Theology Pub Night

So last night was different than any other pub night except that we tried to go over to BWW. The line was long and we decided to fall into a familiar routine at Old Chicago. There’s something romantic about meeting in the same place every week. The group feels more local and traditional.

On with the story…Dave and I got talking about music through course of a thousand conversations. I mentioned my one sided listening habits as they pertain to pop music. My upbringing has fostered a bias towards the christianese music. My mom and dad really did not appreciate secular (in there words the worldly music). I fought to even listen to DcTalk when I was 13. They didn’t like the idea that DcTalk would even use the word SEX in on of there songs. Granted here’s how the lyrics went “I don’t want, I don’t it want your sex for now”. The song goes on to talk about waiting until your married to have SEX and all forms terrible stuff right! I mean seriously people whats wrong with um bop um bop bop um bop come on. Not that I like Hanson but you get the point thats what I was listening to when DcTalk was BIG.

So too make a short story longer than it really needs to be heres what we talked about after my clouded skewed view was exposed. I made that comment that I really did not mind the secular genre. That being said, I mentioned that I maybe own like two CD’s of other artist. By other I mean the worldly ones, now I sound like my parents. So any hoot, I said there was a disconnect in my mind that there could be a Christian who just happened to be a secular artist. There are a fair number of people who go mainstream or start out not having any affiliation with the so called evangelical filtering system. They may not have there music in the Christian book store but they can still believe can’t they.

Dave having come from a catholic background was not really even exposed to the Christian music scene that much. So his comment was well there’s music we sing in church and there’s the music that is played on the radio. Fair enough but what if you there is an alternative to mainstream radio and secular music. See thats the tricky part because there is a huge industry built on bashing innocent secular artist’s by saying there music isn’t moral enough to listen to so we listen to “Relient K instead of Blink 182″ sure there are some artists out there that are terrible at dumping filth into songs. But if we are to take music for music and lyrics for what they are then we have no case. There is an incredible wealth of music in the mainstream industry that has a very good message. My eye’s were opened to the short wave world I live in trying to make Christian music my staple diet.

I guess the moral of the story is that there are Christians in the world who make music. Not just Christian music and not always completely theologically based, but music not the less. So it’s my challenge to all of you who have been boxed in by the Christian music scene to explore the world of music a little more. Look at music for what it is and why it’s there and find something new that has depth and value outside of the Christian book store.

Nathan (Guardian of Pub Night, and the free theological expression of saints over and large glass of Guiness).