have you ever listened to any of the harder bands that are christian? not pop, but hard rock, alternative, metal, etc? not necessarily talking about Jesus either, but some decent music. My first experience with Christian rock was back in the 80's with Stryper--To Hell With The Devil! big hair, black and yellow spandex, and loud rock

Amen!! Preach, brotha!  Tell it like it is!!!!

In all seriousness, I agree with you.  Some of the lyrics to these songs are pretty creepy - not at all what I think a relationship with your saviour should be like.  I mean, there's a line that you don't cross, you know?  Your love for Christ should be very, very different than your love for your wife or husband or girlfriend.  Actually, those songs and the church's acceptance and encouragement of them are part of the reason I decided that I had to reject modern religion and walked away from the church.

Ick.  They make my skin crawl.

you are so right here. at least 98% of the time. most christian music tries to mimick pop trends and ends up just being a poor imitation. every once in a while tho, there are a few valid artists.

i thought amy grant had a decent run of songs in the 80's. jars of clay were a pretty solid band. a few others...but like i said before, 98% of it is pure crap that's more about using pop trends to hook people on jesus than creating anything that actually tries to carve it's own path.



yeah, they were loud. unfortunately, they weren't very good. about the only band i can remember that was significantly worse than them in the 80's pop metal scene was the japanese outfit, loudness.

Rich Mullins is a personal favorite of mine, largely because of the incredible life he lived. Unfortunately, Rich got tagged with one of his lesser songs (in my opinion) becoming the standard-bearer for Christian pop ("Awesome God"), and too few people know anything of his outside of that.

Yes, and I dislike it just as much as the Jesus pop. Like I said, there are plenty of good Christians making great music, but if it's focused on Jesus, I find it tripe.

Me too. That's why I wrote this article . . .

I wanna get down on my knees and start pleasin' Jesus...

Yes, and I dislike it just as much as the Jesus pop. Like I said, there are plenty of good Christians making great music, but if it's focused on Jesus, I find it tripe.

See, from your article, I thought you had an issue with the music. "I guess the sentiment is okay..." But you actually have a problem with the subject matter. "If it's focused on Jesus," it's crap, then.

Glad you cleared up how you feel about it.

I misspoke. I shouldn't have said "if it's focused on Jesus", I should have said "if it obsesses on Jesus like he's their lover". I can grant that I've heard some really good religious, Jesus-themed music (for example, on their new album, Iron Maiden has an awesome song about the savior) but I hate the love-ballads.

And, for the record - when you've got those really hard, metally songs talking about how much they love Jesus and Jesus loves them back, it feels more blasphemous rather than sacred.

We called this Pom-poms for Jesus music.

While we at it, can we do away with Christian literature? That ranks up there with the Spanish Inquisition on the list of stupid things done in the name of Jesus.

I once tried to read the "Left Behind" series. Halfway through the first book, I stopped.

While the Spanish Inquisition was a bit worse, I think that if you forced my eyes open, "Clockwork Orange" style, and made me sit through the "Left Behind" movies, it would be a greater punishment upon mankind.

Me no likey Kirk Cameron. He scares me. He does funky things with bananas