Why Most Christian Music and Entertainment Stinks

by Bill Barnwell
by Bill Barnwell

I suppose it's not a good move for an Evangelical pastor to suggest Christian music and movies typically aren't that great, and often are quite terrible, but it needs to be said anyway, and I'm hardly the first to point this out. In the battle for the "hearts and minds" of the young in particular, few things are more influential than movies and music, and the broader pop culture in general. Most Christian parents are even oblivious to this fact. They are unaware that their sweet innocent child, whom they brought up in the church and in whom they have tried so hard to instill good values within, can much easier quote the lyrics to pop songs than they can recite Scripture. The typical kid can also certainly articulate their views of music and their favorite artists much more easily than they can any sort of elementary theology.

For decades Christianity has been retreatist from the realm of popular culture and the arts. There was a day when Christianity was on the cutting edge of the arts (and despite what you've been led to believe, science) but now have reputations for being hostile to these same cultural realms. Instead, the obsession has almost solely been on political activism. We all know that the average 15-year-old is far more interested in politics than movies and that they are much better at quoting House speeches from Nancy Pelosi than they are at quoting from movies like The Dark Night.

The options of many parents, many churches, and vast segments of fundamentalism and Evangelicalism have been these: (1) Wall off ourselves, and particularly our kids, from popular culture. It's bad, it can't be competed with, and only leads to trouble, goes the thinking. And then (2) Create an alternative "Christian culture." We'll only expose Jr. to movies and music from "our own" kind.

Now, the majority of Evangelicals actually go for some sort of hybrid approach where they take in the least objectionable stuff from the secular realm and supplement it (or get their primary cultural fix) with Christian media. But the problem for these third-wayers, and those who insist on option 2, is that most Christians are disproportionately consuming from the secular realm and largely ignoring "Christian" media.

Many believers realize that they are losing the culture value, and they have the various targets that they blame: The media, the falling standards of the church, liberals, liberal interest groups, or whatever else. But while some blame can be pointed in these directions, the primary problem is not any of these things. The problem is the product. To put it bluntly, the product, in this case Christian alternative media, is simply not that good, and where there are exceptions to this, it's really not stuff that appeals to young people.

This is why when most young Christians are given the option between "Christian music" and stuff on the secular radio stations, they go with the secular stuff. Why? Because it's better, plain and simple. By "better" I don't mean I think the message is better or the values are better. But the secular artists are more talented. The production value is supremely better than the Christian stuff. And even many believers are put off by the cheesy aura that much Christian music has to it.

While some would just like to say the big issue is money, I'd like to point out that a number of low-budget films have made waves over the years. Christian colleges are filled with gifted people in their music departments, but their talents never see the light of day in the professional arts, and if they do, they are screwed up by the horrible production artists in the recording studio and the crummy business decisions by those in the "Christian media." Nevertheless, people will listen to and watch what is good. Right now, however, Christian entertainment isn't on many people's artistic Top 10 list of "what is good."

The average teenage kid does not have that big of an ideological ax to grind that they will refuse "Christian music" or a "Christian song" because of its message. They will listen to it, even if at their core they disagree with it, if a song is quality. Just like many Christian kids put their values on the backburner and listen to popular stuff because it is objectively better from an artistic standpoint than the wholesome stuff clogging up the 88 and 89FM dials of radios across the country. People are largely economic actors, and will consume what they like or want. The reason people aren't consuming Christian media, including many Christians, is not because they want to further the cause of Satan, they aren't buying it because it just isn't that good. Put out a quality product, and people will buy it.

The last sentence will send many Christians into a frenzy. "You mean to tell me that we should be catering to what people want? No, we need to give them what they need, not pander to their base desires!" That's swell, but a couple points: (1) You're officially irrelevant if you seriously think teenagers are going to be blaring hymns, or the Gaither Reunions, or whatever other type of stuff you think everyone else should be listening to, in their cars on a Friday night. (2) Rather than think that talent and God-honoring contemporary appeal are mutually exclusive, let's stop making excuses that "our" stuff is more often than not just plain embarrassing.

There's all sorts of music that isn't my type, but I can still label it objectively good or bad. Even if one doesn't like country music, there is country music that is objectively better than other country music. Same with any other genre of movies or music you can think of. Regarding Christian music, the argument people are making isn't "I don't like it because it isn't my type" they primarily don't like it because much of it is objectively a poor product.

And poor teenagers. Let's take a group like Casting Crowns. I would say that Casting Crowns is objectively a pretty good group and most of the critiques I've made above do not apply towards them. But their niche market is adult contemporary, and most kids – shocker – don't primarily favor adult contemporary music. Even when Mercy Me broke onto Top 40 charts a few years back with the song I Can Only Imagine it was not kids that were fueling their success, it was a totally different market.

Throughout most of the 90's, and this entire decade, hip-hop music has dominated the popular market. It's what is most resonating with most of the younger culture today. But when you turn on 88.3, or whatever 88 or 89 this or that station your Christian radio broadcasts on, how much hip-hop music do you hear? Hardly any, or none at all, because it would annoy their niche market of 40-something white Evangelicals who really don't want their kids listening to "urban" music. There is a "Christian rap" movement that's been around for a long time. Some of it is good, some of it is terrible, but the better stuff you won't be hearing on most Christian radio stations anytime soon, unless you actually count DC Talk's earlier stuff as "rap" or "hip-hop."

In the secular music world, musical capitalists long ago realized that the culture was filled with diverse people and catered to different interests. Typical metro radio markets have two to three (and sometimes more!) Christian music stations and the style of music is typically the same on all stations. The only place the "urban" Christian music gets a hearing is on R & B stations early Sunday mornings, when some of them play gospel and Christian hip-hop music that caters to the diverse interests of their base. But the actual Christian music stations pretty much pander to 45-year-old women. There's nothing wrong with being a 45-year-old woman, but primarily pandering to this base is not exactly the key to winning over teenagers from the "secular culture."

Even in the average Evangelical church with functioning youth groups, whenever musical groups are brought in (for churches that allow non-gospel team groups), their focus is always on Christian rock bands. Churches apparently haven't got the memo that hip-hop replaced rock music as the dominant force, even amongst white kids, about 17 years ago. Alternative music is still around but its heyday was in the mid 90's, but even then it played second fiddle to hip-hop. Today there is an "emo" subculture, with some "Emo Christian" groups out there but it is hardly dominant and only appeals to a relatively small group. But if you want to put out rock music, at least let's make it good rock music.

On Christian radio stations, the focus is on stuff you'd sing in your churches on Sunday morning, or cheap knock-offs of secular love songs using Christ as the object of our affections rather than a male or female. Some cross-over bands like Relient K have realized this can sound cheesy, but instead of attempting to invoke the name of Christ and not sound silly in their mainstream singles, they've chosen to just say "You" instead of "God" in most of their songs, particularly the ones that got mainstream radio play. Yet Kanye West's profanity laced Jesus Walks single ironically was bolder than anything Relient K has put out, and has much more of a "real" feel to it. If West was not trying to pander to his audience, the song's profanity could have easily been removed and replaced with non-profane words and would theoretically been acceptable to Christian radio. But it's basically a moot issue because even if West was a positive role model from a Christian standpoint (he's not), they still would never play "that kind" of music.

The issue is not whether or not God or Christ should be directly mentioned. The bigger issue is that most Christian music simply isn't relatable to the average person, including many Christians. Most Christians who appreciate the arts, don't feel like blaring the music throughout the week that they sing on Sunday mornings in sacred settings. Nor do they want each and every little thing they listen to on the radio to sound like some cheap imitation of a church song. This isn't meant to sound disrespectful towards God at all: But the typical person does more than just sit around and sing worship songs all day. I agree that for the believer, Christ should be the center of all we do. But where Christian music falls short is that it rarely ever addresses the loss of a job, the heartache of a loss of love, a battle with addiction, depression, and any other sort of "real life" issues. Instead it's mostly a bunch of happy go lucky love songs towards God or "Jesus is my girlfriend/boyfriend" type stuff.

Kids like artists such as Eminem because they feel his music relates to "real life." It does sometimes speak to some people's version of "real life," but certainly not the one Christians want to encourage. But people will choose (1) a better produced product and (2) something that seems to be connected to real life over something that (1a) is a cheap and poorly produced product and (2a) seems totally disconnected and unconcerned with "real life." Rather than being an affront to God, I think it would be quite honoring to God if "Christian music" produced music that was Christocentric in flavor or values while dealing with the day-to-day issues beyond just "God is cool" type stuff.

So basically, believers can (1) wall themselves and their kids off from the rest of civilized world (but don't be shocked when it produces socially awkward people who can't function outside of their narrow circles), or (2) Continue with the status quo and lose the battle of the arts to the world, a battle that is far more influential than most of our churches, or (3) As members of the Christian community put a renewed emphasis on the arts, its importance, and the new "high calling" it would be to put out quality products that not only appeal to "the base" but that can be recognized as a good and quality entertainment by the outside world.

While movies and music are mainly "entertainment," a relevant Christian role in these areas would ironically be more influential than those whose main focus is on "worship" (i.e. reaching the unchurched through Christian worship songs). I guarantee you it would do more to further the gospel today than all the Christian TV stations combined, all the televised sermons by grey-haired preachers, all the tracts that well-meaning seniors leave on restaurant tables, all the "door to door" pamphlets being dropped off at peoples houses, and most of the other ineffective "evangelism" techniques employed by Christians today.

Speaking of Christian television stations, how many of you can name a single person under the age of 30 who actually watches TBN?

And I also guarantee that if Christians put out something good, people will consume it, including non-Christians. Instead of blaming the market economy and saying "we can't compete" with the financial giants, learn to put out something good on a modest budget and the funds will come rolling in.

The first step, however, for my own subculture is stopping the denial that we have a problem in the arts. Second, we need to understand that "success" and "quality" doesn't mean "something that wasn't completely embarrassing." Christians need to get with the program and realize that the arts are in fact a "high calling" and have the potential to reach far many more people than any modern generation of "evangelists" or youth pastors can accomplish. Fireproof is a decent enough start I suppose, but there's still a long, long, long way to go.

Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor and freelance writer from Michigan. He holds both a Master of Ministry degree and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. Prior to entering the ministry he studied Political Science and Social Science at Michigan State University and Wayne State University and was actively involved in local and state campaigns and consulting.

Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

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