I Hate Christian Music

At least I hate the term Christian music. I also hate the term secular music, which just means non-Christian. But what in the world makes them Christian or non-Christian? It's usually whether or not they're on a "Christian" label.

Did you hear about how Evanescence, this has been a few years now, was on a Christian label and in the middle of their concert the lead singer exclaimed that she didn't know why they were on a Christian label (of course this is a paraphrase without all the cursing)? How many other bands are on Christian labels that don't belong there? Who should belong on a Christian label?

I really don't think there is a such thing as Christian and secular music. There's the music that glorifies God and the music that doesn't!

For the exception of music that is design for praise and worship, I'm learning more and more that I can find God in all kinds of music, including what is considered "secular". You might think, well that's not right. It needs to mention God or Jesus somewhere. Most of our old hymn don't. Do you want to get rid of those? Nearly all of the more modern and contemporary worship music doesn't use "God" or "Jesus" in its lyrics. Even the book of Ester lacks mentioning God. Yet in all these we see God throughout them.

What are your thoughts? Are there dangers to us having our own "Christian" music that is really just "clean" music that never mentions God (and could be just another Evanescence)? Could we be loosing something if we exclude secular music from our listening selection? Should Christians only be listening to "praise and worship"?

Skillet, Chris Tomlin, Toby Mac, KJ-52, Barlow Girl, Todd Agnew, and Lifehouse

So I did the BMG thing where you order 7 CDs and they're all free (you do have to pay shipping which cost me about $20 which isn't bad for 7 CDs) and you're required to buy one more within a year and once you do then you get 4 more for free. So I just on this. . .

I just got my shipment in today which contained 5 of my 7, 2 are on backorder. So here are my reviews, even though all of these have been out for a while.

I pulled out Comatose by Skillet first (October '06). I love the heavy sound they produce. The very first song "rebirthing" energized me. Now I only listened to each song once but the first thing that really comes to mind is how authentic the lyrics are. The first half of the CD they are tackling tough subjects like cutters (or possibly suicide) and addiction in a very real way. The lyrics are just powerful.

The negative is I'm wondering if this is a CD I can listen to over and over. I mean, as real as drug use and similar subjects are, do I really want to be hit with that reality over and over. Again, I've only listened to it once so I'll might have to come back to this.

Next I pulled out The Yearbook by KJ-52 (April '07). I've enjoyed his previous work, but after listening to about 75% of this one I stopped it. I just couldn't get into it. Nothing grabbed my attention. Maybe I'm hard to please, but I'm struggling to like this CD.

Next I pulled out See The Morning by Chris Tomlin (September '06). Okay, I didn't get to listen to all of this because my wife came home and I became busy with eating dinner and then other things, but so far this is the best one. Each and every song is something I know I'll be playing over and over in my suburban. I've only been to Nags Head Church a few times but I noticed some of these song from songs I've heard the MilePost13 Band rock'n it out to (also check out their music director's blog, or whatever his title is over there).

Okay, so Toby Mac and Barlow Girl are up next (I haven't had time to listen to them yet) and hopefully Todd Agnew and Lifehouse will arrive shortly.