From: cassidy@cps.msu.edu (John J Cassidy)
Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.metal.progressive
Subject: Re: Christian Metal ???
Date: 29 Sep 92 19:29:01 GMT
Reply-To: cassidy@cps.msu.edu (John J Cassidy)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
Originator: cassidy@mulberry.cps.msu.edu

In article <1992Sep29.010515.26105@reed.edu> mojo@reed.edu (The Man Who Lived On Top Of The Sun) writes:
>
>I think most bands that start with a message and try to build music around
>it get boring fast; this is at least as true of political subjects as
>religious ones.  (I'm thinking of ten thousand bad protest folksingers here.)
>The monotonous, subject-obsessive Christian metal is, I think, made by
>people who either: (1) think faith is a workable substitute for creativity;
>or (2) don't distinguish between their identities and their religions.
>
>By just about any standard, King's X is a Christian metal band; I believe
>Fates Warning is as well.  There are probably others we don't know about.
>Presumably these are people who find Christianity to be a source of freedom,
>rather than an impediment to it.  (I don't entirely understand how people
>reconcile their individuality with *any* organized religion---but it seems
>to work for lots of them.)

	I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Christianity is NOT an 
organized religion.  There have been some religions that have sprung up 
around the ideas of Christianity.  But Christianity is about the living power
of the Holy Spirit living through you.  The good Christian metal bands, ( and
the good Christian alternative bands ) don't sing about the "Church".  "Gee, 
wouldn't it be nice to go to Church?  Sing some hymns, and eat some doughnuts."
etc.  They do not sing about "religion", and the do not sing about the 
organization, they do not sing about church history, candalabras, or any
church fixtures.  They reconcile individuality with the individual experience 
of God in their lives.  King's X sings about "We Are Finding Who We Are.",
Extreme sings that there is a hole in the heart that can only be filled by ( you ).
In many cases these "Christian" groups are critical of the "church".  And I 
will tell you why: because they stifle individuality and honesty to such an 
extent that they totally close off people to the richness of what Christians
actually believe.
	Before when someone was talking about Metal being about Freedom, and 
how Christian Metal was an oxymoron, I think he kinda forgot the anger that 
comes from simple catagorization, and the freedom that comes from breaking
other people's nice little catagories.


>
>Note, too, Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner": "To teach God's word by
>his own example/That we must love all things that God made."  I don't know
>if the sentiments are shared by the band, or just inherited from the
>original poem.
>
>Damn, this is disorganized.  I thjink I've had too much coffee.
>
>	NT
>-- 
>"My wife is in Hell, where       @  Nathan Tenny           @  I barely even
>I sent her.  She made good       @   mojo@reed.edu         @  _have_ an
>biscuits, but her behavior       @ tenny@euclid.uoregon.edu@  employer.  Can I
>was terrible."  -_Lonesome Dove_ @                         @  use yours?
Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.metal.progressive