From: sdt8s@curry.edschool.Virginia.EDU (Steve Tilson)
Newsgroups: rec.music.christian
Subject: Re: What has Depeche Mode got to say?
Date: 13 Dec 92 01:03:36 GMT
Organization: University of Virginia

pepsi@athena.mit.edu  writes:
> In article 12397, twiggs_te@lrc.edu says:
> 
> |> If you're worried about lyrics affecting your faith, then it
> |> must not be very solid to begin with - especially when the 
> |> lyrics are as mild as Depeche Mode's!  Now, Danzig I could
> |> understand, but Depeche Mode?!?!?!
> 
> I don't agree.  I was a moderate Depeche Mode fan as a high school student, and I
> have four of their CD's.  I haven't thrown them away because I don't feel
> compelled to do so.  But I think it's a trap to say some things are only sort-of
> bad, so they won't hurt you, but some things are really bad, so they will.  DM's
> music may be even more dangerous because it is "mild".  You might not notice
> yourself slowly accepting their seemingly harmless lyrics and they could slowly
> start to become part of your philosophical basis for life.  If you listen to DM
> for a couple hours a day, and read the Bible for 20 minutes each morning, can you
> expect to be impervious to its influence?
> 
> I didn't know the purpose of the song "Blasphemous Rumours" or of Martin claiming
> to be a Christian (not to say he isn't, but I can't know that).  It seems to me,
> though, that a Christian, having all the time it takes to write a song and then
> work it up and get it recorded and produced, would get over the emotion and take
> the blame away from God.  It seems pretty well thought out and cynical to me: "and
> when I die, I expect to find him laughing".
> 
> I'm not sure that I've listened to any of my DM CD's since I became a lot closer
> to God two years ago.  Even when I listened to DM all the time and loved it, I
> wasn't ever really clear about their messages.  "Policy of Truth" seems to be
> saying that lies are better than the truth: "you will always wonder how it could
> have been if you'd only lied."  "Strangelove" has been said to be talking about 
> masochism and sadism: "Will you take the pain I will give to you again and
> again.  Will you return it?"  Or what about "World Full of Nothing"-- Christians
> know there is meaning in life.  Or "Nothing": "Sitting target, sitting waiting;
> God is saying... nothing."  There certainly are DM lyrics more socially redeeming
> and less questionable-- don't get me wrong.
>

You leave out the one DM song that, more than Blasphemous
Rumours, causes me to question their "harmlessness" and Martin
Gore's supposed Christianity: "Personal Jesus."

On one level, this song could be interpreted as an attack on
the commercialization of Christ: an assault on the Robert
Tiltons (the proximity of his name to my own makes me shudder)
of the world, who promise a pipeline to God through them and
such devices as "prayer cloths" and "love offerings" to the
"ministry."

But the song is never specific enough on this level. And the
other interpretation of the song I've come up with -- an attack
on the very idea that one can have a personal relationship with
a Christ Who will answer prayers and take care of people who
believe in Him -- is anti-Christian in the extreme, IMHO.

Comments?

Steve
--
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Why these nightmares? Why this sky?            Steve Tilson
This long road. This empty room.               sdt8s@virginia.edu
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