintaining it in real life.  In no way do I suggest anybody think there's any wisdom in walking the line between heaven and hell, life and death, darkness and light.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."  Revelation 3:16

So, if a guitar player struts around like a mini-Satan, and in fact writes all kinds of songs celebrating the fact that he's going to hell, should we listen to him, even if he rocks?

I think Bon-Scott-era AC/DC is one of the best Rock & Roll bands of all time, and I say, absolutely not.  We really should not listen to him.  Sometimes I binge on "Thunderstruck" (which isn't even Bon Scott), but it's rare.  I avoid AC/DC like I avoid Electric Wizard and the plague.  It doesn't matter if they rock.  Which is to say, it doesn't matter if THEY rock. 

Are THEY Rock & Roll?

If Satan hijacks a particular artist that uses overdriven guitars, do we ignore everything that uses overdriven guitars for the rest of our lives?  If somebody hijacks a 737, do we never fly on a 737 again, because the devil hijacked one?  If the devil puts a gun to the head of the talented pilot (musician), and gives him a hundred million dollars to land in a field of demonic imagery, does that mean we never get to fly (play) again?  Because some pilots (musicians) sold their souls for filthy lucre?

I thought we had....  power?

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."  Luke 10:19

What if a band plays "Amazing Grace" to the chords of a song about a whorehouse?  Does that make them hypocrites, or evil?  Did the devil stake a claim on a chord progression, because some guys wrote a probably-true song about a house of disrepute that used those chords? 

If those chords were hijacked, does that mean we never get to use them again?

How long before we're reduced to singing one note, or total silence, and the singer is forced to sing by only using sign language?

A week?

I'd rather bleed to death, than hang around with people who think there's something righteous in pretending Jesus Christ didn't.

Brothers and sisters, we've been fighting too long.  I'm not going to waste any more time acting like we're not family, and retreating to my haunted attic in the basement of your culture, where I'm allowed to "indulge my demonic appetites on my way to hell."  You're my family.  We are all one in Christ (if we've accepted Him, of course).  You're not my enemies.  And so it's in the  spirit of brotherly love I tell you, unequivocally:

God created us to rock.

Among other things, to be sure.  I know we've all been taught that anything other than a one-note spiritual dope-nod is blasphemy, or heresy, or whatever.  I feel dumb having to say this, but considering the corner we've allowed ourselves to be pushed into:  He didn't create us just to rock, only.

But He did create us to rock.

To rock, you say?

Indeed, I say.  To rock.

God created us to rock.

To rock is to be true, to tell the truth, to resonate on the free, open range of sonic possibilities.  To resonate with abandon, with cool hair, at a volume which is generally non-negotiable.  To ride the sonic waves with 2 or 3 other guys who aren't interested in compromise either.  To surf in tandem on the breaking point.  To come in loud, crashing on the shore, breaking through the walls.  Setting yourselves free, and anyone who wants to come along for the ride.  Anyone who wants to dance through the breach in the prison gate, is welcome to.  That's what Rock & Roll is about.  It's not demonic.  It's not about yourself.  There's nothing in it that can be classified as "reveling."  It's freedom.  The audience knows it, and that's why the music resonates.  Not because it's evil. 

Because it's true.

Of course, the devil has infiltrated Rock & Roll with all kinds of devil horns and demonic imagery, but that doesn't mean that he inhabits Rock & Roll like a cool, comfortable suit he tailored himself.  Not at all.  Devil horns are the "Drag Queen Story Hour" of the music world.  They are the mandatory degeneracy forced upon our children like so much soymilk and vegan mayonnaise.  Devil horns are the burning sofa in lane 3, the inferno which is tiny, yet which causes a traffic jam at the end of the world.  Just when you thought you were going to get out of the collapsing death zone with your family intact, and thought that it was safe to rock again, some sucker flashes those stupid horns, thinking it's "Rock & Roll," and your engine dies, and the radius of the death-cloud encompasses your escape pod, and the radioactive zombie hordes consume and overtake you.

All because you were afraid to rock.

When God created us to rock.

No more!

p.s.  It isn't the greatest article in the world (the title is the best part), but "Art is Amoral" from my old blog makes the point clearly enough.  If it's moral (or immoral), it may not be art.  If you can't "create" without injecting your morals (or lack thereof) into your "content," you're probably not an artist.  If your spiritual path is maybe visible in your work (maybe), whether you're Jimmy Page or The Blind Boys From Alabama, you're probably an artist, regardless of the spiritual nature of what you're doing.  Art is amoral.  If it isn't amoral, it probably isn't art.

Thanks for listening.