Get Jesus out of Contemporary Music

The Conspiracy here is the Christian rights sticking their greedy little paws into every aspect of our lives, including music.....

My wife listens to modern Country music exclusively. I am, on the other hand, a Rocker from way back, in the 60s way back. Being a good guy, when we ride in our truck, I will tune the stereo to her favorite country station, she has three of them saved with the quick push buttons.

I am appalled at all of the songs I hear that mention "Jesus," "God" and "Heaven." It seems like every few songs I hear Jesus thing and Jesus that, a very good example is this song.

Carrie Underwood-Jesus, Take the Wheel (with lyrics)


What is going on here? I mean, we know Epic Records is all Churched up, and the loss of beautiful Amy Grant to Pop probably left the Christian right in shock, for a few minutes anyway. Here is a blog quote]that reflects what I am talking about

Perhaps it was “Jesus Take the Wheel” that kicked down the chapel door. Maybe it was even Randy Travis’ “Three Crosses” back in 2002 or so. Who knows. But nowadays the rhythm of Top 40 country has become the thumping of a Bible. There’s always been a mostly-unspoken understanding in country music that it’s a God-fearing Christian at the mic, even when it’s some hell raiser like George Jones or Johnny Cash. Today, though, it’s right in your face. You won’t hear more than two or three songs go by without some mention of God or Jesus or praying or angels.

This sickening stream of treacle and pap makes the lightweight confections of mid-90’s stars like Garth Brooks and Sammy Kershaw look absolutely badass in comparison. In the world of modern country, everybody goes to church, everybody prays, and Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (But Nobody Wants To Go Right Now).

Hey, I’ve got nothing against people singing about their spirituality. Whatever gets you through the night. But I believe in the separation of Church and Station. If I want to listen to Christian rock or hymnals or gospel, I’ll seek it out. I’m trying to get a handle on the zeitgeist of country music, and all this religious pandering is completely gumming up the works.

“Jesus Was a Country Boy,” “Jesus and Mama Always Loved Me,” “Jesus Take the Wheel,” “Jesus and Gravity,” “She Left Me For Jesus,” “800 Pound Jesus”—these aren’t church signs announcing this week’s sermon, they are just a few Christ-based songs that have blessed the country charts in the last couple of years.

www.newwest.net...

As we assess the Christian Right's future prospects from this angle, the movement's political theology is one big piece of the puzzle. Included in the movement are people with diverse viewpoints on the degree and means through which Christians ought to "take dominion" over every aspect of society.

Conspiracy theorizing about the Christian Right's secret agenda to Christianize America involves exposing the hate-mongering and bizarre ideas of a handful of Christian Right players who, as the Native American says, "speaks with a forked tongue." As the Christian Right delves even further into our every aspect of human life, do we sit idly by and let them get away with it? Sometimes I feel like harvesting those little Jesus Fish icons that all have on their trunk lids, and hanging them on my van like the fighter pilots did on WW2.

Let us take a good look here. We have Christians, and we have Muslims. Both are what we secularist call "book religions." No other religion has a "book" that they all rely on for every aspect of truth.
One tries to Convert or Save every living soul on this planet, bar none. They (Christians) have made up a GodMan, and a place for themselves, and get this, a place for us, the others (Secularists, Atheists, Pagans, Wiccans) too! No I do not have a great deal of experience with Muslims, but my wife, who uses an IM client, does. She tells me that not one of her Muslim friends try to convert her, or save her, or even talk about religion, but! Her Christian online friends do! When she tells them she is a Wiccan, they go off on her, and try for as long as she will talk to them to convert her to Jesus. Give your heart and soul to Jesus, they tell her.

What if the Christians are all fooled? What if they are:

1. Offering their Heart, an organ that of taken out you will cease to live.

2.Offering their Soul, an energy field that does not belong to us, and cannot be given over to anyone.

And what if the word they all use for their God, Jesus, is not the man that we all know from the Bible, the one that no body follows anymore, but is in fact a very evil creature that resembles a Dragon? What if one day a large spacecraft lands, and announces that this is the Harvest, and all good Christians need to get on board for the Heavenly Express. And what if when they all do, they suddenly discover, much to their dismay, that the men and children are to be eaten, and the women are to be sex slaves to Reptilians? I know Christians never consider any of this, after all, a Christian writer would never post something like this....

There are some musicians that haven't forgotten the Mother of all Gods, I leave you with my favorite one.
The Pretenders....Hymn To Her

If an artist wants to speak about jesus in their art, they have every right. Just as Ozzie can talk about satan, the Rolling Stones can talk about sympathy for the Devil, etc.

Nobody has the right to tell an artist what and what not to include.

Dont like it? Dont support it with your money.

You can't have art without peoples freedom to express what they want to express.

Just what is the conspiracy that you mentioned? And how do they
have their greedy claws stuck in this? And I would say if you don't like
the Christian music, that is a good reason for the select buttons you
alluded to. Change the channel and quit whining about someone else's
choice of music and how they present it. Have you not heard of the
concept of freedom of expression in this country? I will never understand
the desire of a handful of people to shove down the throats of everyone
else, their pathetic views of the world. Tune in your hard rock and
country stations and quit snivelling.

reply to post by autowrench


How do you feel when "Christians" Say what you should and should not watch? What make your ways more supieror to theres? The fact that you want to censor music is a little sick... Ever Genre of Music talks about Jesus. Mase (Rapper) DMX(Rapper) Creed (rock) Kid Rock (rock) and I could keep going on but I hope you see my point, Jesus isnt going anywhere for a while.

Well, a high quantity of southerners like country music, and it is known that the south is the bible belt.

As long as the artists arent merely invoking Jesus's name to get that christian money, then Id say go for it.

Why do people want to regulate everything?! (ESPECIALLY ART- Which has NO ROOM FOR REGULATION! Regulated art is NOT ART) Pesky Freedom, always getting in the way

reply to post by autowrench


Thanks for the OP. I fully agree with your sentiments. WE do not yet have a xtian right presence here in the UK so I did not know that it was all so big in the USA. It kind of explains the gibbering irrelevancies that appear here in ATS.

There's a lot of wonderful religious music in this world, and then there's Christian Rock.

I love music. I love Jesus. I hate piss-weak imitations of music that only sell because they wave the banner of Christianity.

Is there something about being a modern Christian which robs a person of all song-writing skills? Or do talentless composers include religion in their songs to appeal to an audience who doesn't know the difference?

Only a weak minded individual would change their religion, or any aspect of their life for that matter, because they hear their favorite ARTIST sing about something in a song.

So should Christian painters not paint Jesus either?

I think this is more an issue of your intolerance for freedom of religion, expression, and speech than anything else.

Originally posted by OneDivided

So should Christian painters not paint Jesus either?

That depends.
Do they make pictures as badly as those making Christian Rock make music?

If poor Jesus can hear the crap being churned out in his name, he'll be turning in his stereo.

reply to post by Kailassa

The problem with Xtian rock is they are actually envangelicals first and musicians after so the passiona nd the power is all about xtianity and very little is left in the music. Also they are terrified of the sheer abandonment of the music.

I will be rereading the OP on the xtian right again soon.

I personally agree with those who say freedom of expression is freedom period.

If people want to sing about their god or gods, I certainly dont mind.

I think that there are people who do throw a "Jesus" in there just to sell more records, but I also think that there are other types of music that do the same thing.

Heavy metal exaggerates the dark to grab a certain audience, gansta rap peppers its lyrics with things that grab its audience, pop sings of teenage angst and heartache to grab its audience. Etc.

I dont think the religious thing is any different. If you can appeal to two markets, (ie country and relgious) you have simply positioned yourself for more sales. Maybe gansta rappers can do the same thing, sing about Jesus in the hood watching booty claps or something.

Originally posted by Tiger5
reply to post by Kailassa

 

The problem with Xtian rock is they are actually envangelicals first and musicians after so the passiona nd the power is all about xtianity and very little is left in the music. Also they are terrified of the sheer abandonment of the music.

I will be rereading the OP on the xtian right again soon.

You are right about the abandonment. It takes a pagan zest for life to surf the emotional waves of real music. That's not necessarily antithetical to Christianity, but it's bred out of people raised too strictly.

I agree with most of the posters in this thread. Artistic freedom cuts both ways. Or rather, *all* ways. It means there is alway something that's going to annoy somebody. Sometimes music is controversial for religion, occultism, or mysticism. Sometimes its politics. Sometimes its lyrics that skirt the borders of decency.

If you dislike it and can't open your mind enough to look beyond the lyrics of any given song and just enjoy the tune, my advice is to simply wait. It's a fad, like so much else in music/art, and eventually it, too, shall pass.

reply to post by autowrench


Boy you are a cry baby!!!!! Who cares dont listen to it. Tolerance should be the rule of the day if it does not infirnge on your rights it is ok. And the same goes the other way around. So wipe the tears away and suck it up and grow a set and ask the dear old wife to turn the music channel. Maybe this has more to do with you not having control over the radio what do you think.

Just do what I do when I turn the station and come across a song that refers to women as b****es and ho's... the next station, something sappy, and so on and so on.... pop in a cd that you like! Problem solved! I don't get offended, thats just silly... its not rocket science...

reply to post by autowrench


Hey auto ,
Here is real Christian music. Please do not reply unless you read and listen completely.
Thank you
It would be appreciated if some one could get the link thingy up here as I am as old as the song. Thanks in advance Donny
PS this won't hurt you. It is history.

Onward, Christian Soldiers
Words: Sabine Baring-Gould, 1864. Music: Arthur Sullivan, 1871.

www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/n/onwardcs.htm - Similar

reply to post by autowrench


No.

If it wasn't for Christian music I would never know the joy of Metal. Back when I was an adolescent my parents would only allow me to listen to Christian Rock but thanks to the expansion of Christian music into genres other than hymns and soft music I was able to discover Christian Metal. Bands like Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying and others opened my mind to Metal.

So even now that I am no longer a Christian I still listen to plenty of Christian Metal so I say let the Christians play whatever genre of music they want, if the musicians are talented and the messages of the lyrics aren't so direct as to slam their savior down our throats then I'm all for it.

As a metal musician who happens to be christian , i can ASSURE you that there are many of us who don't feel a need to explicitly state that we believe in jesus or just toss around his name. In fact if you read some of my lyrics you would think i was either an atheist or satanist.


Point is, OP sounds exactly like some Christian evangelical calling for the censorship of music and other forms of art. As a metal musician i have had to put up with this garbage for years from various sources, so much so that the government tried passing legislation against my chosen art-form. Trust me buddy. Replace that word "christian" with "Satan" and try to honestly tell me you don't sound like some oppressive evangelical who can't stand the fact that the government allows people to think differently than him.

reply to post by autowrench


This is the most pathetic and un-American piece of crap I've read since joining ATS. "Jesus Take the Wheel" is about someone giving their life to their savior... or to put it in non-chrisitian terms, it's a song about someone who no longer has their life in their own hands. Country music is deeply imbedded with christian sentiment. Randy Travis, though started out country, became a gospel singer. He's still played on the country stations due to his country style of music. Music is a style. Country, Rock, Metal, Rap, R&B, Pop.... and all have the right to express themselves however they see fit. Don't get your panties in a wad over this, ma'am!