Does Anyone Miss Worship Music?

[Vomit Comet]

 

And I admit it gave me a little bit of joy when I found out that David Bazan deconverted a few years back. I'd recommend Curse Your Branches to anyone still working through their loss of faith in an instant.

 

Whoa! The Pedro The Lion guy! Holy shit! I'll have to get that album. I was a big fan of them years ago.

 

I really had to laugh at the Christian kids at Cornerstone who were in denial about it and trying to spin everything around.

[★ Citsonga ★]

OK, with all the talk about Pedro The Lion, I just looked them up on Amazon and am listening to some samples. They just sound like Counting Crows wanna-be's to me.

[Temijin]

I do. Very occassionally I find myself humming some worship songs in my head. Sometimes I miss that "spiritual" feeling when you're in a room with a group of people singing.

[Sheild Maiden]

I still listen to a few Christian rock and pop bands; I still enjoy the songs even if I disagree with the message.

 

I listen to Demon Hunter, August Burns Red, Norma Jean, Kutless, Flyleaf and Campaign. I still listen to Christian Christmas music during Yule-tide as well.

 

I realized I get that same spiritual feeling while listening to Florence + The Machine and while watching the musicals numbers on Glee,

[Bacon25]

I never liked Christian music; it drove me nuts. However, I do kind of miss the free live music that I got to see on Sundays. I went to a large evangelical free church where the music resembled a loud rock concert. Every Sunday, there were 2 services: one for the elderly and more conservative folks which wasn't nearly as loud.. and then the 11:00 service which consisted of the younger generation that turned up the volume and let loose. The musicians on stage were definitely talented, lead singer had impressive vocals, and it actually sounded really good most of the time.

 

Lately, I've been going back to that church just so I can get out, enjoy some entertainment, and feel a sense of community. I've gotten to a point where I don't socialize much anymore, because everyone my age is married, and I'm still single. Most of my friends have gotten married and moved out of town. So it's my way of getting out and not feeling so isolated. I tend to get ADD when the pastor is talking, a nice time to clear my mind, but it still bugs me when I notice people that are so brainwashed, like I used to be.

[ClaraOlive]

And I admit it gave me a little bit of joy when I found out that David Bazan deconverted a few years back. I'd recommend Curse Your Branches to anyone still working through their loss of faith in an instant.

 

I'd be interested in finding out about any Christian musicians who have truly deconverted in a thoughtful way (and not just become very secularized like Katy Perry or Jessica Simpson, who both still claim theism), whether I like their music or not.

 

I think that the Christian artist who I hate most now is Ray Boltz. Have you guys heard the "does he still feel the nails?" song. That's possibly the worse shit I've ever heard.

 

There isn't any Christian music that I regularly listen to now. The hymns and praise music that my parents listened to when I was a child turn my stomach because of the lyrics. I do see some renditions of Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art to be more of cultural relics than anything else, and I can appreciate them when performed by certain people (NOT as alter calls though!) However, that's not the kind of music that I would often listen to.

 

I have some nostalgia for Newsboys and Jars of Clay (I think you can tell how old the people in this thread are by what they remember as CCM). I might listen to an old album once a year. There are several Jars of Clay songs that aren't explicitly Christian, aren't there? What does NOT bother me is secular songs by a Christian artist (or an artist who happens to be Christian). If I heard an album that was all about something else with no mention of god, and then later found that the artist was a Christian, that wouldn't turn me off to the album. I didn't know that Sufjan Stevens was Christian until I read it here, because I'd only heard the Michigan album. I guess the exception is love songs - I do find it distasteful to find out they were about god, but I'm not really a love song person. Other bands like DC Talk and Audio Adrenaline, I just find too immature and un-musical to like anymore whether they were Christian or not. Kind of in the NKOTB category.

 

I don't miss singing in church because it makes me mad to see how manipulative it is for getting people "feeling spiritual".

[nightcomeson]

And I admit it gave me a little bit of joy when I found out that David Bazan deconverted a few years back. I'd recommend Curse Your Branches to anyone still working through their loss of faith in an instant.

 

I'd be interested in finding out about any Christian musicians who have truly deconverted in a thoughtful way (and not just become very secularized like Katy Perry or Jessica Simpson, who both still claim theism), whether I like their music or not.

 

I think that the Christian artist who I hate most now is Ray Boltz. Have you guys heard the "does he still feel the nails?" song. That's possibly the worse shit I've ever heard.

 

There isn't any Christian music that I regularly listen to now. The hymns and praise music that my parents listened to when I was a child turn my stomach because of the lyrics. I do see some renditions of Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art to be more of cultural relics than anything else, and I can appreciate them when performed by certain people (NOT as alter calls though!) However, that's not the kind of music that I would often listen to.

 

I have some nostalgia for Newsboys and Jars of Clay (I think you can tell how old the people in this thread are by what they remember as CCM). I might listen to an old album once a year. There are several Jars of Clay songs that aren't explicitly Christian, aren't there? What does NOT bother me is secular songs by a Christian artist (or an artist who happens to be Christian). If I heard an album that was all about something else with no mention of god, and then later found that the artist was a Christian, that wouldn't turn me off to the album. I didn't know that Sufjan Stevens was Christian until I read it here, because I'd only heard the Michigan album. I guess the exception is love songs - I do find it distasteful to find out they were about god, but I'm not really a love song person. Other bands like DC Talk and Audio Adrenaline, I just find too immature and un-musical to like anymore whether they were Christian or not. Kind of in the NKOTB category.

 

I don't miss singing in church because it makes me mad to see how manipulative it is for getting people "feeling spiritual".

 

Unless you count Dan Barker of FFRF/Godless fame, Bazan's the only one I know about who did so in a thoughtful manner, even if it did coincide with an emotional collapse (interview with Christianity Today and eMusic). Part of me isn't terribly surprised that coming out as gay seems to be easier and more common by far (the aforementioned Boltz, Jennifer Knapp, Tonéx, etc.) than leaving the faith, but then Christian musicians might actually have more to lose than most people apart from pastors if they did out themselves spiritually. Reorienting yourself to a gay Christian base is a lot less radical than eschewing Christianity altogether. Hell, I'm pretty sure the reason Bazan's still able to keep touring is because both Pedro's fan base and lyrical topics extended far beyond the Christian bubble; in his "faithful critique" he was already entertaining and singing thoughts that most CCM artists could or would not touch.

 

Though I wish it were otherwise, I don't think we're going to see too many Christian artists come out as atheists ever. If you find out about anyone else, please let me know. :-)

 

With Sufjan I started with Illinois and worked backwards; although some of the songs on that album, "Casimir Pulaski Day" especially, really should have set off alarms, it wasn't until I got deep into his discography when his faith commitments became obvious. If you want to hear him in his Christian mode, pick up Seven Swans or any of his Christmas albums--to give you fair warning, the church of which I was last a member actually used to sing his

in services.

 

Someone like Sufjan, though, actually blends faith and introspection rather well, blurring that line between what we consider "secular" and "religious" by pointing out, especially in the states albums, that American history is often both at once.

 

And I don't mind Christians artists using love songs to describe their relationship with God. Love songs way too often take religious (or at least spiritual) connotations and symbolism even when they're about actual or hypothetical people; seeing it blended the other way doesn't bother me so much.

 

Even I have my limits as to how far songs should be co-opted, though.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5CTnuY5m4

 

 

(I get link-crazy sometimes.)

[★ Citsonga ★]

I'd be interested in finding out about any Christian musicians who have truly deconverted in a thoughtful way (and not just become very secularized like Katy Perry or Jessica Simpson, who both still claim theism), whether I like their music or not.

 

I'm not sure how thoughtful he was, and from what little I've seen he seems to spew a lot of hate, but Roger Martinez of Vengeance Rising is the one who pops into my mind.

[Ramen666]

Hell nah, I hated it. I think the music is quite bland and generic.

[MWTP]

Not at all! I found most Christian "praise and Worship" music to be extreamy simple, unimaginative, and insanely repetative. As posted above, how many ways, and how many times, can you sing "God is holy." I gotta give some credit here... The traditional hymns were FAR superior to modern "worship" music. I remember one time we dragged my oldest son (who is an excellent guitar player) to church. His comment was that the worship music was lame. To prove his point he went into his room after the service, and wrote a "worship" song in, I swear, about four minutes, lyrics and all. The hilarious thing was that it was pretty damn good (comparitively). It could be sung in any church today (and yes it was about God being Holy!)! Now-a-days I do not listen to any of it. It bothers me. The only Christian music I still listen too is Stryper, because THAT is one hell of a talented band!

[lunaticheathen]

I tried to like worship/CCM when I was trying to be a christian. But it's just awful. For all the stated reasons above. I went to a couple of free concerts for christian musicians at the fundie school, I think they were Avalon (which even then, I knew was stolen from pagans, the cunts) and Amy Grant. Avalon had a Q&A, where they admitted they didn't write their own insipid lyrics. I wrote them off right then. Amy Grant sang a song about abortion from the "fetus' point of view" which made me so disgusted, I walked out. I don't give anything with a "worship" or "CCM" label any chances any more. Also, one of the stupid roadies for Grant ran into my dad's motorcycle. Never paid for it either. Assholes.

I will admit to listening to Jewel's xmas album sometimes, because it's pretty. And Sufjan Stevens, sometimes.

But I consider spiritual music to be Tool's album Lateralus. Definitely not christian.

[Vomit Comet]

I'm not sure how thoughtful he was, and from what little I've seen he seems to spew a lot of hate, but Roger Martinez of Vengeance Rising is the one who pops into my mind.

 

I remember hearing all kinds of fucked up rumors, that he had turned into some fundamentalist Satanist conspiracy theorist who was totally on the war path against the Christian heavy metal crowd he left behind. What really happened?

[★ Citsonga ★]

I'm not sure how thoughtful he was, and from what little I've seen he seems to spew a lot of hate, but Roger Martinez of Vengeance Rising is the one who pops into my mind.

 

I remember hearing all kinds of fucked up rumors, that he had turned into some fundamentalist Satanist conspiracy theorist who was totally on the war path against the Christian heavy metal crowd he left behind. What really happened?

 

I don't really know for sure. I've heard that he got pissed off because the christian label they were on supposedly ripped them off. But, of course, that could be the christian filtered version, since they can't fathom the possibility of someone having rational reasons to reject christianity and often just assume that someone is just angry over something.

 

He may very well have been angry (I've seen quotes attributed to him that sounded angry), but we all know that most of us who go through deconversion have a stage of resentment over having been lied to. Of course, that's anger fueled by one's findings during deconversion, not deconversion fueled by anger (the latter of which is what christians tend to assume to be the case).

 

What really happened with Roger, I don't know. If I get some spare time, I may eventually look further into it on the net. I did hear that he had some counter-christian teaching tapes out at some point, so it would be interesting to get a hold of some of them and hear what he had to say.