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Is Rock and Roll Music Inherently Bad? | ||||||
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| Disclaimer: If you don't like Rock music, you won't like Christian parodies of rock music. That being the case, why waste your time reading this stuff? It would be much better for you to go praise the Lord in a way that is acceptable to you rather than get all caught up in the emotions associated with this subject. This essay is intended for those who might like this genre but are wondering about whether their interest is somehow "unholy." If you disagree, feel free to write your own essays and publish them on the Internet. I really don't want to spend a lot of time on this issue. The argument of the evils of Rock 'n' Roll predate the days of Christian Rock and most of the primary arguments against Rock and Roll are due to generational differences, nothing more (not unlike the differences between Rock and Rap today, the differences between Country and Rock, the differences between Swing and Country, and the differences between Classical and Swing previously). Every (recent) generation has adopted some genre of music as their focus of rebellion against the previous generation. It's easy to understand why they take offense to this music, but that doesn't make the music fundamentally bad. Of course, differences of opinion concerning how we should praise the Lord are nothing new. Cain and Able started it all and, perhaps, the most famous story involving music and praise is the story of David and Michal in 2 Sam 6. In that story Michal, being very "prim and proper" criticized King David (her husband) for debasing himself while praising the Lord. In the end, it was Michal that was punished for her actions, not David. So we should keep this in mind when we are quick to criticize others for the way they praise the Lord. There are lots of web sites that argue whether "Christian Rock Music" is an oxymoron. Below is a link to a (pro-Christian Rock) site that has links to sites and articles that address both sides of the debate. Personally, I feel that these arguments are quite similar in nature to those between the Pharisees and the Saducees in Christ's time - arguments about who is "holier than thou." The bottom line, however, is that both of those sides were happy to see Jesus hanging on the cross. And that is the problem that I see with this debate – we spend so much time worrying about trivial issues like whether or not Christian Rock music leads the youth to immorality that we lose sight of the bigger issues we should be tackling. So having made that statement, allow me to leave you with the following URLs if you want to follow up on this debate: http://www.mindspring.com/~brucec/apol.htm | |||