More of SB/PC Week

Except for a brief time {maybe a month} of listening to one Shania Twain song with a co-worker {of which I'm not proud to say}, I've not been attracted to the world's music. I didn't understand how people could enjoy the loud, offensive rock and roll that just grated on my ear drums--it was so obnoxious. I thought listening to rap was pointless for how in the world could you understand the words spewing out of their mouth's? I had an aversion to breathy singers and those who looked like they were swallowing the microphone whole. None of it was appealing.
Whether it was because I was too lazy to decipher the words, or I was sheltered as a child, I know for sure that God kept watch over me and He was gracious to me because I love music. I could sit all day and listen to someone play on the piano. I could sit for hours and take in orchestra music. I love singing hymns whether to a CD while driving in the car, or in worship and praise to God with fellow believers in church.

Classical music and sacred hymns are what I listen to. In my sophomore year, while on our way to a college activity, a senior once asked me what my favorite music was. When I said classical music or hymns, he gave a derisive snort and said, "Come on. I won't tell." What about pop, or rock? Soft rock or maybe even country? I remember feeling like a small bug, but repeated with quiet conviction and surety, "No, just classical and hymns."

I remember we didn't talk much after that--but really, it wasn't like we had anything in common!

So, when Dr. Cloud taught on music--the dangers and philosophies and such, I was like a sponge soakin' the water.

Sure, I don't listen to "bad music", but why? Because I don't like how it sounds? Because I grew up listening and singing mainly just hymns? Because I was told not to listen to worldly music?

Yes to all. But, if someone wanted to know why "that" music was wrong, I would be hard-pressed to give an answer. I've never been called on for answers, but if someone did, just what would I tell them?

And if that's not enough, Contemporary Christian music is the "middle" ground--not so stuffy like the old hymns of the faith, and yet not so "out there" as the music in the world. To be honest, I remember hearing the term CCM as a youth, but I didn't really know what it was. I didn't know the big names in the industry back then, and I didn't know them when Dr. Cloud was talking about them on Tuesday and Wednesday morning of PC week.

I did know the churches he was saying that used the same words and beat as the CCM crowd. For example, he showed a clip in which West Coast college singing group sang an original song by Casting Crowns, and transitioning it to the actual Casting Crown group singing it. The West Coast college singing group sang the same song with the same beat and rhythm! The only thing missing was a drum set and movement of bodies.

A statement he made also made me sit up in shock. Did you know the song, "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" by Stuart Townend was written so that it could be a stepping stone between hymns and contemporary-so-called-Christian-music? By the author's own words. That was his goal--to slowly pull more people into using contemporary style of music in churches.

I have sung that song many times and I had no idea. Ignorance is not bliss, especially when one is in the wrong. It is also not good that I, along with many others, have no knowledge of what is going on in churches around us. Just holding the line with no offensive is not good enough. Attacks are being infiltrated through and we are weakening--whether it be for lack of knowledge, or because our churches are accepting a change in music standards.

Once you know something, you have a responsibility to do something with that knowledge. I know that my eyes have begun to open and I'm so thankful for the warnings Dr. Cloud has sounded. I'm grateful for how God has used him in the past and continues to use him today.