From: bill@mercury
Newsgroups: rec.music.christian
Subject: Re: Is "Hotel California" evil?
Date: 7 Jan 93 00:14:50 GMT
Organization: GE Corporate R&D Center
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

tef@sei.cmu.edu (Tracey Fox) writes:
: 
: In article <1993Jan5.143250.17698@cbnews.cb.att.com>, ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman) writes:
: 
: |> 
: |> Don Henley, who wrote and sang the song, has always been reticent about
: |> what it means.  As Jerry noted above, it certainly contains a number of
: |> references to Satan and Satanic activity.  Does that make it demonic?
: |> I guess it depends on whether you think the lyrics are supporting

..lots of stuff not relevant to this response deleted...

: |> drug abuse, the lifestyle of rock stars, or just living in L.A.  In any 
: |> event, it doesn't sound like something that would come from the Chamber 
: |> of Commerce.
: |> 
: 
:I agree. I think alot of this depends on how the artist purposes the song from
: his/her heart and what relationship that artist is with the Lord.  Also I
: think a distinction should be made between music and lyrics.  Music can have
: positive or negative affects individually and collectively, and lyrics can
:have negative or positive connotations.  When the two are combined there are a
:multitude of issues at hand which eventually get worked out within each person
:(and that does not necessarily mean a happy ending either as stated by parents
: who feel some rock/heavy metal/etc. music had some responsibility with the
: death of their teenagers, as gets reported on the news from time to time.)
:

There is some music that I feel is evil and I cannot listen too, but that
is simply a reflection of the memories it brings back for me.  I 
don't feel comfortable blaming music for my actions, good or bad.  If
I hear music that makes me uncomfortable, I just leave.  I can only
judge my own reactions, however, so I cannot state catagorically that
Ozzie Osborn can or can not drive an adolescent to suicide.  IMHO it seems
that music could not be much more than a peripheral influence to someone
that has more fundamental problems that need resolved.
 
: Can music sung to the Lord's glory hurt you?  You may not like the style of
:music or the artist performing but it's not going to hurt you, if anything you
: will benefit and the Lord's good name gets praised! Can music itself or music
: sung by a satanist hurt you?  I believe it may or may not have devastating
:affects (depending on the individual and circumstances in that person's life),
:but for believers contemplating this issue, the WORD promises that NOTHING can
: separate you from the love of God which you have in Christ Jesus! That's
:because Jesus HAS paid the price for mankind's sin at Calvary.  OH...THANK YOU
: LORD FOR THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST!  And when one truly repents from
: their sin that person is sealed with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus promises that
: no man can take you from the Father.  We are his children, his sheep, who
: hears his voice.  And as believers, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and
: the word of our testimonies! 
: 

Again, I can only speak for myself, but "Music sung to the Lord's glory" is
still music made by man and still of mortal craft.  When I was growing up,
the music that I heard that was called "Christian" was offensive to me.  
For a long time, I felt that if this was the only Christian music (that is
the way it was presented to me, that it was the only Christian music and the 
rest is evil) than I must not be meant to be a Christian.  As believers we
should leave room for diversity within the body of the church.  There are
a lot of negative things happening that claim to be of the Lord.  The 
only way to judge anything is for each individual to judge their effect
on the Spirit that dwells in their heart.  Once they have made that 
decision, they should speak confidently about their feelings but should
be cautious about telling others what to feel.

The power of the Spirit in Tracey's response is beautiful and inspiring.
It is also important to realize that the presence of the Spirit is not
necessarily a promise that our lives will suddenly be free of pain, 
vulnerability, frustration, etc.  It may be that for some people, but human 
nature is such that it is difficult to grow if you are not being challanged.

Also, the enemy didn't bother me much before I believed, he didn't need to, 
I was making it real easy for him.  It is when we become a threat that we
attract attention.  I recall much more scripture speaking of how we will
overcome than scripture speaking of never having to struggle.

: I truly feel sorry for those who truly don't have the Lord on their sides to
: have this same blessed assurance!  That's why we need to keep supporting the
: Lord's musicians and pray for those who are lost!
: 

Tracey's love is again inspiring.  I have seen the spirit move powerfully
among both believers and non (at first anyway) believers when sharing the
Lords love in practical ways without being preachy.  One of the stumbling
blocks that almost kept me from becoming a Christian was other Christians
that continually spoke of how perfect their life was as a believer and
how desperate I was as an unbeliever.  This destroyed all credibility
of Christianity in my eyes because I could see simply by looking at them
that their life was far from perfect.  When we speak of the manifestations
of the power of the spirit we need to make sure we let people know that
it will be a unique experience with a unique expression for every 
individual.  We also need to be sure we don't sound patronizing or 
superior to people who have not been saved, God knows none of us are here
through our own power.  If we follow the example of Jesus we need to show
the same love for people who do not believe as we do for believers.

Gee, not much of this was even about music, not to mention the Eagles...
Sorry :-).

Bill Kilgallon
"'Please,' she said, 'You're so beautifull.  You may eat me if you like.
  Id sooner be eaten by you then fed by anyone else'"--Hwin, the talking
  horse, whe faced by Aslan the Lion.  (C.S. Lewis, The horse and his boy).
bill@mercury.ae.ge.com
#include <std_disclaimer.h