Wordly music or Christian Lyrics?

The reason it started being associated with the modern style of music is because a DJ named Alan Freed wanted a term to call this new modern R&B music for black folks instead of calling it "race music" like the record execs did. I imagine he got that term because blacks had been using that term in their songs, including gospel, for decades. When you've got a DJ using that term across the airwaves, it will spread pretty quickly. You can't say the term originated in the 50's because there are examples of the term used in recorded songs well before that.

Calling a genre "rock and roll" anymore though, is pretty dorky. Just call it rock like everybody else in the modern world.

 

Emphatic statements without citation is just an opinion.

Dictionary.com has several citations for "rock and roll" and only Harper's Etymology Dictionary has any reference sexual activity. Harper states, "The verbal phrase had been a Black Eng. euphemism for "sexual intercourse," used in popular dance music lyrics and song titles since at least the 1934s." ibid. Harper does not cite his sources for this etymological conclusion so one can assume it is just opinion.

Green's assessment follows Freed's "rolling surge of the beat." The work song genre is as old as man. Man labors more efficiently when the pace is methodical. Just ask somebody who has rowed or mowed hay with a scythe. What I don't understand is the assumption that any music genre that evokes a rythmic movement automatically is associated with fornication. I would believe the evidence to support the rock and roll fornication connection would be, at best, anecdotal.

I've been listening to Sons of Korah on Youtube. The lyrics to this song is Psalm 117 in its entirity. Again, all the lyrics are Psalm 117. Would it be appropriate in a worship setting?

 

Thought it was kinda funny that some thought "Who am I" by Casting Crowns was inapropriate because it was about self when it come from the Psalms.

 

Uh...you rarely hear modern or contemporary music described as "Rock and Roll" anymore. The original 50s R&R has morphed and split into several genres. Also, interesting stuff on Wikipedia, shows the term was even used in a religious context. From HERE.

 

Hey! If you don't like CCM, don't listen to it; there are plenty of other forms of Christian music available. But, just because you don't like it doesn't mean God has anointed you to be the music police for everyone else. Give everyone else the freedom to decide for themselves.

"Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand." Rom 14:4

 

This is quite the problematic post. Any Scripture to back this up?

So...are you implying that this music is not of God? I would be careful. Jesus was very harsh on the folks that referred to works He did as the devil's work. Hint: the word He used started with a "B," and ended with "lasphemy." I'm hesitant to get into that realm. I'm not saying you are doing that...but that's something Christ was pretty strong about.

And, we keep coming back to: exactly what music is it that cannot be used in church services? Is it a no-no if there are drums at all? How about a guitar? Electric bass? What if the tempo is over 86? How about 3/4 time? 6/8? 5/4? What you call "contemporary," I might call "traditional." And as I've said...what we now consider wonderful church music was once considered scandalous (i.e., polyphonic singing, or "4-part singing").

Should we carefully evaluate what we use in worship? Absolutely. But there's light years of difference between carefully evaluating and praying over music, and dismissing an entire genre (which is not even concretely definable).

I'm with you that wiki can be quite unreliable. But folks who condemn modern music outright are notorious for playing loose with the "evidence." (most of us here can quote the "missionary back from Africa hearing the drums, freaking out, and claiming they used drums to conjure up demons" story...)

I grew up being told of the evils of the "rock beat." I went to several seminars by folks such as Bill Gothard. Looking back, I now realize the scope of the urban legends passed off as fact. Instead of teaching me to evaluate the text, theology, etc., of the music, they taught me for a while to condemn things God was using...doing so with a cup of pharasaism, two teaspoons of bad science, a dash of outright lies, a cup of urban legends, and 8 oz. of ignorance of music. Thankfully, I've learned to evaluate...but from a perspective that is much more accurate.

 

On this we agree. You are showing a great an example of "things that are done in the name of Christianity that are not Christian". This bashing of CCM is "not Christian".

 

Anyone that said hymns are so old they have lost their pull is saying something "not Christian". I love the old hymns and they pull any my heart more than most other Christian music. I'm not a fan of the more "modern" music in a church service, but I also understand that it's a personal preference thing only.

As to what music will be in Heaven, I don't think any of us knows. We'll just have to wait and see. I can tell you that all of us will be happy with the choice of music .

 

I believe that God is pleased with any worship that is geniune and comes from our heart. God would be pleased if I banged two garbage can lids together, as long as I was doing it in worship of him.

 

Music is music...sounds put together. Music in itself is amoral. Like everything else, it is what one DOES with something that makes it immoral. Amazing Grace played to a heavy drum beat and grinding guitars is still Amazing Grace.

 

Security Officer who are you to declare what music is pleasing to God and what music isn't? You are intejecting your own opinions and preferences into the debate and trying to pass them off with a holier than thou kind of attitude. By the way I've heard some pretty good music using garbage cans and other unorthadox things.

 

An unsaved person would be confused as to why we dunk someone under the water and baptize them. Let's stop that now! An unsaved person would be confused that we tithe. Let's stop that now! An unsaved person would be confused that I believe God created the earth in a literal week. I should stop believing and telling people that. An unsaved person would be confused that Jesus Christ came to this earth and died for us. Should He have done it?

Jesus Christ Himself left so many people in a state of confusion we can't even count them. Most of the religious leaders of the time were completely confused as to His purpose. Why would He allow the confusion?

Just because you or someone else is confused, doesn't mean that I am not worshiping God. You confuse the heck out of me, and I'm not holding that against you! :laugh: