-St Paul
Hello again. For the past however many weeks I've been having a huge battle between the ills and the benefits of secular music. Not claiming to have all the knowledge but it's time to touch on this topic. In fact it's long overdue......
I remember when I first went to America. The sights and smells captured me. The beats of hip hop took me by surprise. The style, the debonair soul vocals on some tracks, the fashion, the identity of those who were the poster girls and poster boys for it and the swag of their followers caught my attention. I loved tracks like Fabolous' 'Can't deny it' and Jay Z's 'Izzo'. They seemed to be the block bangers in every hood in Brooklyn. This was the summer of 2001. (P.S For those who read this who didn't grow up in this time nor in the middle of this culture, my apologies if the change in lingo distresses you :D).
At this time secular music and spiritual music was not the contrasts I know them as today. Music was just music. Anointed was the same as Craig David to me, Cece Winans was the same as So Solid Crew. They all were just catchy tunes which I'd maybe heard in the car or on someone's radio. I guess I could say I had no allegiance to either one. I'd just listen to whatever sounded nice and I was happy. S Club 7 was my favourite band (Gosh, now I've gone and lost all my street cred :D Nevermind! ). This was all until my allegiance changed as I listened to beats birthed in a New York studio. My love for hip hop was born.
Suddenly, you would catch me listening to nothing but rap, street rap, conscious hip hop, gangsta rap with a dash of r n' b. All I wanted to do was be cool, and turn from that boy that was bullied and often seen as soft by those in my peer group, to the guy who was known as a g, someone who could take a fight and took no nonsense, just another guy from the ends to be feared. It took effort to create this new persona, but in some measure by two to three years later I had created the new Christian Smith.
My change was fueled by mainly the music I was listening to and peer pressure. My role model's spoke about being g's, dealing with ho's (whores), the hard life handed to them, and maintaining a persona in the streets. This is what I gobbled up, and it became my dream to be like them. From this time in my life I began to live under the influence of secular music. It had glorified itself, and I had begun to pay homage.
Now many people argue (and I've heard it alot), 'music doesn't affect me in the way it affects you' and 'sometimes some secular music can have a positive message'. Sometimes I catch my own thoughts saying to me, 'What about Bob Marley and that, the soul singers from the 60's, the Ray Charles', Aretha Franklin's, James Brown's and the like. Often their music had a positive up-building message'. Some Christians will say 'I listen to both and what's the problem? It never hurt me. It actually helps me get inspired to minister'. These are all reasonable questions and opinions. My challenge lies in one simple statement.
What you listen to should uphold what you stand for, and encourage you to follow after your life's goal.
I remember I used to be part of a sales company which played 'winner music', music that emphasised the good life after they'd had a seminar. This was to subliminally influence people to sign up for their company with promises of a better life through the selling of their product. I also once knew someone who listened to 'Billionaire' by Travie Mccoy ft Bruno Mars to usher them on to their goal to be- you guessed it- a billionaire. My question comes when someone with the life goal to follow Christ does the same thing and passes it off as just listening to a catchy song. Worldly ambition can easily creep in. When Sean Paul is telling a woman to 'shake that ting', why would a God fearing believer be promoting that glorification of a woman moving sexily to a beat as 'just a song i listen to'. If our profession and our lifestyles are to match, then this should affect the music we listen to.
Paul emphasised us speaking to one another in 'Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs'. It's not always about the style but its always about the content. I understand 'spiritual' songs as speaking of songs which bring to us the Spirit of God. Therefore if you can get my thought path 'unspiritual' songs would not just be songs that don't bring to us the Spirit of God, but also songs that are used to bring to us another spirit (i.e the spirit of lust, impurity, jealousy or violence etc). If you can listen to a Bob Marley or an Aretha Franklin song (only for an example, this might not be you) and God's Spirit ministers to you through that all well and good. My problem is when people listen to songs glorifying worldliness and sin (as some of even Bob's and Aretha's do!) and talk about it being harmless because God ministered to them through it.
Now I don't claim to be working it out completely in practice but by God's grace I aim to. The fact is we all will be example's to the next generation and they will do what we do. It's a sharp opinion and a sharp topic but I feel it's important for me to let my voice be heard. I've been wishy washy on this subject for quite a while even encouraging other brethren to 'just do what is them' when caving underneath the pressure, but I feel that was wrong advice. God saved us to be a more fuller us, not so we would dedicate our lives to things that don't matter or even worse- things that undermine our faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment