Music and Discernment

As a general rule, I don’t care for CCM (Contemporary Christian Music). I used to really enjoy Southern Gospel, but I’ve come to dislike most of it as well (although the song, I Fell on my Knees and cried Holy moves me to tears and motivates me to want to learn more about Christ each time I hear it). Most of it (Gospel) is shallow, “feel-good” music with no bite to it. That being said, I have a problem with dismissing an entire genre as bad just because some – perhaps even most – of it is “bad”. It makes me ask the question, “What makes music bad?”

Several years back I first heard a song by the group Mercy Me that began to change my opinion that all CCM is bad. I Can Only Imagine is perhaps one of the greatest songs I have ever heard. In the song, the singer is pondering what his response will be when he finally enters Heaven:
Surrounded by Your Glory,
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus?
Or in awe of You be still?

Will I stand in Your presence?
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing “Hallelujah”?
Will I be able to sing at all?

I can only imagine….

At the end of the song, we hear the following lyrics:
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You

I can only imagine…

It was this song that first caused me to readdress my contention that all CCM was bad. I’d already come to the conclusion that there was some great Gospel music out there, but that always seemed like more of a “gray area” anyway. CCM, however, was always black and white to me. It was categorically wrong. But….how could a song like this be wrong? Furthermore, I began to realize that by claiming something was “wrong”, I was dismissing it as being displeasing to God. How could this particular song be classified thusly? I began listening to a little more from the CCM genre. There was so much P&W (Praise and Worship), that I quickly became annoyed. The artists would take a single phrase – maybe two – and repeat it over and over and over again. Some of the stuff I was finding was shallower than anything I’d encountered on the Gospel music scene. But some of it….

I came across another “artist” (for some reason, I dislike that word) who had been around for a long time. His style was unique. He told stories with his song. The man’s name is Ray Boltz, and the song that blew me away was Watch the Lamb. The story of the Crucifixion of Christ told from the perspective of Simon – the man who was enlisted to help Christ carry the cross. It speaks of his sons and the obvious impact that this had on them (by the way, it obviously impacted them since at least one of them is mentioned by name by Paul in the last chapter of Romans). Again, I found myself in tears as I reflected on what Christ had done for me. Again, a song that I couldn’t dismiss as “bad”. I began to find more and more music that was wonderful, Christ-honoring music. Music that had solid theology and lyrical depth. Music by groups like GLAD (how can anybody have a problem with them?). Music that had more “bite” than half the stuff you find in the typical church hymnal (Trust and Obey? …Sunshine in the Soul?).

So back to the question. What makes music “wrong”? I’m not sure that music – in and of itself – necessarily has a moral value. I’ve asked that question in several different places (online discussion boards as well as “face to face” discussions). Typically, the ensuing discussion borders on the ludicrous. An example of this is the old myth that rock music makes plants die, while classical makes them grow. I watched an episode of the program MythBusters on the cable channel Discovery that sufficiently dispelled that myth. As a matter of fact, their testing seemed to prove that exposing your plants to loud heavy metal music and insults was a better way of producing healthy vegetation than exposing them quiet classical music and “nice talk”. Another example would be the entire “beat argument”. This one has seemed a little nuts to me since the time I first heard it more than 20 years ago. I have a number of friends who would come home from camp and destroy all their CCM tapes because of a “sermon” on the evil beat. I never went for that. But I digress.

I asked a pastor friend about this music conundrum 3 or 4 years ago. This was a man who has been a pastor in two ultra-conservative IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist) churches over the last 35 or 40 years. I would consider him as being to the right of me in almost everything! He exposed me to a word that I had never once heard brought up in the plethora music discussions I had been involved in or witnessed over the years. That word was…DISCERNEMENT. Here was a man who I had once heard (when I was a youth) preach that CCM was sinful! Obviously, he’d changed a bit over the last 20 or 25 years. I found that we were in agreement that some music might be good, quality, Christ-honoring music even if it was part of a genre that was crowded with "junk".

Discernment. I began to realize during our conversation that it is more important to teach our youth to become more discerning than it is to give them a list of things to avoid. As I cruise around the internet and witness some of the conversations that young Evangelical and Fundamentalist adults are currently having, I’m struck with the fact that there is often little discernment displayed. If we fail to teach our children discernment, we shouldn’t be surprised when they grow up into teens and adults who aren’t discerning!

The conclusion of the matter (at least as far as I’m concerned) is that some CCM is good – some is bad. Some Gospel music is good – some is bad. Some of the music in our hymnals is good – some is bad. Now, I’ve often heard the “slippery slope” argument. “If you say something is good part of the time and something is bad part of the time, you’re going to have people using that argument to justify all sorts of wicked behavior!” Once again, I suppose we’d better focus on teaching discernment. We’ll be better off teaching discernment than we’ll ever be trying to explain to a teenager why knee-length shorts are OK on the basketball court but not at a youth group activity. Or why girls can wear coulottes, but not modest, knee-length shorts… but that’s another article (that I will never write)!