At 10:03 AM 1/8/2004 -0700, Not Lame wrote:
>  Of course, as is all our rights, we can choose to reject or embrace or
>ignore such artist----which  is a great, wonderful right and dose of
>old-fashion free-will and the democracy of choice-----------but for so many
>non-Christians, it perplexes me how incredibly uptight, sometimes angry many
>get when artist mentions God or Jesus.  "It mentions God, well, no
>thanks---I don't need to hear it".     Not talking about anyone here, but
>just in my experience over the years w/ Not Lame.

I'm one of those people who tends to look askance at Christian music, as
part of a general distrust I've always had not just of Christianity, but of
organized religion as a whole.  Way too many people I've known, including
some in my own family and far too many in positions of political power,
have perverted the message into "My god can beat up your god."  I cannot in
good conscience be down with that, and if that message has infiltrated into
the music, I cannot in good conscience listen to it.  Of course, as Bruce
says, that's a relatively small percentage of CCM artists and there are
plenty of artists who aren't like that (Examples of overtly Christian
artists whose stuff I like: Allen Clapp/Orange Peels, Starflyer 59, T-Bone
Burnett, Sam/Leslie Phillips, Joy Electric, etc.), but it's prevalent
enough that I want to know if it's there or not before I listen.

>(Another professional note:  over the years, I've had a handful of
>customers who will not buy anything from Not Lame simply because of the fact
>we carry a CCM artist and I've had this discussion w/ them, too trying to
>understand the whole revulsion......btw, it's almost impossible to weed out
>5,000 releases for 'offending' mentions of God or Jesus)

I don't think you're being quite fair here in expressing what it is we
object to.  Speaking for myself, it's not God or Jesus I'm repulsed by, any
more than I'm repulsed by Allah, Buddha or any other form of the universal
life force or whatever you want to call it.  I'm comfortable with my own
spirituality and I know what works for and with me.  What repulses me are
the people -- and this includes some but certainly nowhere near all CCM
artists -- who consider themselves "right" and everyone else who doesn't
believe in exactly the same things "wrong."  I don't like that in
spirituality, I don't like that in politics, I don't like that in sports
(hey, I like the Sox as much as the next guy who lives half a mile from
Fenway, but I don't believe the Yankees are a scourge that must be
eliminated from this earth), I don't like that in music (as anyone who has
suffered through my rants whenever the "rap isn't music" canard comes up),
I just don't like that.  

Although to be honest, my dislike of the likes of Stephen Curtis Chapman
simply boils down to the fact that I find the music itself positively
ghastly. 

S