I had hoped I'd outgrown this sort of thing, but sometimes you just need to get stuff off your chest.
This morning in the car I was listening to The Jesus Station, otherwise known as the regional Christian radio station in these parts. ('The Jesus Station' is the name assigned to it by a certain 14-year old living in our house.) I know, I know, I've confessed in the past how listening to Christian radio can get my blood pressure up to unhealthy levels, but recently I've been tuning in a little more frequently. Oddly enough, when I do lose it and turn the dial in disgust these days it's more often because of the 'paid political announcements' and less the terrifying theology of some of the musical fare. (I refuse to listen to someone tell me how he's going to fix the country while children recite the Pledge of Allegiance in the background. But, I digress.)
Anyway, I was listening when the subject of Owl City came up. By way of background, I may not be the oldest Owl City fan in the country, but I bet I'm in the top 10%. Adam Young is incredibly talented, and I really appreciate his material. He's achieved a lot of success with the album Ocean Eyes, which gets a lot of airplay around our place.
A couple of nights ago Adam sat at his piano and recorded a cover of In Christ Alone, and on his blog he shared a little of the moving experience. It's stunningly beautiful, so go listen. Now. I'll wait.
Told you.
Back to the radio thing. Listen, I appreciate what the good people at the station are trying to do, I really do. I even appreciate the point they were trying to make about the song, misguided as I think it was. They went on about "this secular artist", how his parents were pastors, which somehow seemed to give us believers a claim on him, even though, you know, he's a secular artist. There was one condensed, distilled sentence that said it all for me. They referred to Adam as a "secular artist with a deep faith", and I'd like to parse that out a bit. It's like therapy for me, but you can sit in if you like.
Secular artist with a deep faith
First is the word secular. I do not believe in the secular. Nothing is secular. If God created it all, then it all bears God's fingerprints, God's essence. Nothing exists that was created any other way. Everything is sacred.
Notwithstanding what I just said above, let's continue. The first two words put together are secular artist. I believe that all art, all creativity, is a gift from the Creator. Whether this is recognized by the artist or not is irrelevant. Truly there can be no greater oxymoron than "secular artist".
Finally, take the whole thing together. Secular artist with a deep faith. Surely this is the second-greatest oxymoron in the history of the English language. How can art--a gift from God--created by someone with a deep, abiding faith in God, still be described as "secular"... even if you believe in the secular?
This is more of the the old us-and-them that Christians are famous for, and it makes me sad. (In this case, to be accurate, it was more like us-and-sort-of-us-but-not-really-us-because-if-he-really-was-one-of-us-he-would-be-a-Christian-artist-and-not-a-secular-one.)
We have got such a long, long way to go.
Bonus - For reading this far here's my favorite Owl City song. And for the record, I can worship the Creator listening to this one as easily as I can with In Christ Alone. I hope this brother keeps making his music for a long, long time because I see God in all of it.
UPDATE: Our friend Peter Banks has been thinking about the same things, and has posted a fantastic offering from Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood for your consideration.
UPDATE: I heard back from the radio station on the issue of the ads:
As a radio station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, we are required by law to air advertising for political candidates. In addition, radio stations cannot change or censor what’s said by candidates in political ads.
Our station manager has been running ads to explain to our listeners the reasoning of why we air political ads, but those aren’t airing nearly as often as political ads.
Who knew?! I thanked them for the information and reiterated my offer to discuss the rest of the post with anyone at the station who may like to have a conversation about it.
Recent Comments