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mmm Music. My favorite.

http://bible.cc/philippians/4-8.htm

Just check out those verses. These are pretty good Guidelines that I think answers a lot of your questions. Cause to be honest, the statement that most Christian music is just as good is pretty false. Unless by good you mean a carbon copy of everything. I.E Mercy Me.

I'm a fan of all music. God has given us all gifts, and I happen to like to enjoy music of others, Christian or not. If the attitude that you can only listen to 'christian music' (Which, btw, I have find plenty of christian music to biblical inaccurate.), then we might as well apply it to everything. But to do that would make us hypocritical, saying, "oh, come love Jesus! But stop being who you are, and change everything into Christianise".  And God can speak through whatever he wants. He isn't something we can put into a box. He's God, lol.

So reflect on Phillippians 4:8. It's a great verse to look back on.

well you should see the plays we have here   ther terible ther nothing i imagine a shakespear to be. it was a play about a love triangle and most everyone ther drank and drank.   *puke* and i am sorry if i offended you.

With you being west coast, have you ever seen one done by the Shakespeare by the Sea team?  By far, the best I've seen, which I think can be largely attributed to the fact everyone in the cast is volunteering for the team to get experience -- they really like what they're doing and really want to do a good production.

mmm Music. My favorite.

http://bible.cc/philippians/4-8.htm
I'm a fan of all music. God has given us all gifts, and I happen to like to enjoy music of others, Christian or not. If the attitude that you can only listen to 'christian music' (Which, btw, I have find plenty of christian music to biblical inaccurate.), then we might as well apply it to everything. But to do that would make us hypocritical, saying, "oh, come love Jesus! But stop being who you are, and change everything into Christianise".  And God can speak through whatever he wants. He isn't something we can put into a box. He's God, lol.

So reflect on Phillippians 4:8. It's a great verse to look back on.

  Your thread is actually quite confusing.  I would put forth that Phil. 4:8 would support not listening to any secular music and only Christian music, but you use it (somehow) as the opposite.    In fact, Paul wrote that passage to address people's thought lives and how it would ultimately influence speech, actions, and beliefs.  If you guys are listening and reflecting on songs/bands that do not glorifying God, then you guys are affecting that thought life which seeps out in different ways.  I don't care what the popular opinion of this thread is:  the movies, television, and music that you guys take in affect your view on life and God.  It bothers/scares me that more and more people are worshiping a God of their own creation (the American God) rather than conforming their lives to the God of Creation and His Standards (as revealed in Scripture).  Justify secular music all you guys want...it doesn't make it any more right.
    One more note:  music in and of itself isn't bad...it's the words/message that is attached to that music that are wrong.  The words/message is what I take issue with.
  

Isolationism is naivety. Naivety and isolationism and not benevolent to the betterment of oneself, neither as a Christian or a as person.

Big difference between Isolating oneself from worldly influences and insulating oneself from them. Choosing not to listen to secular music is a choice to insulate yourself from those influences. These types of influences have always around, so there is nothing new under the Son. Naivety would be to think you can live as close to the world as possible, partaking and indulging or simply chilling, yet believing you will be unaffected or influenced.  Just my 


Godspeed,
Mike

  I couldn't have said it better my self.  I'm definitely not naive (working with teenagers) or isolationist.  I do, however, need to insulate myself a little better than I do.

Just like food, everything that goes in the body, comes out of it, and some of what comes out stinks pretty badly.

~Marti

hey marti, you just won the thread!

Quote from: snoopygy on February 17, 2009, 11:34:15 AM

  Your thread is actually quite confusing.  I would put forth that Phil. 4:8 would support not listening to any secular music and only Christian music, but you use it (somehow) as the opposite.    In fact, Paul wrote that passage to address people's thought lives and how it would ultimately influence speech, actions, and beliefs.  If you guys are listening and reflecting on songs/bands that do not glorifying God, then you guys are affecting that thought life which seeps out in different ways.  I don't care what the popular opinion of this thread is:  the movies, television, and music that you guys take in affect your view on life and God.  It bothers/scares me that more and more people are worshiping a God of their own creation (the American God) rather than conforming their lives to the God of Creation and His Standards (as revealed in Scripture).  Justify secular music all you guys want...it doesn't make it any more right.
    One more note:  music in and of itself isn't bad...it's the words/message that is attached to that music that are wrong.  The words/message is what I take issue with.
  

Analyze the scriptures my friend! Don't just look at one part, but the whole thing, because it means so much more. I'll help explain my post, where you can be less confused.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

The first half of this verse is how we should weigh anything. There are plenty of secular music out there that follows these guidelines. If you have listened to Coldplay, or OneRepublic, then you will know these groups are prime examples of following this verse without actually being a 'Christian Band'. Secondly, where the verse starts saying if. If implies, to me, that it is something to be weighed and measured with thought. So if the music you are listening to is full of excellence, and worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (I'm paraphrasing here). I'm not making a case that all music is safe to listen to. I'm making a case that we must put thought into what we listen to.  I.E. The Classic Crime is one of my favorite bands. They are not a Christian band. But they are christians. Here is part of their interview, and it's pretty much amazing. It's a lot of what Jesus has called us to be.

"  # JFH (John): It's kind of a loaded question, but do you think there is a need and a purpose for Christian music?

    Matt: You know, I have yet to define what Christian music is. I know what worship and praise music is, music directed towards God, but I don't know if you can mix a belief or a system of beliefs with your music, because I mean, obviously if you're a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew and you're very serious about your faith, it's going to come out in your music. But I don't think there's Jewish rock or Muslim rock or, you know?

  # JFH (John): At least not yet!

    Matt: Not yet! *laughter* But I don't know that they would sell out that much to make it, so I think faith is a personal thing. I have nothing against bands that are Christian bands or claim to be Christian bands because I think what they're doing is following conviction and that's honorable. It's honorable to be committed to do something about it but for us, personally, we don't really understand it. So we kind of steer clear. I'm a Christian so the music I write is about real struggles with real people and real situations that have happened in my life and there's obviously sort of a Christian outlook. There's hope. There's something that goes beyond just the human struggle. But I wouldn't call our music "Christian music," I think it's "human" music. *laughter* For humans! So…

  # JFH (John): Which is everybody.

    Matt: Everybody! There ya go!
http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/interviews/TheClassicCrime2008.asp

   And I agree that music we take in can affect us. However, affecting us could mean for good, or for evil. I have found beautiful Spiritual parallels in secular movies (most Christian movies suck). Look at Chronicles of Narnia dude. It's not a Christian series. It's main stream (secular). You can argue otherwise, but was written for the public.

Make more sense?

It seems to me, that straddling the fence ends up with pain in the nether region.
It is a shame to see people downplay their christianity and go with the *shrug* it's not a big deal attitude. We are instructed to go unto the world and unashamedly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Seems quite simple and clear, but people like to muddy the waters.


Godspeed,
Mike

Share the Gospel wherever you go, and if necessary use words- Francis of Assisi

I think that's relevant to Godspeed's post. We don't need to say "Jesus Christ is King" constantly to be a christian witness. That's not what being a christian is.

That's what the Classic Crime is saying. If you read the rest of their interview, they talk about enjoying playing in the bars. Because they are reaching a lost people with a message of hope. Frankly, Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy. But the healthy continually want to help the healthy, and forget about the sick.

I'm not isolationist. Secular music just stinks. Why would I listen to something I can't stand?

Secular music stinks? Christian music is bland copies of copies of copies of secular music, devoid of innovation or exploration.
The reason is because if a band can make it on a secular label, they wouldn't be on a Christian label. (There are some exceptions to this).
First example: Deas Veil. Complete carbon copy of Mew.
Demon Hunter: carbon copy of all death metal bands.
Christian rap: don't even need to start.
MxPx, Relient K, etc.: carbon copy of all pop-punk.
John Foreman: Trying to jump onto the folk/indie bandwagon.

It is a very arrogant statement to say something like this. Secular music "is" music, its not an attempt to make a Christian alternative to already existing music. As a music critic and the son of a music journalist/critic (and a Nashville resident), I listen to a large amount of music. In that, with the exception of Sixpence None the Richer, I have never heard an innovative Christian band, or one that I could even label as "talented".
One the contrary, there is a vast amount of Christians in the secular music world who are incredibly talented. Bob Dylan, Bono, the Edge, Gram Parsons, Kings of Leon, Jack White, Eric Clapton, and many others. Heck, the former lead guitarist for Prince, Dez Dickerson, leads a Bible study at my house.
Show me a Christian song with comparable lyrics to a Bob Dylan song.
Show me a Christian band's guitarist comparable to Jack White.
Show me a Christian band that has had any meaningful effect on the progression of music.

As a musician, isolating myself from secular music would have left me a horrible guitarist, pianist, and singer; how can you appreciate music when you ignore all of its roots?

Isolate yourself from the "bad influences of secular music" all you want. While you do that, I'll be isolating myself from the horrible influences of Christian music. If your temperance is so shaky that you can't listen to Sargent Pepper's Loney Heart's Club without being influenced to sin, you probably shouldn't be a Christian. Rather, go live in a cave and try to reach Nirvana, and good luck with that.

I've heard that musicians in Nirvana shoot themselves and drummers just end up singing for the Foo Fighters.

show me a drummer even a inch close to Mike Portnoy or Neil Peart

We're talking about musicians, Caleb.

Quote from: xCaLeBx on February 17, 2009, 09:23:28 PM

show me a drummer even a inch close to Mike Portnoy or Neil Peart

Ted Kirkpatrick.


Godspeed,
Mike

Okay, but what of great Christian musicians?