What I Heard On The Radio

Before I begin this post, let me remind you to be looking for the first musician in the Bible! See this post if you missed the challenge. Before I give the answer, I wonder if anyone else has any guesses? Have you been looking for him?

This post is a continuation of our discussion on Psalm 150 and applying it to our music. If you missed the other posts, here is the first one and here is the second one.

It is no secret that I LOVE to listen to Christian radio. I listen to the radio all day long, when I'm in my vehicle, over the internet while I am in the office, and its always going at my house. Yeah, you could say I'm addicted. That's ok. I believe that Christian radio is so, SO important.

But this post isn't really supposed to be about why I feel Christian radio is important or why you should listen to it or why I am in love with the radio. I would love to tell you all that, and I most likely will, one of these days. :) Don't say I didn't warn you! But today I'd like to share with you something I heard while I was listening to the radio. It just happened to go along well with our discussion of Psalm 150.

I don't even know what the program was or who the guy was that was doing the talking. I wasn't really paying attention to that part. But a mother wrote in to give this situation and ask a question.

She had a 16 year old son that was part of a hard rock band with his buddies. They had been together for a year and a half. She was a Christian and so was her son. They recently had an offer to be sponsored by XYZ person, with an "opening night" in conjunction with another, more popular band. This opportunity, as far as they were concerned was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and they couldn't believe their good fortune.

This mother's concern came because her son was kind of perplexed as to how to present their band. This other, more popular band used profanities in their lyrics. Being a "christian" group, her son and his band didn't know if they should appear with this band that uses bad lyrics. And if they did decide to accept this offer, how "hard" should they come on with their christianity, knowing that the rest of the crowd present would not appreciate their beliefs?

Can I just say that I spent the next 15 minutes forming my response to this mother! I had a few choice things I would have LOVED to have called in a said in response. But I refrained. Instead, I decided to pose my view of this to you, my wonderful blog readers, and get your opinion!

I do think it is neat that this "problem" goes right along with what we've been talking about....how to praise the Lord and honor Him with our music, whatever venue we might be in. So here is my response to this mother and son.

The first concern is whether or not the band should accept this offer, based on the fact that the other band is profane. I think the son and his band needs to realize that if they are going to play hard rock music, they are going to draw a type of crowd that appreciates that music...and that crowd is going to be profane. Profanity and suggestive lyrics are a characteristic of rock music, and no matter how much they try to "christianize" their band, rock music has an understood message...and it is not christianity. As a rock band, they are not going to be associated in people's minds with "religion," but with the kind of music the world wants.

So the next problem is, if they do decide to accept this offer, how "heavy" should they lay on their christianity to this very un-christian crowd? Because of course, on their opening night, they don't want to be rejected. That would not be a very good start to their band.

This band needs to decide what they are most concerned about. Is their objective to become popular by man's standards, or bring glory to God? If they are out to be popular, then by all means they should accept this offer. If they want to focus on bringing glory to God, they need to be in a different line of work. A hard rock band is never going to bring glory to God, so maybe they need to try a different genre of music, one that will honor the Lord not just by its lyrics, but by its presentation, its style, and by the crowd it draws.

I think if this band accepts this offer, they need to leave Christ out of their performance, because the two things can never go together.

I would love to hear how you would have answered this mother's concern. Leave a comment expressing your opinion of this situation! And don't forget to leave a guess as to who the first musician in the Bible is!