what does it mean for music to be ‘christian’?
can music know Christ, or tell me,
can music be filled with God?*

pretty much any of the following artists when googled with the word ‘christian’ will pop up some story about their faith and why they’ve not chosen to operate under the ‘christian’ label. but really, this idea isn’t new to our current culture and i think this is a movement not limited to music. i have met more people who want nothing to do with Christ because of some of the ‘christians’ they’ve been rejected by, scorned in front of, and who’ve loved only with conditions. and i think this effect is the exactly the opposite as He intended… knowing a ‘little Christ’ should lead us to the big Christ, not away from Him. somewhere along the way, we forgot He cares less about good behavior and more about grace. and maybe He meant ‘christian’ to be less of an adjective and more a person, more a follower, more a way of life…

to be a Christian, is to be a follower, a believer,
an ambassador, a Spirit-filled,
wind-blown, unpredictable, grace-giving,
broken hearted child of God
who has been demolished, denied,
broken down and put back
together again, all by the sheer weight
of the glory of the grace of God,
made know to us by blood of Jesus, shed on the cross.*

‘christian’ is not a marketing scheme.
breath mints cannot be christian.
bumper stickers cannot be christian.
genres cannot be christian.
only people can be christians.
nothing else.*

so, here’s to ‘not-so-christian’ music.

pretty appropriate website - www.boredagainchristian.com/bands.html

record company - www.credentialrecordings.com/

relevant, a magazine on the topic - www.relevantmagazine.com/

some of the artists [my more favorites in bold]:
12 stones - www.12stones.com
the afters - www.theafters.com
alice cooper - www.alicecooper.com
amberlin - www.anberlin.com
anathallo - www.myspace.com/anathallo
creed - www.creed.com/
chris daughtry - www.daughtryofficial.com/
chris thile - www.christhile.com/
coldplay - www.coldplay.com/
edison glass - www.edisonglass.com/
elliot morris - www.eliotmorris.net/
evanescence - www.evanescence.com/
the fray - www.thefray.net/
future of forestry - www.futureofforestry.com/
half-handed cloud - www.halfhandedcloud.com/
kelly clarkson - www.kellyclarkson.com
life house - www.lifehousemusic.com/
lost ocean - www.lostoceanmusic.com/
marc broussard - www.marcbroussard.com/
mat kearney - www.matkearney.com/
mindy smith - www.mindysmith.net/
moby - www.moby.com/
mutemath - www.mutemath.com/
natasha bedingfield - www.natashabedingfield.com/
nickel creek - www.nickelcreek.com/
over the rhine - www.overtherhine.com/
page france - www.pagefrance.net/
pod - www.payableondeath.com/
red - www.redmusiconline.com/palebird/index.html
robbie seay band - www.robbieseayband.com/
sixpence non the richer - www.sixpence-ntr.com/
sleeping at last - www.sleepingatlast.com/
sufan stevens - www.sufjan.com/
switchfoot - www.switchfoot.com/
tooth and nail - www.toothandnail.com
turn off the stars - www.myspace.com/turnoffthestars
until june - www.untiljune.com/
u2 - www.u2.com/

please let me know if you have any others to add to the list.

*from editorial by tenth avenue north

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 11:31 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.