Re: What makes secular music secular?

Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 03:36:12 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.christian
Size: 2,584 bytes

"DanLemke" wrote:
> I'm not sure I've thought this through carefully, but I think that when I
> (who happen to be a Christian pastor) sing "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
in
> the shower, it's secular music no matter how mournful I sound while doing
> it. Even if I sing it as a cry to God, it's still a secular song, in the
> eyes of anyone else who hears me (which, thank God, is unlikely.) If, on
> the other hand, I would record an album of classic hymns, hoping to
> supplement my meager income through sales (it's hypothetical, okay?), it
> would still, to pretty much any observer, be counted as Christian music.
> Perhaps what I'm saying is that the message of the song counts as much as
> anything else.
How about someone doing a song based upon the words of the Song of Solomon.
Is it Jewish? Is it Christian? Is it porno? :-D What if it's an atheist
singing the song? Are the words of the Bible then secular? What if I write
a song about sex with my wife and try to market it in the Christian music
industry? It's good enough for the Bible but not good enough for Christian
music listeners? :) What if the song is by a person who is full of godly
wisdom at one point in his life and later on turns over to the ways of his
700 wives and 300 concubines? What if the "Christian artist" actually HAS
700 wives - and 300 *porcupines?*
What if I write a song about a man who intentionally does something that
causes another man to be killed and also commits adultery with that man's
wife? And then marries her? And then has a son who grows up and writes a
book about sex with his woman which becomes sacred scripture!
The point is that the life of a person who is even called by God a "man
after God's own heart" can be filled with all kinds of stuff, not just
acknowledgement and glory given to God. And that person can write and sing
about it for all the world to hear. LIFE is so full of stuff! Stuff of
every kind.
She bop, he bop a we bop. I bop, you bop a they bop. Be bop, be bop, a lu
she bop.
??? Christian? Secular??? Reality???
What if a person singing a song was sprinkled and not fully submersed when
he was baptised? :)
What if the singer of a song quotes *verbatim* the words of scripture, in
context, but is not a Christian? ;) Is the song then secular or sacred?
I think anything *real* is acceptable.
I think anything *fictional* is acceptable, especially when it makes a good
point. People can discern and draw their own conclusions about the things
they hear.
I'm going nowhere with this... but I *am* going to bed.
-Breezy