Christianity Today - John Schlitt Interview

[executioner]

I am somewhat on the fence on this issue. I think the main thing is that we as Christians should be that shining light on the hill in all things we do. If our lyrics in our songs don't show that or our walk through life don't show that light then I think we are truly in the wrong. There are alot of Christian artists out there today that I don't know where their coming from because their lyrics are really shallow in the Gospel. I believe an artist should in every opportunity show their true colors and let their audiences know were they stand.

[calicowriter]

Here's the problem I have with it. If you are a Christian and you want to be a musician, in order to be a "good" Christian, you can only sing about Jesus or the Gospel? What if you want to be a reporter -- does that mean you can only cover Christian events? "Sorry, I can't cover the school board meeting or the opening of the new WalMart because it's not Christian enough."

Now it is obvious that as a Christian, the musician, artist, reporter, etc should avoid things that promote evil. Otherwise, do all things with excellence so that God is honored by our work and our art.

One thing that John used to differentiate was that if you were signed to a Christian label and marketed yourself as a Christian artist, you had better deliver the goods. It just isn't honest to be any other way. It would be like promoting yourself as a rap artist in order to get gigs, but then only have a minimal amount of rap in your act. People might like what you do, but true rappers would have no respect for you.

[brent]

There is a distinction between "watering down" lyrics and cryptically Christian lyrics. I think you can be cryptic without being vague, if you paint a big picture.

Will obtuse lyrics confuse people? Will they prevent a non-believer from understanding the message? What if the listener is searching for meaning in the content?

Conversely, what if the listener is already a believer? What if that Christian listener is no longer interested in being spoonfed formulaic Christian pap...er...pop? What if that Christian listener can engage their brain and gain a different perspective on truth?

GMan, I think you are right here...believers reveal Christ to others, most ideally by their actions...the "lyrics" (or words) should be drowned out by our "music" (or actions).

What is deep to one person is shallow to another, in music and content. So, I don't think that we can make such generalities. I used to. I have since changed my mind. Actually, it was changed for me.

Let's talk rock music. Here is reality. People do not buy this genre for it's spiritual content. The males buy it for the music first. Females buy for looks and lyrical content. There are some patterns that attract the sexes differently. A four on the floor will get the ladies moving most of the time.

Some of the biggest hits are vague, or "plug and play" as I call them. They are applicable to many different situations and people. Sometimes artists (like Nirvana) write so that the lyrics do not necessarily have meaning. They change up the way that words are pronounced, or make up words to fit.

People that need depth do not get it from this genre of music. In fact, maturity of age or the heart and mind = talk radio. Rock bands are going to find it almost impossible to get people to pay money to be preached at. So you have to decide as an artist if you are going to sing to the choir, or get into the secular venues and walk the line.

[brent]

I am somewhat on the fence on this issue. I think the main thing is that we as Christians should be that shining light on the hill in all things we do. If our lyrics in our songs don't show that or our walk through life don't show that light then I think we are truly in the wrong. There are alot of Christian artists out there today that I don't know where their coming from because their lyrics are really shallow in the Gospel. I believe an artist should in every opportunity show their true colors and let their audiences know were they stand.

Why does the artist have to reveal his beliefs in the art directly? Why can't the art open the door to that? Art should relay and describe in a poetic sense. It is not a place for bumper sticker theology.

Christian painters like Thomas Kincaid paint beauty. They aren't painting scripture that decribes the beauty. They portray the beauty that indicates that there must be a reason for it, a designer of it, etc. Music is the same way. A song/poem would not be poetic it came out and blatantly described or gave away the points.

[charl]

I absolutely disagree that actions reveal Christ most fully. They do not. This is the domain of preaching (I'm sure everyone finds that a shocking revelation. Ha). People can not discern the truth of God unless it is revealed to them. Natural religion is one of law and capable of finding condemnation only, the gospel is foreign and must be conveyed by the foolishness of preaching. Brent was correct in pointing out that spiritual things must be spiritually discerned and this is only done through the revelation of the Spirit-he has chosen preaching as his usual means.

If you have never in your Christian life stolen, lied, cheated, said or done mean things, made false assumptions, etc then go ahead and point to your actions. I've done all of those things and man if I'm the standard that's a pretty low bar. Most unbelievers are better than I am. Instead I would rather tell people that I too am a sinner and point them to the God-man who was perfect as their only hope of salvation.

As for Christian vocation, the city of man need not be conflated with the city of God. This is very much tied to means and providence and Luther's doctrine of vocation is particularly relevant. We obey God by serving others to the best of our ability, and God has seen fit to bless us and provide us the daily bread we ask for, not by means of physical manna but through farmers, millers and bakers.

In all our interactions with others we are called to love and serve our neighbour and we are the means God uses to bless them-we become the very blessings God hides himself in. This does not require an overtly Christian context. However it will never supplant preaching as the way people are convicted and transferred into the kingdom by God's Spirit-this is why it does not require the overt Christian context. We must not mistake it's purpose. We serve people because we love them, not because we have a secret agenda of converting them. It is true that as Christians, our faith will evidence itself and we will wish to see people reconciled to God because we love them, and this is where preaching comes in. As I said elsewhere, many errors in approach are made by conflating service and preaching.

Tangentially, I don't think the Christian doctrines of means and Providence are well enough developed these days.

[Jonathan]

Whoa whoa whoa...are you telling me that Christian music doesn't have to preach? That some Christian music isn't intended to supplant preaching?

Thanks for saying it better than me. My lack of articulate-ness explains why I'm an anonymous name on a message board rather than a preacher in a pulpit.

[charl]

I think most art at its best would preach inarticulately. It can point the way to the preached word or open the door to thinking about spiritual subjects (good things), however the domain of most art is the evoking of emotion (which also can be good) and the preaching of the Word needs to be more concrete than most art forms can make it.

Christians do not need to play overtly Christian music to be doing their neighbour a service in their vocation, do they. We must remember that it is the preaching of the Word that is the means of life.

ETA I think the Weimar altar piece by the Cranachs or Rembrandt's Raising of the Cross are some of the best examples of preaching art out there. Still if you don't know the categories they can be rather cryptic.

[brent]

Whoa whoa whoa...are you telling me that Christian music doesn't have to preach? That some Christian music isn't intended to supplant preaching?

Thanks for saying it better than me. My lack of articulate-ness explains why I'm an anonymous name on a message board rather than a preacher in a pulpit.

I am saying Christian music does not have to preach.

Do YOU preach in every conversation you have? No. Neither do I. Is that a sin? No. We each have our missions in life.

"Christian music" is an industry by secular people (at it's core ownership) for Christians who buy it. That is the definitiion of the business. Gog never established a business. Man did. Man made it commercial.

Christian music outside of the church is part of this industry. Heck, in all actuality, this music is IN the church, as are the secular publishing house bibles. In church the music should be by the church, for the church and hopefully an element that enhances the sermon. Outside of church, it is whatever we want it to be. Outside of church we can listen to the music genres of preference, instead of what we can all agree on as worshipful and respectful to a church crowd/service. Outside church music is now currently provided by Christians and non-Christians.

God has said to use music to sing to him, use music to sing to each other, use music for battle, etc. God did not tell us what to say or how to say it. He did not say to sing with or without lyrics. Music is used in happy times, sad times, etc. Any occassion really has a need for music. Not every occassion is a Christian one. For instance, if I wanted to write a song to Christians, from the viewpoint of the world, how pastors are corrupt, money grubbing, closet homosexuals, then I would write it. That is what people think. Christians need to know and should formulate thoughts on how to respond to that. So, a Christian song does not have a biblical genre, format, box to fit in. I believe that it must serve a non-carnal, God honoring purpose and that is it.

If Christians must preach through music, would a guitar solo or instrumental qualify as Christian music if it were played by Bob Hartman? If you say that you must preach through it then no. It is music alone. It doesn't matter who is playing it. If it is an instrumental, it is neither Christian or secular in content. What makes it Christian is the fact that Bob would be playing to the best of his ability to the glory of God.

My point is that it is not the music itself that is Christian or secular. The music is the envelop that holds the letter. If the letter is deep and heavy, it needs the appropriate envelop. All letters need postage and a valid address of someone specific. Junk mail sucks.

[gman]

Well, I do agree with Brent that a christian musician doesn't have to preach through their music. There are should be and are plenty of uses for music. Not everyone feels called to preach. Some may preach, some may use music to minister in another way, some may write about life issues, and some may write music primarily for entertainment. My only point in all of this is that if I'm a Christian writing songs, regardless of the purpose, if I'm as strong of a Christian as I should be, my faith will spill over into the music in some way. I won't be able to help it because it's who I am. If, over the course of a few albums, my faith disappears from the music, the only explanation, in my opinion, is that it's no longer who I am. My Christian walk is not what it once was. I think there are plenty of examples out there. When the faith disappears from the music of a band, and they trot out a bunch of justifications, I don't buy it. What's in your lyrics says something about who you are and where you are at. If your faith was evident in your music and now it's not, then you have changed. It's a tough issue because you have many christians playing in bands whose music has nothing to do with the christian faith. You have artists and bands in mainstream music who say they are a christian, go to church, etc. but their music shows no evidence of that, and they may even have lyrics that are opposed to the teachings of scripture.
It's tough one, but my opinion is that generally your music, regardless of it's purpose, is a reflection of you. If there is nothing there at all that indicates you are a christian, that is fine, but I think to go the extra step and offer up a bunch of justifications is not genuine.
Carry on.
GMan

[brent]

Or gman, it means that you are just trying to make a living in a different way. Consider Jimmie Lee Sloas. He was a singer/producer that sang and played bass with the Imperials, produced some Christian metal, produced others, and now is playing bass in Megadeth. He hasn't changed. Just his vocation, his angle and the door knobs on the doors that have opened to him.

[cndfogie]

Actually Jimmy Sloas isn't that great of an example here. He is not a member of Megadeath according to their website he is not pictured as a member of the band in the span of time that the album he was a hired gun on was made. I do understand the point though. The "Christian" industry is made up of a lot of unbelievers that play bass or lead guitar on quite a few of our favorite bands releases. Also there are alot of believers in the what we call the secular industry living the life of a believer and playing the music of a non preaching rock and roll band. Look at Troy Luccketta the drummer for Tesla. His myspace page title has the scripture I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.

[gman]

As a for hire musician, Jimmie Lee is more like the mechanic or the plumber. Their profession isn't one where they are sharing what's in their heart. You can find that out in other ways. Their attitude on the job, their conversations with people. I'm mainly referring to those who write songs for their own use. Generally those songs are a reflection of what's in the their heart. As I said before, if I don't find their faith reflected in the lyrics, that's fine, as longs as they are not out there saying how important it is. If it's really who they are, they can't help but let it slip.
If they are on the publishing side, writing for other people to make a living, then other circumstances will dictate what they write about.
If an artist seeks to only write songs that will make them a lot of money, they may not write about what's really in their heart; instead choosing to write about whatever they think will do really well. Even in that case, if their focus is on making lots of money, that says something about them.

GMan

[charl]

Oh yes the art/not-art divide. Art is totally different from everything else. Arts can't exist to make people glad or other such things, they have to reveal the soul and be deep blah blah blah. Man the art world is already full to the brim with pretentiousness.

[separateunion]

Oh yes the art/not-art divide. Art is totally different from everything else. Arts can't exist to make people glad or other such things, they have to reveal the soul and be deep blah blah blah. Man the art world is already full to the brim with pretentiousness.

Don't you already fill the quota of pretentiousness in the world?

[charl]

While I do have a tendency toward pretentiousness, I know there is a lot more of it to go around in the world. As the saying goes, it takes one to know one.