Then, Christian music must also minister to people.
Music of any kind makes a statement. But for Christians, they can’t simply write a song without care of how it affects people, but must make sure it is consistent with Christian values and purposes, and doesn’t “stumble” people, as the phrase goes.
And in order to accomplish this, many Christian artists hedge their bets and write songs that are of saccharine sweetness — not because they themselves are not familiar with suffering or have nothing deeper to say, but because they don’t want to take the risk of writing a song that is so honest that it might negatively impact a person spiritually or emotionally. I can’t really think of too many secular artists for whom such concerns are any kind of consideration. Maybe Chris Brown? Probably not.
Third, these unfortunate people must then think about all of the other more general considerations of musicianship: Is the song catchy?
Is it musically creative? Will it sell? Do I sing well? Am I out of tune? Is this the right kind of drum beat, or should I ask to compress that snare some more? Why can’t I get along with my guitarist? How do I get my music out there? How do I set myself apart? How do I feed my family? Is law school totally out of the picture??
And lastly, Christian artists make music for some of the harshest critics in the world.
As much as I hate to admit it, evangelicals are a touchy and judgmental bunch, given to vocally criticizing the smallest perceived infraction of their values. You think I’m making this up, but I’m not.
For instance, the children’s show VeggieTales once wrote an episode where the antagonist sings a song about how chocolate bunnies are awesome to eat. And there was an outcry about this song, parents writing in that they didn’t think it was appropriate for their children to be singing a song about bad eating habits, even if it was sung by the antagonist! I guess they didn’t trust their children to pick up on the fact that a song sung by the bad guy is not supposed to be prescriptive.
Anyway, the outcry was hot enough to make the creators of the show rewrite the song with more palatable lyrics!
