The Kingdom of Rock is at Hand

I read an excellent article recently about Christian music. It covers a new book by Spin wirter Andrew Beaujon, Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock.

 

In it, Beaujon outlines the struggles of Christian rock. Should it be intergrated into mainstream? What makes music Christian? What about folks like U2, Johnny Cash and others who claim faith but don't always sing about God?

 

Of course the answers aren't easy, but the article is interesting. I'll leave you with the closing paragraph, which strikes a chord with me:

 

But the question [of what makes music "Christian"] persists, because in evangelical circles there's a lot of chatter and concern over whether particular music is "Christian" or "secular." Well—here's a fool's axiom: Both inside the parallel universe of Christian music and in every other universe, the only one who can make music Christian is Christ. No matter what we make of Bazan or Crowder, Rebecca St. James or Michael W. Smith, Mute Math or Newsboys—or, for that matter, U2, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Sufjan Stevens, and a million other acts—when we're talking about music, we'd do well to remember our categories are too simple, too inflexible, and too earthy to contain the truth.