{"id":351,"date":"2011-10-16T18:14:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T22:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/?p=351"},"modified":"2011-10-18T09:11:02","modified_gmt":"2011-10-18T13:11:02","slug":"the-problem-with-christian-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/2011\/10\/the-problem-with-christian-radio.html","title":{"rendered":"The Problem With Christian Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I <\/strong>wrote this for another blog, which is becoming a podcast (more on that eventually) so I figured I\u2019d post it here. It also gives me the delightful excuse to throw some jams your way.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/span><\/p>\n

You say, \u201cChristian music.\u201d
\nYour agnostic friend thinks, \u201cA load of unoriginal crap by Casting Crowns and Tree63.\u201d<\/p>\n

He certainly doesn\u2019t think MuteMath:<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nAnd the world of Christian music-lovers wonder where to direct their angry mob.<\/p>\nI hold that Christian Radio shoulders the bulk of the responsibility. I hold that Christian Radio \u2013 in its noble effort to reach as many individuals as possible with the message of the Gospel \u2013 effectively works against authentic, beautiful music. Worse, it ends up packaging the message of the Gospel in such\u00a0embarrassingly banal, watered-down, and unoriginal songs, that the Gospel is obscured, if not actively resisted by the listener.<\/p>\nI will focus my complaint against The\u00a0Educational Media Foundation, the charity behind K-Love and Air 1 Radio, with the knowledge that much of my complaint against them could be made against other Christian Radio stations. This the EMF\u2019s mission statement:<\/p>\n<blockquote>K-LOVE Radio & Air 1 Radio are a part of the EMF Broadcasting family. K-LOVE communicates the Gospel through mass media to leads as many people as possible toward salvation and spiritual growth. Air 1 Radio delivers\u00a0positive cutting-edge<\/strong> Christian music to teenagers and young adults. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nNowhere does it mention that the Christian music need be good music, or that it be beautiful music, or that it be well-written, creative, inspiring, touching, or original music. No, for music to be played to the EMF\u2019s over 5\u00a0million\u00a0listeners, there are two pre-requisites: it must be positive, and it must be cutting-edge.<\/p>\nAnd apparently not Future of Forestry.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Future of Forestry - Did You Lose Yourself : Travel 3 Tour Rehearsal in LA\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QuFbRy2_quE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\nThe idea that music gains some inherent value by being cutting-edge<\/strong> is ridiculous. \u2018Cutting-edge\u2019 is not an adjective that should ever be applied to art. There are cutting-edge computer programs. There are no cutting-edge paintings. You can own a cutting-edge car. You cannot own a cutting-edge song. It\u2019s well known amidst the Christian world that we live in an age of moral relativism; the denial of the existence of objective good and evil. What\u2019s ignored by the Christian world is the mate of moral relativism we so often fornicate with; aesthetic relativism. The denial of value. The relativism that chooses one song over another because it is newer. The Christian philosopher G.K Chesterton had this to say about moral relativism\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote>\u201cTo introduce into philosophical discussions a sneer at a creed\u2019s antiquity is like introducing a sneer at a lady\u2019s age. It is caddish because it is irrelevant. The pure modernist is merely a snob; he cannot bear to be a month behind the <\/span><\/span>fashion\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u2026and I believe that can be equally applied to aesthetic relativism. Applying inherent value to \u2018cutting-edge\u2019 music is snobbish. (<a href=\"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/blog\/nicola-moore-and-the-snobbery-of-the-pro-choice-movement\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">A.D.D. WORD ASSOCIATION LINK<\/a>). It\u2019s Very Bad Decisions like this that force artists to imitate Pop music instead of writing authentically, force them to think of how to have a \u2018new sound\u2019 instead of a beautiful sound. And perhaps the worst part of the whole affair is this: If you\u2019ve frequented Christian Radio, you know that the attempt to be cutting-edge is never more than an attempt. And thus Christian music uses auto-tune,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=s52kGgFzRKI\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">and the suckage, she\u00a0continues<\/a>. We\u2019re lucky when brilliance shines through the bleak, as illustrated so wonderfully by Audrey Assad.<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OCtKOsA_FK8\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OCtKOsA_FK8<\/a>\n(To be clear, I\u2019m not saying that Pop music can\u2019t be\u00a0likable. In fact, it wouldn\u2019t be Pop if it didn\u2019t produce sounds our ears are inclined to and sell a couple million copies. I\u2019m saying that Pop music has no value outside of popularity, outside of the \u2018cutting-edge\u2019. It does not strive for beauty, and will thus have a limited effect on the world for about month, and then go back from whence it came.)<\/p>\nThe second pre-requisite for songs to be played on K-Love is positivity.<\/strong> My first disagreement with the use of this adjective is that it is often no more than a replacement for the word \u2018Christian\u2019. \u2018I\u2019m Walking on Sunshine\u2019, I assume is a positive song, but it gets no play on Christian radio. This sneak-attack Christianity is not\u00a0particularly\u00a0cunning; when people hear a Chris Tomlin song after the announcement \u201cPositive Hits!\u201d they\u2019re not subtly tricked into liking the song more.\u00a0And if it is not cunning it can only be cowardly.<\/p>\nBut that\u2019s not the point. The point is that positivity means absolutely nothing, even less than cutting-edge. Positivity has utterly no meaning without some frame of reference. Is it moral positivity? Mathematical positivity? Emotional positivity? Is the Crucifixion positive?<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paintingall.com\/images\/P\/Diego-Velazquez-The-Crucifixion-Christ-on-the-Cross-Oil-Painting.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0px initial initial;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paintingall.com\/images\/P\/Diego-Velazquez-The-Crucifixion-Christ-on-the-Cross-Oil-Painting.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"272\" height=\"416\"><\/a><\/p>\nIs the question of positivity important at all? How about: is the Crucifixion Good? Yes. Is it True? Yes. Is it Beautiful? Yes. Why is whether it\u2019s \u2018positive\u2019 important at all, even if we could figure out what we mean when we say it?<\/p>\nThe same applies to songs. Positivity does not lend inherent value to music. My guess is that more people have been changed by Johnny Cash than by TobyMac. And let me be the first to tell you, it ain\u2019t because Cash is positive. If positivity is taken to mean \u2018happiness\u2019 then we\u2019ve gone off the deep end and ain\u2019t coming back. The beauty of Christianity is not a kind of happy-go-luckiness that seems to be the musical aim of The Newsboys. The beauty of Christianity is that through suffering and death and darkness, the evil world has been redeemed. To choose only songs based on the criteria of emotional positivity is an emasculating of our religion, and a limitation on what has always made the art of Christianity so awesome. Positivity lends nothing to music; it only helps sell it to soccer moms. And thus we don\u2019t hear Mumford and Sons on Christian \u00a0radio.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mumford and Sons - Roll Away Your Stone\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2O-BwV0DDUY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\nTo summarize my point; Christian Radio is killing beautiful, Christian music. Its very mission statement implies the death of authenticity in song-writing. That\u2019s not to say there are no survivors. In fact, I\u2019m of the belief that there are far more good \u2018Christian\u2019 songs than shallow ones. They\u2019re just harder to find.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"C. S. Lewis Song - Brooke Fraser Legendado\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kMRFbc5KVaM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\nCheck out my fuller writings on Christian music <a href=\"http:\/\/virtuouspla.net\/2011\/09\/05\/the-problem-with-christian-rock\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/virtuouspla.net\/2011\/09\/06\/the-problem-with-christian-rock-2\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Future of Forestry - Slow Your Breath Down : Travel 3 Tour Rehearsal in LA\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BgLZZViOV2A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I wrote this for another blog, which is becoming a podcast (more on that eventually) so I figured I\u2019d post it here. It also gives me the delightful excuse to throw some jams your way. You say, \u201cChristian music.\u201d Your agnostic friend thinks, \u201cA load of unoriginal crap by Casting Crowns and Tree63.\u201d He certainly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,14],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-authenticity","tag-music"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The Problem With Christian Radio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I wrote this for another blog, which is becoming a podcast (more on that eventually) so I figured I'd post it here. 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