Artistic consequences: How religious institutions' waffling affects Christian art
The Lauren Daigle debacle from 2018, when the Grammy-nominated contemporary Christian music singer refused to affirm the Christian teaching that homosexual activity is a sin, takes on a whole new meaning when one discovers that some Christians use her songs, like many other works in the genre of contemporary Christian music, to evangelize people with their hopeful content, and ultimately, to get an audience interested in Christ.
Usually, contemporary Christian music was intended to represent God's grace in comparison to the human condition, and let the listener know that God loves them.
The moral of almost any CCM song is that God wants to give people hope. In other words, he will give the audience optimism, and that they can share their worries or express their feelings with him; hearers may then grow and solidify in faith from this comforting, grace-centered foundation.
"Words," which Hawk Nelson sang in 2014, reminds the audience to use language that builds others up, as per God's standard, when they are communicating with people. "[Words] made me feel like a prisoner/They made me feel set free." Words have the power to give comfort. "I want to speak Your life/Not just another noise/I want to be Your life/I want to be Your voice."
"The Comeback," a 2017 production of Danny Gokey, reminds us that God will help us reach our comeback. "This is your time, your moment/The fire, the fight, you're golden/You've come so far, keep going/This is your comeback." Gokey alludes to the Biblical account of David defeating Goliath: "There is no giant you can't face."
However, some believers consider CCM too "worldly" for a professed Christian environment (church or listener consumption). In their argument, when people listen to music, their happiness skyrockets to the stratosphere! As a result, their happiness soars like a turkey vulture far into the sky, and some purportedly Christian singers or groups take advantage of music that focuses on those giddy emotions and inoffensive, intentionally "blank" lyrics rather than on Jesus, while pretending to praise him. CCM had detractors to start with.
For a few believers, the Daigle incident adds on to the extremely cheery, occasionally overused lyrics and themes and further reinforces CCM's already-mixed reputation.
Some listeners' former enjoyment of CCM has been soured, and they no longer trust Daigle's music. They now critique the content of Christian music more carefully.
Social consequences: When engaging the culture goes crazy
The social consequences may include the congregation evaluating church events more carefully, as this represents another example of "engaging the culture," missing the point of what it originally meant.
"Engaging the culture" sometimes means using popular events and media to have people, or "seekers," thinking about Christianity. However, it did not mean partaking in misleading content from the world in order to draw people to Christ. The party arose from seeing Christianity as entertainment and needing the vaguely secular concept of "happy vibes" to define the figure of Jesus himself.
Such consequences in the present time
Christian art forms, like music, especially have to somehow "spark joy" immediately, but cannot use too many Biblical ideas or references, partly to account for seekers who do not know many Biblical passages yet, and mainly to avoid changing the happy vibes to reflective ones.
"Happy vibes" moves past the mere fear of hurt feelings. Language such as "engaging the culture" and "seeker-oriented" falls prey to the "happy vibes" trap, ignoring the fact that Jesus loves all of humanity in Christian teaching, but is not always a fun-loving figure in his Biblical portrayal. It treats Christianity more like a big party or an action-packed TV show.
- These examples have patterns still in effect today in some churches; they may be historical markers of the "happy vibes" becoming a bigger need in religious ministries.
Some charge that the Catholic Church has tried syncretism, and that it has inserted pagan rituals into services including the mass. Churches sometimes feel like rock concerts, without considering a more traditional stage setup as a break. Christian colleges and churches sometimes carry rainbow flags.
The need for "happy vibes," the ideal that all Christian art or events need to immediately be fun and "be inclusive," is the main reason why religious institutions flop and fall flat on the ground when it comes to applying Biblical doctrine.
Editor's Note: How does a conservative person loathe liberal content? Let us count the ways. Support our work so we can keep bringing you the truth.
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