Straight-UP (Music)

I tend to be pretty reserved with my opinions, with my thoughts and with my theories about society, politics, and mainstream media. I do so usually out of embarrassment - it is hard to share theories when they're rather radical. However, as time progresses, the evidence continues to point to the obvious: there is something very wrong and very off about popular culture and its relation to the rest of the world. I'll focus on that which I actually study: music.

We adore Kurt Cobain, a man infamous for his heroin addiction and insanity. We recite his lyrics like prayers, calling his music beautiful. It is not. It is designed and written to NOT be beautiful. Call it art, call it music, but don't call it beautiful. It is depressing, angry and ugly. His lyrics express a tortured soul and his actions confirmed it - he shot himself with a shotgun. Why would I want to absorb the art of a man so obviously jacked up? Because I can relate to it? Shouldn't I be trying to transcend the ugliness?

Such is the state of music nowadays. Radio plays what it will. "Say Aah" was a top 10 hit, about the exploits of a guy trying to get some girl drunk on her birthday. Obviously, her being drunk is for her own good. His intentions must be pure...

Then there's Lady Gaga. Kanye West. Madonna. Trend of ex-Christians selling their souls and their faith for fame and success. Lady Gaga admits to cocaine usage, ignoring what her young fans, the impressionable ones, might do with the information. She swallows a rosary while wearing a latex nun suit and dons an upside cross on her crotch. Still she sells albums. Still she's a superstar. She has insulted Jesus Christ and the Christian faith - where is the boycott of her music?

[We have become afraid of standing up for what's right. We have allowed evil to roam free, unchecked. And yes, it is evil to commit sacrilege. To blaspheme.]

Kanye repeats the word "satan" in his latest 35 minute music video THREE times in a row. I'm sure it's not THAT symbolic, his courting the angel who falls from the sky. Or the "Power" music video, where he stands in front of two horned woman-beasts while wearing a gold necklace featuring the "eye of Horus". Symbolically linking him to the Egyptian gods Horus and Ra...

Madonna is old news but her history is there. Kissing a depiction of St. Martin de Porres, receiving the stigmata, and singing in front of burning crosses. She has recently released a hits album called "The Immaculate Collection.

Marilyn Manson's hit album was called "Antichrist Superstar."

Stone Sour has a hit song called "Through the Glass." It is sung by Corey Taylor, lead singer of Slipknot, a band known for adorning their albums with Satanic symbolism. Their lyrics have often depicted satanic ideas. Slipknot is now on mainstream radio...

[EDIT: I'll include my theory. Mainstream media, television, music, movies, literature, art... All of it is being influenced by higher worldly powers to push and spread a subtle, discreet and shrewd form of propaganda. One that has us embracing sin and rejecting virtue.]

Jay-Z's hit "New York State of Mind" contains these interesting lyrics: "Hail Mary to the city, you're a virgin / And Jesus can't save you, life starts when the church ends." Jay Z may say he has a relationship with God (and that may be true). But this is blasphemy. Jesus CAN save you. Life STOPS when the church ends, as in when you cease to pray, and cease to try, and cease to seek after God... when sin is embraced, the reward is death. Life begins with Christ.

Listen: I write this primarily for Christians who I believe will actually pay attention. Or should. Because we are to have no association with darkness. "What harmony is there between Christ and Belial [Satan]?" (2 Cor 6:15)

We must avoid all of this music. Regardless of how much we like it, how good it makes us feel, how catchy the song is... There's no reason for us to listen to music written and performed by people who willingly blaspheme against God and against the faith.

I do believe there is a setting and a place for music, secular and sacred. Sacred, obviously, is reserved for praise and worship, for Sunday services and church services, for the community of Christ and those who seek goodness and God. Sacred, by definition, means devoted, dedicated to God.

Secular music serves its purpose. It gives us something to dance to, to listen to, to relate to, to cry to... However, we must be watchful about what the lyrics, if any, are conveying. Or what the music itself seems to compel us to do. Christian musicians should be mindful of this when trying to approach the secular [in my opinion]. If we are to write secular music, let it be for the glory of God. Let it lead others to Christ.

Our entire purpose in life, our reason for being, is to love, worship, adore and be in communion with God. And our mission, to those who have been baptized, to those who profess the faith, is to bring others in. To bring EVERYONE in.

"Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves." (Mat 10:16)

All honor, credit, and praise be to God. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.