I confess, for something called "The C.S. Lewis Song", I was expecting this to be a little more, I don't know... jaunty? Something one could sing at the pub. But I do likes it. Quite a voice, this girl has.
Back when I was still a fairly new Christian Evangelical revert (after being raised Baptist, and then college educated into a mushy kind of Christian Agnosticism) I was for a while a great fan of Christian Rock/Pop. We have had a popular evangelical Christian radio station in the area for decades (out of John Brown University) and my radio dial was permanently welded there in the late 80s and early 90s.
I'm pretty finicky, musically, but I overlooked what I considered to be a lot of Christian Drek because I found it worthwhile to get to the Good Stuff. I was a big fan of Out of the Grey, I remember. and Brent Bourgeois. The link is to one of my favorites of his. Though I think this was before he declared as a Christian, the lyrics show he was thinking deeply about things.
It's the question of the hour,
How can I be sure of what I don't know?
She comes to me with poison in her flower,
And steals the miracle of life right out of my hand
After I became a Catholic, though (or perhaps I was just growing up), slowly, imperceptibly, Christian Pop - or Pop of almost any kind - failed to satisfy. I began to notice the extent to which Christian Pop Radio was increasingly a reflection of ordinary pop radio, and that mainly for the worse (though not totally). I also came to resent the extent to which Pop Culture had insinuated itself into the liturgy. Even the Sacrament of the Altar is not immune from the din of drum kits and electric guitars, and I say this as a great fan - a sucker - for great guitar work. I loves me some Stevie Ray Vaughan... only not in church, please.
In the words of Hank Hill, "Can't you see? You're not making Christianity better... you're making rock and roll worse!".
I'm all for honesty and sincerity, but it seemed more and more of Christian Pop songwriting was becoming a festival of breast-beating, cathartic, sentimental introspection to the point of narcissism. Okay, we all struggle, but if I want to be depressed I'd rather listen to Pink Floyd... or Tool.
There seemed also to be an element of Christian Guilt bubbling up, not unlike the White Guilt so prevalent among hip progressives. Yes, Christians are often hypocritical. So is everyone. It's a remnant of The Fall that is part of the human condition. Yes, Christendom has had it's share of moral missteps throughout history. We should be aware of our hypocrisy, aware of our past mistakes and constant shortcomings... but can we leave off apologizing at some point and please get on with things?
I've always admired celebrities who have had the good sense not to believe their own press clippings. We ought to do likewise. We don't measure our success - or failure - by worldy standards. We are, in fact warned about conformity to the world. Why, then, do we now seem so all-fired concerned that the world "like us... really like us"?
This is part of the problem I have with what is called the Emergent Church. This movement seems to me very much in danger of being the Tragically Hip church, the Church as Fashion Victim. Clothes? Check (Hot Topic). Music? Check. Hi-Def Multimedia Worship? Check. Pop-culture references? Check. Hair gel? Check.
I understand the impulse. Shoot, I'm as embarrassed as anyone to be lumped in with Jerry Falwell and Oral Roberts and the old polyester suit crowd. But to bastardize C.S. Lewis, "Because our grandparents erred in one direction, does it follow that there is no error in the opposite direction?"
It's not good to try and freeze any moment in history (say, the 1950s) and set that up as The Good Old Days... to become stodgy and grumpy and interact with our unbelieving neighbors mainly by wagging our fingers and complaining of their godless music and their dungarees. But the opposite error isn't pretty, either. To court the approval of half-interested cultural agnostics (called "seekers") or to ape the fashions and attitudes (Watch me! I'm being ironic!) of a perenially bored and fickle generation is just as bad.
As irksome as it may seem, I think I might rather stand with Brother Falwell.
So, okay, let's admit our shortcomings and mistakes, our struggles, fears and doubts, but after that... well, do we have any Good News for these people, or don't we?
All that said, the song/video linked above - by New Zealander Brooke Fraser - does flirt a bit with depressing introspection, but she pulls it together into something very lovely and even powerful. She begins with what feels like an achingly agnostic perspective, but shows that there is hope for us all to "know as we are known" in the end. Behind everything, there really is Someone there.
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