I enjoyed your column (and have been a semi-frequent lurker / never a commenter at your blog for a number of months now) and agreed with much of what you said about popular Christian music, but I felt I had to add my feelings about Rich Mullins (whose “Awesome God” you slammed). AG is admittedly a simplistic song, and one whose verses make me a bit uncomfortable at times…sadly his most famous song is one of his least profound. But I thought that if no one had suggested to you to listen to more of him, that I ought to, because I think that some of his music fits very well with what you said about “underground” Christian music — particularly “Jacob and 2 Women”, “The Color Green” (and “Peace” and “Hard” and a bunch of the rest of the album “A Liturgy, A Legacy, and A Ragamuffin Band”) and almost all of his last album “The Jesus Demos” (NOT the slick, overproduced Christian pop versions of the songs on “The Jesus Record” which is the other disc in the 2 disc set) which is just Rich on an old guitar or an old piano singing about Jesus, the Jesus we really encounter. When Mullins is at his best, he talks about the Jesus of the gospels…not a glowing being who bounded straight from the manger to the cross and is now the coolest kid in school, but the broken, long-haired man from Nazareth who ate with prostitutes and tax collectors because that’s who he was there for. I don’t know if you’ll find it there in his music, but I wanted to make sure I told you to look in case you would. Thanks for your honesty, and your willingness to keep sharing your perspective.
James Rosenzweig
J. Rosenzweig (3:39 am, 2 November 2007)
Thanks for this, James. I’ll have to listen to some Rich Mullins. One of the things I didn’t mention in this column is that some of these artists have grown with time. And others amuse me, even in their cheesiness. KJ-52, for instance, as much as he sometimes frustrates me, also has done some music that I enjoy greatly. But in order to hear the bits I like, I had to come to terms with how much I was going to hear that was going to frustrate me. I suppose that’s true in the world of secular music as well, but it seems to bug me more with Christian music. I’m not sure why.
J-Tron (12:25 pm, 2 November 2007)
Amen. If I have to listen to “God of Wonders Beyond Our Galaxy” one more time… oh wait, our worship leader has added it to our choir repitoire. :P
God reached me by studying other religions and the embedded truth of general revelation. How sad that our church focuses on the special to the exclusion of the general.
BlueNight (11:49 pm, 3 November 2007)
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I enjoyed your column (and have been a semi-frequent lurker / never a commenter at your blog for a number of months now) and agreed with much of what you said about popular Christian music, but I felt I had to add my feelings about Rich Mullins (whose “Awesome God” you slammed). AG is admittedly a simplistic song, and one whose verses make me a bit uncomfortable at times…sadly his most famous song is one of his least profound. But I thought that if no one had suggested to you to listen to more of him, that I ought to, because I think that some of his music fits very well with what you said about “underground” Christian music — particularly “Jacob and 2 Women”, “The Color Green” (and “Peace” and “Hard” and a bunch of the rest of the album “A Liturgy, A Legacy, and A Ragamuffin Band”) and almost all of his last album “The Jesus Demos” (NOT the slick, overproduced Christian pop versions of the songs on “The Jesus Record” which is the other disc in the 2 disc set) which is just Rich on an old guitar or an old piano singing about Jesus, the Jesus we really encounter. When Mullins is at his best, he talks about the Jesus of the gospels…not a glowing being who bounded straight from the manger to the cross and is now the coolest kid in school, but the broken, long-haired man from Nazareth who ate with prostitutes and tax collectors because that’s who he was there for. I don’t know if you’ll find it there in his music, but I wanted to make sure I told you to look in case you would. Thanks for your honesty, and your willingness to keep sharing your perspective.
James Rosenzweig
J. Rosenzweig (3:39 am, 2 November 2007)
Thanks for this, James. I’ll have to listen to some Rich Mullins. One of the things I didn’t mention in this column is that some of these artists have grown with time. And others amuse me, even in their cheesiness. KJ-52, for instance, as much as he sometimes frustrates me, also has done some music that I enjoy greatly. But in order to hear the bits I like, I had to come to terms with how much I was going to hear that was going to frustrate me. I suppose that’s true in the world of secular music as well, but it seems to bug me more with Christian music. I’m not sure why.
J-Tron (12:25 pm, 2 November 2007)
Amen. If I have to listen to “God of Wonders Beyond Our Galaxy” one more time… oh wait, our worship leader has added it to our choir repitoire. :P
God reached me by studying other religions and the embedded truth of general revelation. How sad that our church focuses on the special to the exclusion of the general.
BlueNight (11:49 pm, 3 November 2007)