From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Subject: Re: TANGENT: Re: Is music amoral??
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 13:32:31 GMT

I wrote: 

>> Bob tells us (and Francis Schaeffer would agree) that certain forms of
>> art are inappropriate for Christian expression...
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And Bob responds:
In article <10741003@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM> rhm@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Bob Miller) writes:

>Your word, not mine (I said "not very useful"; I used "inappropriate" to 
>describe the act of labeling such artistic styles "evil"). You and others have
>pointed out exactly the proper use of such forms of artistic expression! 
>
>But once you have used such a nihilistic style to point out the absurdity of 
>reason w/o God (and hopefully offered the Christian alternative), do you 
>continue to use the same style for, say, high praise -- when you're done with 
>the "all is vanity" statement? Such a use is IMO a bad marriage of art and 
>message. Remember that classic statement of a couple of decades ago, "the 
>medium *IS* the message"? It wasn't a CCM-bashing Jimmy Swaggart that said 
>that!

The problem is that I don't know what a nihilistic "style" is.  Nihilism
is a philosophy.   It can be (and has been) communicated in a variety
of media, using a variety of styles.  In music, it's been communicated
by The Sex Pistols through ranting vocals, highly distorted guitars, 
and lyrics about the futility of life.  It's also been communicated
by people such as Matthew Sweet, who just wrote a highly melodic,
quite lovely acoustic guitar ballad called "Nothing Lasts."  Same
philosophy, but very different styles.  Is one "good" art and the 
other "bad" art?  I don't know.  They work equally well for me.

It works the other way too.  I have a home-made cassette that I call
the Gloria Tape.  It consists of differents artists doing versions
of the liturgical Gloria from the Catholic Mass (or at least variations
thereof).  Obviously, by its very nature, it's a tape that is focused on 
praise and worship.  Some of the artists represented:  Beethoven, Bach, 
Bruckner, Vivaldi, U2, The Triffids, Patti Smith.  The sounds range from 
baroque to punk rock.  Is one style better suited to the Gloria than 
others?  Not to my ears.  In fact, I find myself *better* able to focus 
on praise and worship through the tape because there are a variety
of styles represented.

>I get the feeling that the emotions surrounding this issue belie a concern that
>the next step is to identify the "sin-beats" and the styles which are flat-out
>inapropriate for the christian to *ever* use. I would fight that, too. All I 
>want is for us (as artists) to *think* about what kind of art we're creating.
>For crying out loud, every *other* artist does...

I want that too.  And I agree with you that artists should seriously
consider the most appropriate style for the content they wish to
communicate.  But I don't think it follows that certain genres of
music are more appropriate for Christian expression than others.
Without even getting into those Christian artists who record for
secular labels, there's CCM out there in every genre imaginable.
We all have differences in personal taste, and obviously it's
not all going to work for you, just as it doesn't all work for me.
But I find it heartening that the industrial fans, the thrash fans,
the rap fans, even the Michael W. Smith fans :-) have a number
of alternatives from which to choose in the Christian music industry.
The fans of these genres obviously find plenty to like about what
they hear, and they apparently find the style entirely appropriate
for the content.  

By the way, Marshall McLuhan can argue that the medium is the message,
but he used a variety of media (television, films, books) to 
communicate the same message.  Go figure.  If the communications guru 
of our time can use a dizzying variety of media to communicate his
message, why can't Christians use a variety of musical genres to
communicate their message?  

>I think I've said about all I have to say, publicly ... I'll happily continue
>the thread offline with anyone who e-mails ... though I reserve the right to
>come out of retirement....;-)
>
>Bob (I don't expect to see Moloch in a museum in Heaven...) Miller

Me either.  Or praying hands statues.

Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
att!cblpn!ajw  or
ajw@cblpn.att.com