Songs or Scripture

I’ve been wondering the past few days: From where do many Christians today derive their theology?

While the answers are varied and, likely, valid, I’d like to touch on one concern I’ve long held that has resurfaced. I feel much of the Body, at least the part that lives in America, gets it’s view of God (“theology”) from the radio station, the CD player, and the iPod. I fear these resources have supplanted Scriptures foundational role for our theology. Now, the church has historically had the role of imparting theology and following up in its implementation (teach and equip). Regretfully, I fear in many seeker-friendly churches, which can be wonderful bodies, a strong theology is hard to develop, and as such, seldom is. If it’s not imparted to begin with, it’s a long road toward implementation. There are ways around this, but in my limited experience these ways are also undeveloped. So, meaningful, accurate, personal theology remains unknown by many.

There are countless contemporary works of literature (and multimedia) that offer great theology and of course the classics consume whole libraries. However, I think many of the modern resources and most of the classics go untouched, unread, and unheard. Even when they are utilized, the implementation tool might be missing.

So what’s left? The radio. I’m listening to an online station right now that I love. (It’s a link on our main blog.) I love contemporary Christian music. It’s encouraging, uplifting, convicting, inspirational, worshipful. It’s a great resource. And because I think all those great things are true of Christian music, I think I let my guard down. “Sure the top 40 stations are full of trash, but Christian radio – that’s my haven.” Often true, but not always. And even when it is true, music’s not balanced. I’ll admit it; there’re some really catchy songs on Christian radio that really bug me because I think they’re dangerous. They’re dangerous because they can impact my understanding of God without me realizing it. I don’t blame the musician. Maybe I should, but I don’t. (That’s a topic for a different post.)

Ok, for instance, there’s an immensely popular song out there entitled, I think, “How Far is Heaven?” Very catchy, fun to sing along with. But is there a catch? Sure, sometimes I really want a ticket out of this life – after all, “to die is gain.” I can relate to the song so it seems fine, but where does the song leave me? Where, if you’ve heard it, does it leave you? What's the feeling you're left with? Longing is good, but longing that doesn't ultimately focus me in on the task at hand is dangerous. I long for peace in the Middle East, but if I endorse skipping over the conflict to get to lasting peace, I've set myself up for trouble. (Uh oh, did I just mix religion with politics?! Let me get off that topic!) There’s obvious truth to the song, but where’s the balance – “to live is Christ.”

I’m probably making a mountain out of molehill. Still, if I hear 9 great songs and 1 that, while well intentioned, is incorrect, I could be trouble if I’ve come to assume they’re all great. What makes it worse is that most of the time we don’t consciously think if we agree or disagree. That’s true for most forms of media anyway, but music is the worst. Music’s the worst because it’s in the background. It’s akin to playing those self-help or foreign language tapes while sleeping (no, I’ve never done that). Our goal in that situation is to learn, and we’ve discovered that sometimes we learn best when we’re not consciously “tuned in.” But we don’t extrapolate that discovery into music.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that music, and Christian music specifically, poses a potential threat to Christians because it has become the predominant source for our theology and we rarely filter it for veracity. Thus, all of it, most good to great but some bad, develops how we view God and interact with the world.

I don’t blame music, I blame us. On the whole I think Christian music has taken a very positive turn in the past 7 years. Worship music came on strong and we moved away from Christian artists to Christian music (there IS a difference; again, another post). Let me illustrate why I blame us. I was in a discussion a long time ago about some “theological” stuff. Unfortunately, one of the participants saw it as a debate, the "I'm right and you're wrong"; kind (I did not). They left upset and came back in a few minutes later. They’d heard a song on the radio that confirmed their position and they left feeling completely justified. Now, I think they were right, to a point. Unfortunately, they left that night out of balance (and maybe still are), but didn’t have to worry about it because they’re source for knowing God reaffirmed their position. My point is that Scripture was trumped by a song. That’s an over-the-top example, but how often do I, and again, we, trump Scripture with songs simply because I don’t evaluate the source let alone spend enough time with the best source to readily discover inconsistencies?
>So enjoy the songs, just don't let them take the place of Scripture. I don't think the musicians want us to do that, and I know God doesn't.