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Just How Important is a Musical Artist’s Lifestyle? By Josh Remington
“You can’t listen to that because of their lifestyle.” Ever heard that one?
Because the artist lives a life in opposition to God, so the argument goes, the music is not appropriate. Of course, this point could be generalized to all forms of entertainment—movie writers/directors/actors/actresses, authors of books, and other creators.
Before we concede this particular argument, let’s examine the logic behind it.
Logic Problems Several questions come to my mind when otherwise logical people utilize this argument. The first question is, “Which segment of a person’s life is used to rule out their music?” In other words, if a Christian singer ceases to be a Christian (or vice versa) do we reject all of their music? Some real-life examples will bring this question into sharper focus.
Brian Welch, formerly of Korn, used to be a drug-using, make-up wearing, honest-to-goodness rock star. Recently, he quit Korn claiming that he had found Jesus, and has dedicated his life to serving God. In the Christian music direction, Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, and Michael English all had divorce and re-marriage issues (to put it delicately). Additionally, some Apostolics have written/sang several widely-popular Christian songs before their sin forced them away.
How do these lifestyle decisions affect us in listening to the music of these artists?
Since, according to the initial argument, listening to an artist’s music seems to be closely tied to setting them up as a personal role model, doesn’t it stand to reason that the lifestyle changes of these artists would disqualify their music?
To avoid allowing these lifestyles to tempt us, should we not reject all of their music, even the Christian songs they sang previously?
On the other hand, if Brian Welch performs Christian music in the future do we reject that because of who he was? Using lifestyle as an excuse to rule out all of a person’s music runs into further trouble when we realize that humans, typically, will commit a sin or two in their lifetime. Does this preclude us from listening to any music by any musician who has ever sinned or are there only certain sins that serve to disqualify an artist's music? Perhaps as long as a person looks like us and keeps their sins secret, their music is safe.
Whose Lifestyle is it Anyway? A related question is, “Whose lifestyle should we look at?” Putting together an album is never the work of one person, even if there is only one person’s name on the front of the CD.
To be fair, shouldn’t we take into account the lifestyles of all the people involved? What is the band like? What about the producers? Are the songwriters suspect? If the team is mostly secular people with one Christian is it okay? If the team is mostly Christian with one heathen do we throw away the CD?
Even most Christian labels are owned by decidedly non-Christian corporations. Steven Curtis Chapman, to pick one innocuous example, puts out albums under the label Sparrow Records (I’m including links so you can follow up with your own research if you want). Sparrow Records is owned by EMI Christian Music Group which also owns several other Christian labels such as Forefront and Tooth & Nail. EMI CMG, in turn, is owned by EMI Group which also owns several secular labels.
One final question I would like to ask is, “How much of an artist’s music is rejected based on their lifestyle?” Many country singers will include a hymn or a Christian song on their albums.
They will often sing songs that, while not technically “Christian,” communicate a Christian message (sometimes blatantly as in “I Love You This Much” by Jimmy Wayne). Also, many different types of artists sing Christmas carols.
Having made the decision that an artist’s lifestyle precludes us from listening to their music, does that also include their versions of the hymns and Christmas carols? What about the non-Christian songs with the Christian messages?
So What’s Your Point? I don’t get irritated by this particular argument because I am not against the idea of making wise decisions in the area of choosing appropriate entertainment.
Rather, what irritates me is that it is a man-made rule that is imposed on people as though it were Scripture. Instead of challenging people to seek after a deeper relationship with God and allow Him to dictate their music, this new “law” asks people to go to their rule-makers for lists of acceptable music.
Instead of teaching people how to distinguish harmful and spiritually damaging content for themselves, lists and rules are created which silence many wonderful songs.
We should make wise choices in the music we listen to. These choices cannot be based on stiff, formalized rules that will never work in an art that is constantly changing the rules.
Rather our choices should be based on our relationship with God, on prayer, and on the principles of the Bible. Give God your iPod. Go through it with Him, and see what He says to throw out. Spend time in prayer, and allow His Spirit to shape your heart to be more like His. In doing this you will be able to base your musical choices (all of your entertainment choices, really), on something stronger, more lasting, and more logical than man-made rules.
Making (And Breaking) Rules For the rule-makers reading this (assuming you haven’t already given up on me), know that I respect your difficult job.
Even man-made rules are biblical. In the Bible man-made rules always meet two qualifications, however. Man-made rules are always missional and contextual.
In other words, the people making the rules implement them for the purpose of furthering the mission to which God has called them. Additionally, these rules are for accomplishing that mission in a specific local context.
Paul, John, Peter and James all made rules for the people under their influence, but these kinds of rules were never seen by them as being equal to scripture. The missional and contextual natures of these rules even lead to conflicting scriptures. In Acts 15 at the council, James makes a rule that says the people should not eat anything which has been sacrificed to idols.
In I Corinthians 8, however, Paul makes a rule that says be careful how and when you eat food that has been sacrificed to idols. These rules are both man-made, but they are also both missional and contextual.
Making and breaking rules is a particularly sticky subject in our movement right now, but one thing we must understand is that different contexts call for different approaches. Not every church is going to look the same or have the same rules.
Learn how to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy music and teach others to do the same (Philippians 4:7-9; Ezekiel 44:23). Take your entertainment tastes to God in prayer. Please understand that every person will not agree with your particular understanding of healthy and unhealthy entertainment.
Finally, do everything you can to accomplish God’s mission in your local context, even if it means submitting to a few rules you don’t like.
© 2007, Joshua Remington
--------- Joshua Remington is an alumnus of UGST. He is currently serving as the Discipleship Pastor of TurnPoint Church in Clermont, FL, and is a blogger on Collideoscope. He is looking forward to meeting all of his raving fans at the General Conference in Tampa this year. |
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