Before there can be a discussion about whether or not anything belongs to a particular culture, we must come to an understanding of what culture is. According to Webster\u2019s Dictionary, culture comes from the Latin cultura or the French colere and means \u201cto cultivate\u201d or \u201cthe characteristic features and values of a civilization or group of people.\u201d Culture is the practice of what we believe.<\/p>\n
If we apply this definition to those who are members of the Body of Christ, particularly those who believe and practice the Word of God, there must be Christian Culture. God has allowed me in the more than 50 years of my ministry to travel and minister in more than 35 countries, and I have found that wherever I go, Bible-believing Christians have similar standards.<\/p>\n
Why is this true? Because the Bible teaches that there are principles of life that all Christians are to follow. In Ephesians 4:22, we learn that we are to \u201cput off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt.\u201d And Philippians 1:27 instructs us to let our \u201cconversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.\u201d Any Bible scholar will verify the fact that the word, \u201canastrofhn,\u201d translated \u201cconversation\u201d in the KJV, means a way of life or by our definition, culture. This is because those who love the Lord and believe His Word are to adopt and practice a way of life that very practically becomes what can be called Christian Culture.<\/p>\n
God is unchangeable, His principles of right are always the same, and they will never pass away. In His Word He has given us the principles of \u201ca way of life\u201d (culture) that will never change and must be applied to every area of life, including music.<\/p>\n
How does this apply to Contemporary Christian Music? Any observer of the culture that accompanies much of CCM must admit that the lifestyle, the language, the attitude, the lack of separation and musical standards, all fall far short of what the Bible requires of those who believe \u201cthe gospel of Christ.\u201d Even those who are involved in this genre recognize the power of CCM to control the culture of those who adhere to it. For instance, Michael Hamilton in writing for Christianity Today says: \u201cWhen one chooses a musical style today, one is making a statement about whom one identifies with, what one\u2019s values are, and ultimately who one is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edward Rothstein, chief critic for the New York Times, writes that a musical style \u201csuggests ways to think. A style even defines a musical community – a group with shared notions about music and its purpose… The shared style allows for musical communication without misunderstanding.\u201d What both of these authors are clearly describing, perhaps without realizing it, is the culture of CCM.<\/p>\n
It is significant to note that as World magazine reports: \u201cSecular media companies… swallowed up more than 90 percent of Christian recording labels in the 1990\u2019s.\u201d If the world adopts it as their own, there must be something un-Christian about it that allows the world to embrace it. As Cal Thomas, in talking about the problems Christians face in the political realm, has pointed out in his insightful book, Blinded by Might, whenever we try to marry Christianity and the world, Christianity always loses. He says that \u201cwe try… to usher in a kingdom not of this world by using tools that are of this world,\u201d and it doesn\u2019t accomplish the goal that it is supposed to be seeking.<\/p>\n
But, the CCM proponents protest, we are just using POP music to get the message of the gospel out to the world. What they fail to recognize is what communication experts like Neil Postman of New York University states in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: \u201cThe form in which ideas are expressed affects what those ideas will be.\u201d He elucidates this idea even further when he says: \u201cIt is naive to think that something that has been expressed in one form can be expressed in another without significantly changing its meaning, texture, or value.\u201d To apply this truth to CCM means that even Bible words change their meaning when they are set to today\u2019s POP or rock music, thus changing God\u2019s gospel into \u201canother gospel.\u201d As Galatians 1:7 says, they \u201cpervert the gospel of Christ.\u201d Probably without recognizing that what he was saying came from this Scripture, Robert Shaw said: \u201cI don\u2019t know if the church today understands the music being brought into the church. The people don\u2019t understand the music… it\u2019s perverse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even Newsweek magazine, after noting that at CCM festivals they have \u201cgansta-style rhymes about the Lord,\u201d and that \u201cthe kids have the option to visit the prayer area if they\u2019re not moshing,\u201d comments: \u201cMaybe the mainstreaming of Christianity has gone too far.\u201d Evidently this worldly magazine recognizes that the culture of CCM and the culture of Christianity don\u2019t belong together.<\/p>\n
I have heard a number of missionaries say: \u201cBut we don\u2019t want to impose American culture on the culture in the country where we minister.\u201d And I couldn\u2019t agree more! American culture is not worth much. In fact, many other countries are experiencing the same problems America is having because our country is exporting the basest areas of its culture to other countries through its movies and music. But there is Christian culture, and we do need to proclaim the Biblical principles that will lead to adoption of Biblical standards to every country in the world.<\/p>\n
To spread the culture of CCM will only lead to an anemic, counterfeit Christianity that Steve Camp says \u201cyodels as a Christless, watered-down, God-as-my-girlfriend kind of thing.\u201d To paraphrase Vance Havner, an old-time evangelist: \u201cIf CCM is the light of the world, why is everything so dark?\u201d Several CCM recordings have sold in the millions and, according to Newsweek magazine, the over-all \u201cChristian entertainment business is a 3 billion dollar industry.\u201d To paraphrase Vance Havner again: \u201cIf CCM is the salt of the earth, why is everything so corrupt?\u201d I believe the problem is that the culture of CCM is not the culture, the way of life, that the Bible teaches ought to be characteristic of Christians.<\/p>\n
But I can almost hear someone saying: \u201cWhy make a blanket condemnation of CCM? It isn\u2019t all bad. It may be insipid and not have much content, but it isn\u2019t all that bad.\u201d This also relates to culture, because the worst thing that a church or a Christian organization can have is a mixture of error and truth. It would be better to go to a secular school than to go to one that claims to be Christian and then teaches evolution. It would be better to go to a secular psychologist than to go to one who prays with you and then gives you Freudian psychology. And it would be better to go to a church that you know doesn\u2019t teach the Bible than to go to one that still preaches the Bible but then allows worldly practices to be a part of its ministry. The \u201cChristian culture\u201d that mixes truth and error is the worst one of all because of its inconsistency and compromise, and CCM is just such a culture.<\/p>\n
Without realizing it, Time magazine in a special issue titled Music Goes Global, revealed one of the main problems Bible-believing Christians should have with today\u2019s POP music, especially Christian POP which is what CCM is. This magazine says: \u201cMusicians are rocking old traditions. Your world will never be the same…The we-are-the-world maxim is this: music is the universal language.\u201d In other words, POP music will be one of the main vehicles the devil uses to help establish a one-world church. Could it be that the devil is promoting CCM to try to accomplish his anti-Christian goals for the world? It is certainly uniting believers and unbelievers in some strange alliances. And as John Makujina has so succinctly said in his book, Measuring the Music: \u201cAnyone who attempts to battle CCM today will be facing not just a Goliath, but a Goliath on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is CCM a cultural thing? Absolutely! But I believe it is promoting the wrong culture, not the one that Philippians 1:27 says is worthy of the gospel of Christ.<\/p>\n
– Frank Garlock, Founder and President of Majesty Music, Inc.<\/p>\n
Contact Majesty Music for Dr. Garlock to speak at your church by calling:
\n1-800-334-1071
\nor write to:
\nMajesty Music
\nPO Box 6524
\nGreenville, SC 29606<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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