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I seek to understand what is good and what is sad and what is true. When I\u2019m not mathing or teaching, I enjoy writing about faith and culture, researching film and music history, reading great literature and philosophy, pretending to play the piano like Bruce Hornsby, writing the occasional poem, and editing the occasional film project. My interest in Pop Culture Things tends to be inversely proportional to the level of interest they generate among other people of my generation. I am, after all, a Young Fogey. I occasionally write theological reflections too\u2014in a bad Anglican, high-Church Baptist sort of vein. You\u2019ve all been warned. My opinions can be curiously strong, but I am always learning how to express them better. Though I retain little patience for post-modernists. Thanks for reading. You can find my freelance social commentary at The Stream and The Federalist, or sample some of my film criticism at Tyler Smith\u2019s More Than One Lesson. Follow me on Facebook or Twitter, @EstherOfReilly. Send questions, comments or snark to estherioreilly@gmail.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/author\/eoreilly\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Series: Questions and Answers Through Song","description":"Few things sadden me more than good questions without good answers. I can think of so many areas this applies to, but music is certainly one of them.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2012\/05\/new-series-questions-and-answers-through-song\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Series: Questions and Answers Through Song","og_description":"Few things sadden me more than good questions without good answers. 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{"id":8500,"date":"2012-05-24T00:09:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T04:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southerngospelyankee.wordpress.com\/?p=8500"},"modified":"2012-05-24T00:09:02","modified_gmt":"2012-05-24T04:09:02","slug":"new-series-questions-and-answers-through-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youngfogey\/2012\/05\/new-series-questions-and-answers-through-song\/","title":{"rendered":"New Series: Questions and Answers Through Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>Few things sadden me more than good questions without good answers. I can think of so many areas this applies to, but music is certainly one of them. Sometimes when I\u2019m listening to a non-Christian song, I think to myself, \u201cThis is a great song, and it raises so many profound questions, but it\u2019s missing the answer completely.\u201d
\nThen other times I hear a Christian song and think, \u201cWell, on a basic level this song has the answer\u2026 but it\u2019s so shallow\/artistically inferior that it couldn\u2019t meet that non-Christian writer where he\u2019s at.\u201d
\nI\u2019m not gonna lie: I have that reaction to Christian songs of all<\/em> genres. So this isn\u2019t about southern gospel versus praise and worship\/CCM. This is an across-the-board issue. But the good news is that there are also many examples of Christian songs that, in my opinion, do <\/em>rise to that challenge. And one of the things I love most is finding good matching pairs of \u201cquestions and answers\u201d \u2014 an exceptional non-Christian song answered by an appropriate and also exceptional Christian song. As an extra challenge, I try to create matching pairs that are musically complementary as well (just because it makes it that much cooler).
\nI decided I\u2019d like to share some of these with my readers, while analyzing their lyrical content. I\u2019ll uncover what I think the non-Christian song is trying to say, or trying to ask, and then show how the Christian lyric provides exactly the right answer.
\nStylistically, this series will cover a wide range, though you needn\u2019t worry about seeing any rap, heavy metal, progressive rock, or similar genres appearing. This is a series designed to explore the intersection of music<\/em> and art<\/em>. \u2018Nuff said. \ud83d\ude09 However, the songs won\u2019t be southern gospel either. Obviously the \u201cquestions\u201d won\u2019t be, and so far all the \u201canswers\u201d I\u2019ve collected are drawn from CCM artists. But I know that at least some of my readers enjoy a variety of music, and I\u2019d like to think that I have good taste, so I think and hope that most of you will enjoy this. Even if you find a particular song not to your stylistic taste, I still encourage you to think about the lyrics. This will be \u201cdeep, man\u201d territory. Love, longing, meaning of life, life after death\u2026 as my little sister used to say, \u201call stuff.\u201d If you are a songwriter, I would most certainly encourage you to tune in, because these are some of the best songs ever written, and there is no teacher like a great song.
\nSo let\u2019s see how this works. Expect the first installment some time next week. Oh, and if you have any suggestions, by all means leave a comment!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"