Bob Dylan is a perfect example of this. Here's the breakdown of Dylan's career:
Pre-Christian Dylan - Great.
Christian Dylan - Complete and utter crap (any real Dylan fan will admit this).
Post-Christian Dylan - Mostly crap with a few flashes of earlier brilliance.
So why does this happen? Wouldn't you think that being connected with the infinitely creative God, as Christians are supposed to be, would lead to a person becoming more creative, and not less? I just don't get it. If I'm flipping through radio stations in my car, I can tell within 5 seconds if it is a Christian station. It all sounds the same; overly-heavy harmonies, cheesy music that sounds like it stepped out of 1992, and trite lyrics.
There are a few exceptions of people who follow Christ and happen to be great musicians. Sufjan Stevens is someone who comes immediately to my mind. He can sing about spiritual things without being churchy and awful.
So what's the deal with this? Can someone help me out?
2 comments:
Somewhere along the way, maybe it was the whole "seeker" movement in Christianity, that we decided the best way to "reach" people is to sound and look just like everything "secular" people listen to and watch. That sounds like a good idea on the surface, but it's really fairly blasphemous. To suggest that God is glorified by a D version of everything the world does is blasphemy. There's nothing less creative than parody. Anyone can do it, and if you listen to Christian radio now, record execs will apparently give a record contract to anyone who can sing the name Jesus. Great post.
Thanks for the comment. I get so tired of hearing Christians say, "Have you heard the band (insert newest cookie-cutter Christian band here), they sound like (insert name of popular secular band here)?" It should probably be the other way around. We should be the more creative one's out there, what being connected the freakin' Creator of the Universe and all.
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