(For N.T. Wright, Bono, Bob Dylan, Sara Groves, Derek Webb, Steve Earle, Larry Norman, Johnny Cash, Michael Been and Steve Taylor)
Floating somewhere around the web is a picture/mp3 of Anglican bishop and theologian N.T. Wright, complete in lavender shirt and bishop’s collar, playing Bob Dylan’s sixties anthem, “Blowing In the Wind†on an acoustic guitar.
It’s not anything I’d pay money to have on my ipod, and I doubt his audience was blown away. But I don’t think the bish was having a moment of youth minister envy. His admiration for Dylan and the counter-culture voices of the sixties comes from something else.
Wright was singing Dylan because, in his particular take on Christian eschatology, he sees something very admirable and good about those idealistic kids in the sixties. Something in their optimism and idealism resembles his belief that we are called to Kingdom work in every area of human life now. Wright believes that Christians are a Holy Spirit empowered Christian counter-culture movement at work with God in the world’s hopeless places and unsolvable problems. He profoundly believes in resurrection, but not in the despair that has overtaken much of the church- Protestant and Catholic- in these days.
Wright believes the Kingdom of God is at work in the present everywhere that Christians put their audacious resurrection hope into practice: in politics, art, society, education, peacemaking and yes, even the church.
Wright has been criticized, perhaps justly, for his bias towards certain liberal and leftist solutions as being identical with the Kingdom of God. Admirers of Wright like Douglas Wilson have taken him to task with some specificity for sounding like an echo chamber of the liberal establishment.
I believe the point is well made, but I’m also starting to see Wright’s larger point, and why the good bishop is playing that Dylan song.
In some of my classes this semester, I’ve been using protest songs from the classic era of folk music to illustrate points regarding Biblical literature and elements of English literature. And as I was listening to Phil Ochs “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends†yesterday, a thought occurred to me that’s been rattling around in my head ever since.
Why aren’t more Christians making the sounds of counter-culture protest in their art, their literature and their witness?
I want to be careful at the outset to acknowledge that some Christians ARE making the sound of counter-culture protest, and I want to salute them and promote them. More to say about them later.
Right now, I want you to go to the iTunes store, Christian and Gospel music section, and look around. What do you hear?
Praise and Worship.
The soft sounds of baptized psychology.
God-experience in highly personal terms.
A tip of the hat in the direction of evangelism.
That’s the vast majority of what Christian artists and voices are bringing to us. Of that collection, the largest pieces of the pie chart go to “praise and worship†music and expressions of fuzzy personal experience with a decidedly “girl-friendy†Jesus.
Now as I’ve said before, I’m encouraged by how many contemporary artists and authors are personally involved in ministries of mercy and issues of compassion and significance. These are a generation of artists who are busy supporting International Justice Mission and Blood:Water Mission.
But few of them are raising the voice of a true Christian counter culture; few have the sound of counter culture protest, lament or outcry. Few are taking on the voice of the prophet. Few are using artistic irony and sharp observation and story telling to penetrate into those aspects of our culture where the truth of God has a sure and true word for us. Few are articulating the vision of anything approaching a radical kind of Christian discipleship.
I don’t hear the kids of voices that shined the light of God on the darkness of racism, that opposed the Vietnam war with a Christian conscience or that awoke to the realities of poverty and corruption in America. Evangelical art seems to reflect the concerns of the status quo, and the easy acceptance of a world where how we feel is the great crisis of our time.
Those artists that do find a prophetic voice stand out immediately from the bland majority.
Listen to Larry Norman’s deliberate echoing of the protest voice of Dylan in his early music. Norman wrote about the environment, the space program, poverty, drugs, government corruption and more. Almost as quickly as Norman’s voice had appeared, it was co-opted by the Jesus movement into songs for the believing faithful. But for that one moment, Norman pointed Christian artists in the direction of being a counter-cultural voice across the same wide spectrum as his “secular†brothers and sisters.
Listen to Derek Webb’s take on a Dylan-esque voice, and notice how the mainstream Christian music industry attempted to pigeonhole him for being too political. Webb continues to be at the center of a different kind of Christian art; a socially conscious, challenging voice of a counter culture that resists the “mainstreaming†of the Christian artistic voice into the Christian ghetto. “We Don’t Have A Savior On Capital Hill†isn’t going to make it on K-Love anytime soon.
Look at the work of Steve Taylor, a master of irony who was unafraid to turn his art on the church’s failings and society’s corruptions. As musician and now film-maker, Taylor has ventured into the kind of territory where irony, cutting humor, broad social commentary and creative truth-telling at the expense of evangelicalism are part of the artist’s palette.
Other younger Christians are rejecting the lure of being another praise and worship leader for the possibilities of speaking in the authentic voice of lament, protest and resurrection. Predictably, many of these artists are far outside the evangelical Christian mainstream, having found out that, like artists from Bono to The Call’s Michael Been, there is more freedom and a far more receptive audience outside the boundaries drawn by the church.
Christian radio will not play these voices. They will not be leading the bouncing worship songs at your next youth event. They are not entertaining the sheep into a state of altered- and largely insensitive- consciousness.
You will find them at Square Peg Alliance and Paste Music. You’ll hear them cited as “indy folk†more than Christian. You’ll have to endure the question “But is that really Christian music?â€
Evangelicals have now produced a massive consumeristic niche ready to buy, wear and applaud whatever fits in its pre-described mold of entertainment oriented discipleship and warm, fuzzy, evangelical experience.
It’s personal miracles, not social transformation that has the attention of evangelicals. It’s the culture war’s short list of approved issues, not the prophetic agenda of justice and compassion that inspires most music, conferences and major events today. It’s the sounds of “We want more of you Jesus,†not the cry for justice for the hungry, the oppressed and the displaced that inspire evangelical art.
When I expose my students to the protesting voices of the sixties, their reaction is varied. Some are more interested in the iPod than the song. Some are completely clueless as to what I’m referring to. Others are drawn toward the knowledge that young people were once, as a generation, animated in causes greater than acquiring expensive shoes.
When I preach, I preach N.T. Wright’s vision of Gospel application in the empire. I preach MLK’s application of the Gospel in a way that challenges evil with sacrificial love. I preach Don’t Waste Your Life. I preach examples of personal engagement with causes greater than the expansion of church facilities and more sales of the latest praise and worship ditty. I constantly urge my students to see Jesus as a radical and to see following him as a radical exercise extending into economics, racial reconciliation, compassion, the arts, politics, justice for the excluded, the creation of community and the renewal of the local church along new covenant priorities.
But I feel that my voice is one voice; one voice largely overwhelmed by the current vision of Christianity as an extension of the American dream of personal affluence and evangelical cultural triumph.
My students will hear a hundred voices telling them to march against gays for every one they hear saying they should befriend the oppressed and the rejected. (One friend told me that when his church volunteered to help with a fund raiser for the local AIDS hospice, the directors were so stunned that they thought it was a joke.)
My students will hear that Martin Luther King, Jr was an adulterer 25 times for every time I point to his model of sacrificial non-violence. Few of them will ever read any of his sermons, but many will be told of his moral failings. (And the same is true for many activist Christians. Some evangelicals make it a point to morally impugn anyone who pursues that they label as the “social†Gospel.)
My students will be offered a hundred “Christian†things to buy for every one time they are challenged to give anything away or to use their money to dig a well. Thank God for the thousands of Christians who generously give time, talent and money to help the suffering, but they do so in the midst of an evangelicalism that has found a way to bless every excess of the American materialistic lifestyle.
My students will hear hundreds of moralistic, pietistic and privatistic applications of the Gospel for every time they see or hear the Gospel lived out in Jesus shaped ways. If evangelical sermons and publishing is our measurement, then economic, missional, socially redemptive discipleship is far less interesting than end times scenarios and diets.
My students will be encouraged to accept the evils of society as the unfolding of the end times plan a dozen times for every time anyone tells them to go out and personally do something to make a difference in that world. After abortion and homosexual activism, the average evangelical’s engagement with social issues goes off the radar.
My students will be told that church should be fun, entertaining, cool and better than a mall a thousand times for every time they see a church embodying the suffering, justice, poverty, prophetic truth and radical love of Jesus for the poor and the sinful.
My students will hear the siren songs of evangelicalism endless times for every time they hear about a truly prophetic, counter-cultural, compassion-passionate Jesus shaped spirituality.
I’m waiting for the birth of truly counter-cultural Christian voices; voices as arresting in these times as Guthrie, Dylan, Ochs and Seeger were in theirs. Christian voices that don’t require us to go to non-believers to hear the authentic message of the compassion and present power of the teachings of scripture on justice and mercy.
I’m waiting. And while I have a voice left and anyone to hear me, I’m using my voice as best I can. I won’t be singing “Blowin’ In The Wind†at my next Bible study, but I understand what the Bishop was trying to say. We have an answer more sure than those who mounted the counter culture critique of the sixties, but our voices are strangely silent.
The Internet Monk Archives 
Micheal,
Thanks for these challenging words. There are pockets of protest.
But rather than addressing things politically, their art takes traffics in absurdity. They emphasize beauty as a way to contrast the ugliness of so much “Jesus Junk.” So record labels like Asthmatic Kitty and artists like
Sufjan Stevens, the Danielson Family, Rosie Thomas, David Bazan and Over the Rhine are going with either extravagant theatricality or ultra stripped down simplicity as a form of protest music.
The same is starting to happen in film. Alternative documentaries of protest made in the past year include, The Ordinary Radicals, Call + Response, Lord Save Us From Your Followers, and my own, Purple State of Mind. Each is small, indie outsider art.
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Michael,
Thank you SO MUCH for this blog. No one has ever articulated the way I feel about modern day Christianity than this blog has. I blog about this stuff all the time @ http://www.conversantlife.com/cjcasciotta.My latest post links back to this one because I think it communicates some of these points so well. Thanks again for your thoughts and articulation.
PS. I’m huge Derek Webb, Sara Groves, and obvious Bob Dylan fan
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what do you do when you know that you should be passionate about these things, but you aren’t? what do you do when you actually see the apathy, and know that it’s wrong?
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Isn’t Larry Norman the guy who did Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music? — Aliasmoi
IMonk’s tribute essay on Larry Norman:
So Long Ago, when CCM Wasn’t Awful.
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“Only Visiting This Planet”, along with Keith Green’s “No Compromise” and John Michael Talbot’s “The New Earth” completely rocked my worldview, changing my theology and the course of my life. There’s tremendous power in music, and I think Christians need to use it to help change the world. A couple of popular artists who are doing so are Todd Agnew and Ten Shekel Shirt. Agnew’s song, “My Jesus” is in your face, with lyrics like:
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand
Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?
Amazingly, this song got a lot of Christian radio airplay – wonder if anyone listened?
Ten Shekel Shirt’s leader, Lamont Hiebert, is actively combatting worldwide child sex slavery, and uses his music to help address the problem.
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Michael, over the last few days I’ve been reading some of your posts and I just wanted to write and say thanks.. A few years back I felt spiritually motivated to work amongst the poor and oppressed and started doing social work in inner city Chicago. As my career and life have progressed I feel increasingly alienated from (and less and less welcome within) what was once my evangelical “home” and instead am always walking a very fine line between a weak and strained belief and total disgust and rejection of Christianity and the Church. Sometimes it’s reading a post like this one or hearing about your own struggles within the SBC that give me hope (albeit pretty faint) that God is still out there for me and that in spite of the weakness of my own faith and my very worldly cynicism at what I see every day, I can still be bringing light into some of the dark places and situations I encounter every day knowing that I’m trying to be right where Jesus would be. I’m not usually so touchy-feely, so I’ll leave it at that, but I jsut wanted to say thanks.
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I just want to make it clear that I was not picking on Derrek Webb or Caedmon’s Call.
My point is that their stuff was very much for an exclusively christian audience (by their own admission). I had most of their cds (the last one was 40 Acres) and saw them live twice.
They are very talented and helpful to a certain segment of the population and their songs were not Jesus is my boyfriend stuff, but their stuff was far from socilaly conscious type stuff and for the most part even farther from dealing with subjects in a way that those outside of western christianity could understand or relate to without explaination.
There is nothing wrong with recognizing that a certain group of people are your adience and speaking specificly to them, but don’t be fooled into thinking that anyone outside the church is going to ever listen, other than the kids tricked into attending concerts by their friends at the local youth group.
I am not saying that Derrek Webb was compromising or anything. My point is just that he has the financial safety of his past to make it easier to take the risks he does now. If you are not going to be a heathen and play to the thoughtless party crowd or be “church friendly” and play to the CCM crowd, you have a rough road ahead.
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Earlier in this thread, Mike Morrell said that I had once claimed to be wary of Wright’s articulation of the Gospel. That didn’t sound exactly right, so I re-read the review he was citing. Here’s the paragraph Mike:
>At times, I wondered if Martoia understood what a fundamental upheaval it causes when you begin de-emphasizing a gospel about going to heaven, and emphasizing a gospel with social and political meaning alongside its personal eschatology. Does he realize how many of these Wrightian insights sound to fundamentalists and the truly reformed? Do these renovations of traditional concepts bring more light and truth, or do they, as critics claim, sell out the truth for a bowl of cultural relevance?
I was saying that Wright’s articulation of the Gospek comes off pretty strange to some conservative evangelicals. I’ve always found him to be conservative and orthodox, but demanding and provocative. And some of his eschatological readings of texts are very difficult. But I don’t think I was ever wary of Wright. I was wondering if the author realized how wary other were of Wright’s version.
peace
MS
P.S. If I can, I will be reviewing Saving Paradise soon. I wish gnostics would write shorter books.
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Bob Bennet writes the kind of songs that you are talking about.
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Norman’s album “Only Visiting This Planet” was the high point of CCM.
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Isn’t it interesting that we’ve already had one commenter immediately assume that an discipleship committed to these things is the “liberal†social Gospel. — IMonk
As I posted above, the Social Gospel became a Gospel without personal salvation (only social action). The reaction to this became what you see throughout SBCs/ Evangelicals/ Pentecostals/ Christian Culture Warriors/ Left Behinders: a Gospel of Personal Salvation and ONLY Personal Salvation.
“The Devil sends us sins in matched opposing pairs, so that in fleeing from one we commit the other.” — C.S.Lewis (from memory)
Screwtape must be so proud to have successfully turned the tables on the obvious message of the new Testament and the Prophetic scriptures. — IMonk
Nyah hah hah, My Dear Wormwood…
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Thanks for your post. I appreciate your writing. Sometimes you seem to able to speak my mind better then I can.
Modern evangelicalism is so tiring. Jesus’ message was so much more than a call to get to a Jesus high every Sunday. It was about living out the heart of God through extreme, costly love for the “least of these.” Evangelicalism is a hollow shell what God intended to be so much more. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Here in Canada even abortion is a taboo subject amongst evangelical Christians. I long to find a way to express my dissatisfaction. I want to shout it from the roof tops. I want to stand up in church services and picket in the parking lots.
I wonder if there has ever been a time when prophet voices have been welcome. If they were welcome there would really be a need for them would there? I also find it interesting how music is such a powerful medium for carrying these messages. What other ways do you think God is carrying prophetic messages in our society?
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First, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Derek Webb, http://www.noisetrade.com is a new site started by him at which you can get his latest CD, along with a number of other artists’ cds, for free. Though Mockingbird probably has more protest songs, his latest CD, The Ringing Bell, is, musically, his best.
George C. said People like Derrek Webb only get away with what they do because of years of being pretty in the box with music like Caedmon’s Call.
Even within Caedmon’s Call, Webb has been creating music about all of life during his entire career. Though his turn towards protest or social justice music seems recent, his songs, and even the whole of Caedmon’s call’s songs have never been “Jesus is my boyfriend” type songs…
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“But I feel that my voice is one voice; one voice largely overwhelmed by the current vision of Christianity as an extension of the American dream of personal affluence and evangelical cultural triumph.”
Michael, don’t give up – not that I really think that’s a danger. I here many voices rising up with yours, in places great (the national blogosphere) and small (our tiny church). The Lord is continuing to build His church, He knows better than any of us what needs to change, and how to bring that about, and when. It seems the cracks in the facade of popular culture Christianity are becoming deeper and more apparent. My prayer is that young AND old in the church will be able to really throw off the habits and mindsets that have us numbed in place, and be “converted” once again.
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By the way I do believe it is the churches job to care for the poor. That is absolutely scriptural. What I don’t believe is that this is the goverments job. I have no objection indeed great praise for Christians who are involved in mercy ministries. My objection is when they cross the line into advocating government action;policy.
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I read the comment about why being a “socially conscious” Christian is so bad, and then I suddenly remembered why I’ve become so jaded and cynical about Christianity lately.
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Mea culpa. This is what I get for posting while I have the flu. I was reacting to rhetoric which reminded me lefties I have met before. Like you I like Ron Paul. I am also fond of Pat Buchannon. However, I would never in my role as clergy reveal that to my congregation. Politics has such potential to divide the body of Christ. I have anti-war and pro-war members. I have members who are convinced that global warming is real and I have members who are convinced it is a hoax. I have congregants who will be voting for Obama and congregants who will be voting for Mcain. What unites us is the cross of Christ but we are divided by politics.
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Isn’t Larry Norman the guy who did Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?
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Thank you for this challenging discussion. The artists your mentioned…Steve Taylor, Larry Norman, Keith Green etc…Touched a early generation musically when very little else was available. These prophets challenged us to see the gospel outside the church not just inside. I am a fan of folk music today and the message of hope, love, understanding, and acceptance is preached strongly. If one is interesting in hearing the truth simply listen.
The church needs to be the leader of the counter-culture, not just a follower.
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Wright …. sees something very admirable and good about those idealistic kids in the sixties.
Cut to thirty and forthy years later, when the idealistic kiddoes have grown up and taken charge of everything, and ….
[G]o to the iTunes store, Christian and Gospel music section, and look around. What do you hear?
Praise and Worship.
The soft sounds of baptized psychology.
God-experience in highly personal terms.
A tip of the hat in the direction of evangelism
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great post. this is an encouragement to me as I feel like i have been living in this idea of screaming the counter cultural voice and no one listening for quite sometime. It’s great to see someone put some good language to a major problem that gets minor attention. Moving forward I think the church will depend on art and music as it’s voice to a disenfranchised and isolated America. That being said there is a non-profit indie record label in Athens, Ga that’s leading the way in this discussion as far as christian labels go. everyone should have a look and get involved…rebuiltrecords.com. Thanks again for the post!
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So much good stuff here. For a counter-culture Christian musical voice, I recommend Buddy Miller’s “Universal United House of Prayer.”
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Amen and amen.
We were listening to Dylan’s “Foot of Pride” on the Bootleg Series 1-3 in the car the other day (with Surprised by Hope sitting next to me) and my wife turned to me and said, “I am really grateful for Bob Dylan.” And this post is exactly what she meant. Where is this in
I’m teaching Luke right now and many of my white, middle class students are finding themselves downright offended by Jesus’ prophetic announcement of Jubilee and his siding with the poor, the sinners and the tax collectors. They’ve read the verses in isolation, but they’ve never really taken Jesus’s mission seriously as a first cenutury socio-political-religious movement with a clear agenda and clear opponents, who would in the end kill him not for ‘being God’ but for offending their own socio-political-religious agenda.
Thank you for this post.
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Picking up on something Sal mentioned in passing, don’t the Psalms have something to teach us here? Writing as a minister in the Church of Scotland (where we sing hymns and songs as well as the psalms!), time and again I realise it is the psalms more than anything else that articulate not only the full range of human emotion, but also the heart of God for the poor and oppressed and those in the pit. Just a thought.
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I know. isn’t it sad that we have this either/or split in something which, I believe, the scriptures plainly teach is both/and. I had the privilege of hearing N T Wright speak when he came to Sydney a couple of years ago, and the vision of the Kingdom he presented made me feel like dancing. All good works are His works, every talent, every breath belongs to Him, and our calling is to be agents of the Kingdom, to take Jesus’ Luke 4 declaration, not just in the spiritualised sense (though we must never leave that behind) but in every physical, literal sense as well. All injustice is abhorrent to God, so how can it not be abhorrent to us?
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Lynne: Isn’t it interesting that we’ve already had one commenter immediately assume that an discipleship committed to these things is the “liberal” social Gospel. Screwtape must be so proud to have successfully turned the tables on the obvious message of the new Testament and the Prophetic scriptures.
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You’re singing my song. The more I read and studied the OT prophets at college, and lined them up with the words of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that narrow evangelicalism isn’t enough. it isn’t wrong — the entry point to the kingdom will always be the forgiveness of sins, the heart of the Christian’s walk must always be the overwhelming worship of such a great Saviour, but if we stop there we are out of step with the heart of God. God cares about poverty and hunger and injustice and oppression just like He cares about the awfulness of my personal sin. A gospel that doesn’t lead us forth into the world to bring the compassion of God and His passion for justice to meet the needs of our neighbours is something less than the whole gospel of the Kingdom. this I believe, and this I will preach, because the Jesus who is our very life is the One who came to set the captives free — every kind of captive!
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I love Wright, Dylan, and Guthrie. Not sure what it is but they seem to offer a new way of looking at the world or at least a way of exposing it’s underbelly.
I find Derek Webb obnoxious and unoriginal, musically and lyrically. But I guess that’s not the point.
I’m sure you’ve heard them and you might disagree, but I think the last 2 Jars of Clay CD’s(not the worship one) fit what you’re describing.
You should also check out Jamie Barnes.
Excellent as well.
http://www.myspace.com/jamiebarnes
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Sorry, iMonk, to get off topic. I forgot to mention the “Miserere Mei, Deus” (“Have mercy on me, O God”) is actually the words of Psalm 51 set to music, and I was thinking of the Psalmist David compared to the folk artist Dylan. I guess for me, any “social gospel” begins with recognizing my own sinfulness. (But I did get carried away describing the beauty of the music.)
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Great post, Michael. I’m delighted to see your blossoming from “I’m kinda wary of NT Wright’s definition of the gospel” (in your review of Ron Martoia’s Static) to “I preach the Gospel like NT Wright and MLK.” Bravo!
For another prophetic Christian artistic voice, I’d recommend the music of The Cobalt Season and Isaac Everett. I think it’s less a matter of there needing to be more prophetic/counter-cultural Christian art (though this is certainly the case) than it is our finding media channels alternative to CCM/CBA.
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Let me remind commenters that this is not a “What’s my favorite Christian music?” discussion. I’m all in favor of all kinds of Christian art and have my preferences as do all of you. I’m talking about something entirely different.
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I enjoyed folk music back in the 60’s for what it was – catchy, sometimes profound and thought-provoking. But for sacred compositions, for the most celestial composition this side of heaven, give me Gregorio Allegri any day. Listen, just once, to Allegri’s masterpiece, “Miserere Mei, Deus”, and no words, no melody, no “CCM” or “Praise & Worship” will ever compare to this sacred experience of a cappella chant. It was composed in the 1600’s and is still sung in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week each year. It reaches through the senses to the depth of the soul. (The version I have is by “The Choir of New College, Oxford,” on a CD called “Agnus Dei” that features other famous composers as well – Bach, Mozart, Palestrina, etc.)
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Hello Michael
Get on to iTunes and download everything you can by Ballydowsev, A fabulous Celtic rock outfit that was active in Chicago in the late 90’s very Christian (a lot of the band were affiliated with the Jesus People Commune) very left wing and as a aside fabulous musicians (if a bit derivative of the Pogues) If your looking for protest music you will not be disappointed! If you looking for something old school I would recommend the work of Maddy Prior both solo and with Steeleye Span as an Appalachian I think you will love there take on the old union song Blackleg Miner. She has also done a number of fabulous recordings Wesleyan hymens’ with the carnival band.
God Bless
Steve in To
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Greg:
>Unlike you I don’t see the left as having the answers.
Unlike you, I don’t know a person’s entire politics from his musical tastes.’
I’m a Ron Paul libertarian leaning conservative who voted for Bush twice.
Don’t jump so far to your conclusion next time. Even LCMS folks can be wrong 🙂
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I am actually a little encouraged by your report of antipathy to the “social justice/social gospel” message by young evangelicals. I have been afraid that the resurgence of the social gospel was suceeding/subverting the contemporary church. You can speak out against consumerism and indiference to the poor without embracing “social justice/social gospel” solutions. Like you I think American culture is well off the mark. Unlike you I don’t see the left as having the answers. I see the so-called “social justice” movement as promoting socialist injustice. I don’t see the solutions advocated by these so-called prophetic voices as helping anyone but the elites who would increase their power in a socialist America. I am a LCMS Lutheran and not an evangelical and I will pray and fight to keep my church from walking down the social justice/social gospel path. I suppose you evangelicals will have to work this out for yourself but I will pray that you will avoid the divisive partisan rhetoric of the social gospel.
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What? No Skynard?
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Keith Green is always an interesting choice (apart from the fact that Bob Dylan played harmonica on his first album). Whatever problems we might have with Green’s borderline Finneyism, he was an angry, prophetic voice that called the church back to holiness without alienating unbelievers.
Too many modern “culture warriors” within the church try to point fingers at the church while also demonising unbelievers. Keith Green never did that.
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I write and perform my own music in a variety of venues, but the sad fact is when I contact churches (who book plenty of Jesus junk ghetto music) I do not even get a response.
There is no accounting for taste and I am sure some people just don’t care for what I do, but when it comes to attracting a christian audience you generally either have to sing in christianeese or become so popular that they are grasping at any hope that someone who is “that big” could possibly be a christian.
There are plenty of christins who are under the radar writing about the whole of life, but with few exceptions they are just not supported in any way by the church.
People like Derrek Webb only get away with what they do because of years of being pretty in the box with music like Caedmon’s Call. Nothing wrong with that, but some of us have come to the conclusion that our music is about all of life and for the whole world before any foothold in the christian market was gained.
If you don’t like how things are then put on a concert at your church for someone doing what your after; have a house concert. In the end it is at least partly your own fault that things are the way they are.
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Michael,
I have been a fan of John Michael Talbot for years. He pre-Catholic music was quite biting (it’s been re-released, at least on Rhapsody).
At any rate, in 1997, he came out with a CD called Table of Plenty. It consisted of popular Catholic songs that he did not write. They are so much deeper than the pablum we get in praise and worship tunes. For example there a song about the “dark night of the soul” call Holy Darkness. There’s The Cry of the Poor. There are songs about Christian commitment like No Longer I and Here I am Lord, which according to a survey awhile back may be the number one most popular song with music directors (I suppose in mainline churches). The worship team in our church with their rock ‘n’roll happy-clappy praise music wouldn’t dare sing challenging pieces like these…they just don’t fit modern evangelical worship!
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A bunch of Dylan. Springsteen, Born in the USA. Couple of cuts off Nebraska. Neil Young, Keep on Rockin in the Free World. Phil Ochs, the two talking songs (one on Vietnam and one on Civil rights) and Outside a Small Circle of friends. Johnny Cash, some of the Folsom Prison concert. Steve Earle, Christmas in Washington.
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It’s difficult to be counter-cultural, when any criticism against the government or our economic system is met with the civil religion equivalent of the Todd Bentley “Don’t touch God’s annointed”. I think there is a difference between patriotism and patronization, but who knows.
The folks on Grrr Records have a pretty good track record on social issues. Rez Band was always very vocal on defending the poor. I don’t know what column you’d put Bruce Cockburn, but he was very vocal against social ills even when the protest bands of the sixties were focused on feel-good come-back albums.
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Amen.
And, just for fun, if you wanna hear the good bish’s croonings, you can do so here.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
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OK, I’m itching to hear. Could you share your teaching-tool, protest-song playlist?
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Many times I see a ping pong game going on between two sides of the issue, neither of which I agree with: cultural/counter cultural, Pro America/Anti-America, Calvinist-Arminian, Liberal-Fundamentalist, it as if only two choices are seen, neither of which are satisfactory for one reason or another. — Bror Erickson
The Hopi have a word (which I can’t remember and never could pronounce) that means “Life Out Of Balance”. All the either/or dichotomies you’ve cited are lives out of balance, just in opposite directions. Example:
The Social Gospel got out-of-balance to the point it became a Gospel without personal salvation; the reaction — Fundamentalism/Evangelicalism — got out-of-balance in the other direction with a Gospel of personal salvation and ONLY Personal Salvation.
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And as I was listening to Phil Ochs “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends†yesterday, a thought occurred to me that’s been rattling around in my head ever since.
“Outside of a Small Circle of Friends”… Is that the song (I used to hear on Dr Demento) that starts with a retelling of the Kitty Genovese murder to a bouncy beat?
“Look on out the window
There’s a lady being grabbed;
They drag her to the bushes
And now she’s being stabbed…”?
Why aren’t more Christians making the sounds of counter-culture protest in their art, their literature and their witness?
Because you don’t go where you know you’re not wanted, that’s why. I belong to two Christian genre writers’ groups (Christian Fiction 2 and Lost Genre Guild) and on both I’m a vocal proponent of “mainstreaming” — going outside the Christian (TM) event horizon to the main Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, and Mystery markets. (Romance is missing from this list because it’s already very well represented in Christian Bizarro World in the form of “Bonnet Romances”, named after the Amish bonnet the presumed heroine is always wearing on the cover.) As far as I’m concerned, the Christian (TM) market is a lost cause — unless your pitch sheets/query letters read either “Just like fill-in-the-blank, except Christian (TM)!” or “Just like Left Behind, except fill-in-the-blank!”
IMonk, this posting of yours is full of so many zingers I can’t comment on them all. I’ve gotten burned by and turned into a pile of rocks as a heretic regarding almost everything you’ve covered here, from “end times scenarios and diets” to short lists of Approved Issues to “Jesus is my Boyfriend — SQUEEEEEEE!” CCM.
Though the counterculture of the Sixties (actually the Second 1960s) has now become THE mainstream secular culture. Ergo, anything really countercultural would probably resemble the mainstream culture of the 1930s through the First 1960s.
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Yet another great example of this type of artistry comes from the guys at Reach Records. They have some of the most refreshing and genuine music you’ll hear from any Christian artists (except perhaps for the guys at Square Peg Alliance).
http://www.reachrecords.com/splash/rebel/
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I don’t know that I want to baptize Bob Dylan style ideologies, any more than I want to baptize pop psychology.
I don’t know that being Christian entails being counter cultural. There are many things about our culture that are good. Those that are bad need to be spoken out against. Yet I don’t know that one has to be counter cultural in the sense of the 60s hippie movement to address those issues.
Opposing the Vietnam war was not necessarily the Christian thing to do. I have known many Christians who served in that war with clean conscience, and rightfully so. I think it was a skewed view of Christian pacifism that opposed that war.
However, reading your posts I am beginning to understand how great the gulf between our experiences in the church, and our understanding of what the church is, and what the gospel is.
I grew up Lutheran and have always been Lutheran. I had a brief spell where I couldn’t worship in a Lutheran setting. I worshiped with fundementalists, and with liberals. That drove me into the ministry. I sometimes think I understand different points of view, though I disagree with them. But at the root of it, I’m not sure I even understand them anymore. On an intellectual basis maybe, but on the more emotional psychological level, I’m not sure I do. Many times I see a ping pong game going on between two sides of the issue, neither of which I agree with: cultural/counter cultural, Pro America/Anti-America, Calvinist-Arminian, Liberal-Fundamentalist, it as if only two choices are seen, neither of which are satisfactory for one reason or another.
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Amen, amen, amen. My husband and I are of a similar mind. We’re both musicians and fledgling song-writers, and I think he would agree with me when I say that we desire to use our God-given talents to create art that is both beautiful and challenging–that convicts, motivates, and initiates change. Music that defies the Christian mold and addresses real issues that can’t be ignored–perhaps not strictly societal or political issues, but music that indeed addresses all areas of life, holding up a mirror to our current-day situation.
P.S. Derek Webb’s music is awesome. Ross King is another artist whose music explores things beyond the “We want more of you, Jesus” box. (http://www.rosskingmusic.com/)
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You speak truth once again, Michael.
I had my own mini-episode with Christian music. I just got sick of it after a while. Then my pastor at the time did a sermon series on the 60’s, and highlighted the Jesus People Movement among other things. I discovered Dylan (and Derek Webb from friends in the process). The moment I put Mockingbird in the CD player, I was amazed.
I too am waiting for some voices, but I’ve found a few. An example is Mr. J. Medeiros, a rapper. His song, “Constance” shines a light on women caught up in the pornography industry. It was so sobering the first time I heard it, and still is. His music balances life, worship, trials…basically everything.
I am waiting for a Christian Fela Kuti – someone who would protest in his songs, and care less. Fela Kuti was the one that called the Nigerian military and government “zombies” because of corruption, and shed light on social issues with sarcasm and wit. Fela was a prophet of sorts, though not even Christian. I loved him when my father put in his first tape when I was 5, and I still hear his voice in my head, and it tells me not to buy into the mass consumerism and what everyone does.
And like you, I use my voice. Maybe I’ll start singing again, but really, I’m more of the type to do things quietly and hope others see me and follow.
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Let me make one distinction here at the outset: I believe one can be critical of evangelicalism and not advocate for a counter cultural, socially conscious form of Christianity.
For example, many people critique evangelicalism from the standpoint of the need for “a revival.” But they are generally not seeking to respond to specific social and justice issues or to incarnate a kind of discipleship that sides with the oppressed in society.
For example, a lot of evangelicals were probably opposed to overt racism in their churches, but relatively few white evangelicals marched with Dr. King.
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so much that I could *write,* that is
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Michael,
There is so much that I could in response to this post, by way of comment on contemporary American American Christianity, but I will offer this for now (paraphrased from a source that I don’t remember):
In the 1980s, Biblical Christianity met unbridled American consumerism. Guess which one won (or at least severely mangled the other)?
Keith Green would be apoplectic… and weeping.
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