(Landon Schott) Over the last 15 years of youth and young adult ministry, I’ve been asked countless times, “Is it OK for Christians to listen to secular music?” I’ve always had the same response. “The battle between the Spirit and the flesh is won by what one you feed the most!” I’ve always found it interesting that many Christian young people can’t pronounce the names of the books in the Bible, they don’t know basic Scripture, yet they have memorized every word of the latest hit song on iTunes.
It has become more and more common for young people to embrace secular music. More concerning than this, recently there has been a wide spread endorsement of this music by Christian leaders. In my book Jezebel: The Witch Is Back, I write about this. I am not one of those ministers who calls the latest pop singer the devil, the Antichrist, and so on. For decades, ministers have declared music artists to be evil. They said this about Elvis, Madonna and now artists such as Lady Gaga. READ MORE
Well, if one asks where the Christian artists are in the top ten, at any given time, and I’m not talking about Christian songs, per se, but rather, good music, it somewhat answers the question. Music is supposed to be whimsical (not always meant to instruct), as well as more serious (spiritual, matters of the heart/love, political, worship, various genres, holy, etc). I don’t think Christian music covers all of these categories, and why would it? At some point, someone/a group of people/the church, overall (I think this would be a good issue to pinpoint) decided that the arts at large (music, dance, acting, etc.), were not something to be cultivated, and somehow beneath the churchgoer, and dirty, and really had no place in the church, much the way politics/political science has been viewed/shunned by many in the pulpits and pews. So, the church ceded their cultural authority (presence/sway/influence), and are now dealing with the repercussions.