This is closely related to my recent entry on contextualization. I've been listening to some music lately which quickly makes me nervous, due to my extremely moralistic past. Some of the artists I'm enjoying have a tendency to, occasionally, erm, well, uh... you know....swear. *gasp* I know.... shocking. So, as a Christian, is it wrong, or even sinful, for me to listen to this? I think that not only is it not sinful, but it can be shown to be good. How? Read on...
First of all, we should get one thing out of the way. As Christians, we have much more freedom than we often give ourselves. Or, maybe it's better to say, we have more freedom in some areas than we give ourselves, and we have less freedom in some areas where we give ourselves lots of freedom. Got it? Oh, nevermind... read on. Because of my freedom in Christ, I can listen to music containing swearing. I can watch TV with sexual innuendo. I can take in a movie containing violence. But besides this freedom, is swearing even sin? No! Surprised? Our heart is the seat of sin and as such, someone can swear with a pure heart and, conversely, someone can say "Oh my!" with an evil heart. Someone famous (Jesus) once said that we should not wash the outside of the cup while neglecting the inside... more on that in a moment.
But, for the moment, lets suspend reality and pretend that swearing IS always sin and that it's just like violence, sexual sin, or not loving others. (funny how that last one just doesn't seem to fit… does it? But it DOES!)
As I mentioned in a previous entry, effective gospel contextualization requires we know something about our culture. Depending on your set of friends, different aspects of culture, such as relevant music, can be extremely important. And not just knowing about it scientifically, but liking and/or relating to it. It helps us to know the pain, suffering, joy, struggles, etc. that others go through. You can quickly gain or lose credibility with others depending on this. I'm not saying that you have to see every new movie and buy every top 10 album or anything, but you should at least have some kind of clue what's going on in the culture around you.
One of the problems with hiding from abrasive content is that, if we're so sensitive to coarse words or other peoples sin that our saintly little ears can't stand to hear it, how can we realistically expect to engage unbelievers? I shudder when I remember, several times, in college hearing people praised when they said that they've had to ask unbelievers to watch their language around them.... Wow. Way to be Christ to them... Jesus was always trying to clean the outside of the cup, right? Uh, wrong.
So yeah, fitting in can help to give opportunities for spreading the gospel. And while it's good to be known as a Jesus freak, it's not if it's just because you like crappy music. (Sorry... but I think a lot of "Christian" music is sub par in quality.. and this coming from a guy who has spent a lot of time and effort in years past trying to find good Christian rock. Let me save you some time, it doesn't exist...okay, okay.. it does, but it's not common at all. That's why most Christian rock stations play the same 10 songs over and over again for 6 months straight.... but I digress.)
In general, cloistering ourselves away, trying to keep "pure" is more dangerous and worthless than being engaged in our culture. As if listening to certain music or swearing defiles us anyway… remember that Jesus said it's what comes out of the heart that defiles us. Jesus was accused of being a glutton, drunkard, and friend of sinners, for a reason; He didn't write off sinners because they sinned, and we shouldn't write off songs or artists or TV shows just because they portray sin. I believe that doing so would be moralistic and Pharisaical, and unbiblical...
And remember my list from earlier? (violence, sexual sin, or not loving others.) If we're genuinely going to attempt to stop participating in any form of entertainment that portrays any form of sin, well, I think we'll find ourselves without any entertainment.
All that said, I think it's definitely worth understanding that bad content (for example, songs glorifying rape, murder, etc.) is different than music with swearing or TV shows with sexual conquests. This is, essentially, the argument that we need to not let the world soil us, being in the world but not of the world, bad company corrupts good morals, etc. This is true. Each person has to know themselves and know their threshold. Know what you can handle.
Oh, and I know we are pretending that swearing is sin right now, but I just need to point out that hearing excessive swearing is not likely going to generate wicked thoughts or actions. The worst it should do is make you swear a bit more frequently.
I'd say that, in terms of something like music, the following guidelines might be useful. If it advocates a belief or lifestyle or habit (such as sexual sin, swearing, homosexuality, theft, etc.) but not something that damages another person (rape, murder, abuse), then you're probably okay watching or listening to it. I'd never want to support an artist who promotes harming others (rape, murder, abuse), but an artist who promotes other beliefs is simply being a sinner.... like you, me, and everyone else. I've heard it described before, I think by Mark Driscoll, that with each piece of culture that we encounter, we can choose to redeem it or reject it. So, if you can find good, valuable nuggets within it, then redeem it. Find a way to relate the gospel to it and to view it through Christ's eyes. If it's not redeemable, such as with something like pornography (extreme example, I know), then we should reject it altogether. Either way, we should have plenty to talk to people about.
So, clearly it's dangerous to completely immerse yourself in art glorifying sin that harms others, but music like this is rare. The point is that while I want to be culturally relevant, I also don't want to be seen supporting art that advocates damaging people. But, as I hope I've demonstrated, songs containing swear words don't do this.... (The same holds true of sitcoms that feature gay people, movies that contain premarital sex, etc) I haven't really processed how I feel about movies promoting excessive violence... Maybe I'll touch on that another time.
Oh, and just so you know, I personally don't swear because of the negative connotations involved in our culture. Just not worth it to me... So there, now you can't even label me as a leftist hippie. Ok... I'm sure some of you will, but I love you anyway. Peace. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment