Pictured Below: Impending Doom
"If its to loud you're to old" I've been familiar with this quote for years. It is not my quote, however, quotes like this (and I'm sure there are many others like it) are the reason I'm writing today. When I was younger, I was a fan of rap music. At first I wanted to listen to any kind of rap I could get my hands on. Eventually I no longer wanted to listen to just any rap, but only the kind that glorified God. Having only listened to this one genre of music for 3 or 4 years, I knew who a lot of the artists were, and what their message was.
Wednesday night youth group had become a regular part of my schedule, but this week was a little different and for some reason that I can't recall at the moment, my parents were not able to pick me up. A women from the church had been doing some work. She was not part of the youth's leadership, but we knew her well. She was the only person at the youth meeting that was able to give me a ride home so I went with her after service. As we were driving we started talking about youth and work, pretty much just making small talk. Then she said something that has stuck in my mind ever sense. First she asked the question, "What kind of music do you like?" I replied, "I like rap." Her response, with a wagging finger in my face, was, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CHRISTIAN RAPPER!" I must have forgotten that she was my only way home because I just looked at her and said "Where do you get your info from?" That wasn't the most respectful way of asking that question and in retrospect I should have phrased it better. That question lead to a surprised look and a small stammer from her, followed by a questioning statement... "Well name one then!" I named three. I then had a nice talk with her about the Christian rappers that I knew. She still seemed skeptical, so I brought a print out of a few artist and the lyrics of some of their songs when I came to church that Sunday. I told her that I didn't expect her to listen to the songs but that I would like her to reconsider the genre of music as a viable way for the Lord to get his message across and as a good way to worship.
Years later I found my self in a similar scenario, but the other way around. I was the one saying that a specific genre of music had no Christian artists. It happened in almost the exact same way the other incident did. After youth again and in the car on the way home. This time it was another church I was attending and I got a ride with a guy who at the time was a guest speaker at youth. He was a big "metal head." For those who aren't sure what that is, a metal head is simply a person who's favorite or perhaps only music choice is heavy metal music. On the way home, he put a song on that started out sounding fairly normal. Without warning, all of the sudden the song broke into a torrent of a fast double kick drum, a complicated guitar riff and what, at the time to me, sounded like the screaming voice of a demon straight from hell itself. I prayed that he would turn it down before we got to my house so my parents wouldn't yell about what we were listening to in the car. After I was dropped off, I felt strange about what I had just heard. It had made me go as far as to question whether this man was really a Christian. I mean how could he be, he listened to music like that?
The next week at youth I was watching as the youth group praise and worship team warmed up. They started practice with a jam session, and a very heavy jam session. Having heard that, I had to admit I liked it. During that week I looked up some music in that genre on the internet. I found my third love, Christian Death Metal, or as I like to call it "Christ's Death, Metal. I now listen to nearly nothing but this music. I love the passion and skill that these men and women have for their music and their God. They have taken a genre that has been considered by many (including me) to be satanic or pagan (with good reason) and have used it to facilitate bringing the light into a dark place. Metal, although that is a very broad term, has its share of bad Metal, or Black Metal. They often have evil messages about death, Satan, sex, drugs, you name it, they sing about it. As for Christian Metal, it sings praises about God's love, Christ sacrifice, and living a right life in God's eyes. In conclusion, my goal for this post is to bring some light to the subject about the idea that "only music sung by a choir can be of God." Not that hymns and choir music can't be good ways of worship, because they are a wonderful expression of our love for our God, yet their heavier counterparts are as well. I would urge all of you to look into any genre of music and look for God's hand in the words, compare the lyrics with scripture and come to your own conclusion.
For those of you interested in Christian Metal, I have a YouTube channel that my help you, God Bless.
