Can music be baptized? Can a video game make a relational decision?

If everything that is beautiful, true, and marvelous belongs to God and you hear a terrible song that talks about Jesus in it… does it merit the word “Christian” preceding it?

The problem with using “Christian” as an adjective is that we start associating the emotions and feelings we get from a certain type of music, certain people, certain products that might not reflect God at all.

Of course, for simplicity’s sake, I do use it as an adjective all the time. :/ Maybe I’m a hypocrite! :)

2 – Is this an example of the lack of creativity we as the christian community tend to demonstrate by borrowing and refurbishing from modern things that actually work?
Possibly, but if the “christian” version of that game is the one thing standing between a person and their choice of where to spend eternity, does the lack of creativity really matter all that much?

3 – Does it actually help or hinder people from faith in Christ?
This is the most important question to me and I will answer it by asking another question: who are we tell God what medium He can or cannot work through to reach people? I’m not going to say that a certain medium, regardless of how I feel about it personally, cannot be used by God to meet someone where they are at that point in their lives. Personally though, I roll my eyes and think to myself, “Really Christians? This is the best we can do? Did you even ask God before you went and copy and pasted this little ditty together? He can do so much better, stop limiting Him with your own lack of creativity!”

4 – When we do something like this (take a very profitable idea from the secular world) and try to make it our own…are we really trying to protect our children and provide for our teens or are we looking for a way to make money off of “church folk”?
“church folk”… scoffs… silly “church folk”… I can’t help but wonder why they are called “church folk” instead of Children of the One Living God (or something like that). But I guess they are called that because that’s what they are, people who go to church. Sometimes, I kinda want to kick them, but that’s not my job. In the body of Christ, I don’t think I’m a foot… I’m more like…. a hair, or one of those little creases in the corner of the eye during a smile. I like those creases………….

First of all, I think it’s hard to say if “christian” is truly an adjective or not. We see it used as an adjective in many ways…”Do the christian thing”, “oh him? he’s a christian”, “please put the radio on the christian station”, etc. However, I’m not so sure it truly is an adjective. See, we learn throughout our lives from the bible and example what God expects of us as christians and what he is all about. If you ask one person what it means to be a christian you might hear “Being christian is believe in God and asking him for forgiveness for your sins”. Yet you can ask someone else the same question and get the reply that “being a christian is following God. Doing what is right, truthful, unselfish and pure.”. Others may quote the Bible when answering the question about the true definition of being christian. I said all that to say that the definition of being christian is different from person to person, group to group, culture to culture, etc. How can something be an adjective when the true meaning of it is not fully agreed upon? What may be christian to me may be unchrisian to someone else. It’s truly a good question. It is used to describe though, so I guess it is an adjective in reality.

As far as the guitar hero game goes, I think it’s a little bit of both worlds as well. I think they know that it can benefit people by showing them that they can make games that are acceptable to christians and can help them grow as far as hearing the music that is good and pure. However, in society today money seems to be the top concern. They know they can benefit from selling this game because they are reaching beyond the normal gamer crown and pulling in more and more. This means more money for them and more buisness for the company. This too, can go both ways.

Here’s my take- I believe this is a “both…and” situation. The people at the top are absolutely motivated by profit. And the creators of the game are, like many of us, probably of mixed motives. But providing entertainment that avoids some of the lyrics (think Poison: “Talk Dirty to Me”) could also be a motivating factor.

In the end, I get tired of Christianity being the alternative. For instance, we provide Harvest Festivals so kids won’t Trick or Treat (my favorite holiday- I must not know Jesus…). Or tell kids that they can come to Trunk or Treat if they are dressed like a biblical character. What if they dress like the witch of Endor? Yeah, I digressed a bit…

Here’s the point: last time I checked, Christianity was the real thing and the world absent faith was the alternative. Creation is my Father’s house. All of this is God’s deal, God’s thing, God’s work. It’s marred and broken and flawed by sin and the free will of sinners. But it belongs to God, ultimately. So I cringe internally when Christians mimic culture rather than using culture to spread truth. Does that make sense?

And the relentless Christian marketing drives me up a wall. I don’t even step inside Christian bookstores anymore. Just can’t bring myself to do it. I remember WWJD. Before it was over, they had WWJD pet rocks! God, gimme a friggin’ break!

OK- long enough response. Cathartic, but long enough.

Peace,
Brian

The fact that many Christian-labeled things are remakes of secular things shows how the modern Church has a desire to be viewed as “mainstream” but feels like it has to follow mainstream ideas instead of being able to set the mainstream market with new, creative things. In the old days the best musicians were paid by the Church to create music. In some ways this placed the Church in a position of creating popular music. These days a lot of musicians only move to Christian music if they cannot make it in the secular industry. Or, bands start out in the Christian market until they get popular enough to transition into mainstream. The Christian market is viewed as lower-class by many non-believers and even by a lot of Christians who are in that industry.

However, we should be creative people who are inspired by the creator of the universe (the most “creative” being ever… period). But, then again, the mainstream market isn’t driven by the most creative or highest quality music/ideas. It is driven by money and popularity… two things that Christ-followers probably should not be seeking anyway.

And then you have the question of influence. By that I mean how the things we let into our bodies affect who we are. Should a “good Christian” play Guitar Hero with all of its rock-and-roll music and possibly questionable lyrics or do we need a “family-friendly, safe, encouraging, positive” alternative? At what level do we separate ourselves from the world? The Amish picked a level of separation, but what about the rest of the Christian world? Where do we draw that line and what good/bad come from it?

Hmm… only more questions so far. I’ll let you know if I come up with any answers instead. :)