It's Still Rock and Roll To Me

There are a lot of rock and roll songs from my youth that I instantly recognize or that might even get stuck in my head like a tape loop to this day. Many songs are memorable for me, but usually because of the beat or the music. I have always found the lyrics to be a bit simplistic in rock and roll. From my early teens I came to understand that rock and roll actually was about rebelling against authority. Before then, when I heard some older person say something like that I tended to dismiss the notion because I thought they didn't understand the genre.

The fact of the matter is that rock and roll's own proponents have said the same thing on many an occasion. The list of rockers who readily admit that fact is very long. Rock and roll has its very roots in sexual rebellion. Many of the early songs in rock and roll were virtual tributes to fornication, and they were written in a semi-code system so that 'old fogies' wouldn't get it. Even the words, "rock and roll" are a slang term for that particular sin. The old fogies figured it out anyway though. Album after album has been devoted to rebelling against authorities of many kinds---religious, moral, parental, legal, artistic. You name it and rock and roll has rebelled against it and made fun of it.

Rock and roll has demonstrated great disrespect for God, but often seems to fancy itself in a sort of strange 'cat and mouse' relationship with Him. On the one hand, it is fond of rejecting and blaspheming mean old God the Father, but appealing to that really nice guy, Jesus. Well, that is when they are not busy blaspheming His name. They certainly have no problem deriding His church.

Sarah MacLachlan has a new 'tune' out titled "Dear God". She doesn't pull a single punch. In her diatribe against Him she blames Him for the world's ills. She says that He is the cause of wars and even accuses Him of drowning babies. That's a new one. She calls the Holy Trinity an unholy hoax perpetrated on mankind and ends the song by telling Him that she ..........doesn't believe in Him. I understand that the song is an open letter to a God she purports not to exist, but there's a strange inconsistency in her logic that does not escape me.

Christians can be awfully naive at times, just like anyone else. We shouldn't be, but we can be. Rock and roll has had such an influence on the minds of most young people, that when they become young believers they are reluctant to leave it behind with the other worldly influences that they have turned their back on. They even strive to bring it into the church. I don't have a problem with the music and beat to a certain degree. I always liked that, but when the volume prevents worship, or when the lyrics are watered down to the point that finding anything worshipful in it, or anything edifying, then I do have a problem with it.

Which brings me to.....U2. Sorry if you are a big U2 fan. I just never have been. U2 has always seemed to be members of the 'cat and mouse' club that I mentioned before. I have heard or read many times that U2 was a Christian band. The thing is, I don't know if I have ever heard that statement made by someone I know to actually be a Christian. There is no question that U2 are one of the most recognizable rock bands of all time. Their front man Bono is much more highly recognized than any of the other band members. That is probably due the fact that he claims to be a Christian, is a very vocal person and quite active in calling for and securing aid to African nations. He, along with Bob Geldof, have been up for the Nobel Peace Prize in the past for their efforts in that regard. I admire their efforts, but I think that the people in those African nations are worse off now than they were before the efforts, due to politically corrupt leaders and dictators in those same countries.

Just this month, U2 has come out with a new album. Yesterday I read another one of those articles that asked if perhaps with this one that U2 might be returning to its 'Christian' roots. Huh? Probably the song I remember of U2's that ever came the closest to being more than remotely spiritual would be "The Joshua Tree". When Bono sang the he believed in the 'kingdom come' and that "You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains" and then "Carried the cross of my shame", it sounded fairly moving. Unfortunately, it fell back into that cat and mouse category for me when the next line was belted out--"But I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

Why this new album is reputed to be a Christian one is a mystery to me. There are only a couple of songs with slightly spiritual mentions or words in them, and nothing of any real consequence. I have heard metal band songs with more Scriptural references. Lots of songwriters have hijacked Scriptures to make a buck without any real affinity for them. If Bono were singing these songs as a worship leader, then he would be the leading contextualized performer on the planet. He manages to use the 's' word in one of them. The fact is that rock and roll music shouldn't have any real fellowship with the church. It's really no different from a believer consciously choosing to marry an unbeliever. Light and darkness. It just shouldn't happen.

Obeying God rather than men does not qualify as rebellion, since God's authority supersedes that of any of His creation. He permitted them whatever authority they have in the first place.

If songwriters want to write that breakout song, or if they still feel a need to rebel against something that matters, perhaps they should rebel against sin. Contrary to what Sarah MacLachlan evidently believes, sin the real reason that wars are fought, why people are starved, why children are abused and neglected, why there is any kind of human depravity and why the earth is in midst of the turmoil it is currently experiencing. Why not rebel against unbelief, and seek to make disciples of Christ?

Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." In order to do that, rebellion would have to be left behind by everyone, but the world would sure be a different place than it is right now.