Category Archives: CCM

“Christian Music Theology: Is It Going Bad to Worse?”

Posted by Dan C. on

It seems that I spend and inordinate amount of time being critical of contemporary Christian Music (CCM), according to some. They might be right. Perhaps I need to be more skilled at politely comparing today’s CCM with the classic hymns I am so find of, with their God-centeredness, deeper theology, roots in sound doctrine, and tendency to address the tougher aspects of our Christian lives we grapple with every day.

The title of this post is also the title of aa article published by the Christian Post that I read just this morning. The article discusses some issues I have also considered on occasion, while not talking about other issues that occupy this old brain.

The Christian Post article can be found at:

Christian Music Theology: Is It Going Bad to Worse?

The article also has a link to the original post that was published on the author’s blog at: The Harder Truths.

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P.S. There was one thing the author stated in his article to which I responded in the blog comment section:


Dan CartwrightAugust 13, 2023 at 6:28 AM

You make excellent observations in this article. You also seemed to say that true Christians can fall/run away and never return. You said “…, while it is true that a prodigal who has “run away” (as the account goes in Luke 15:11-32) can return, there is no provision for one who never returns. The bible warns about falling away (Hebrews 6:4-6) and denying our Lord (Matthew 10:33). We make our own decision whether to believe in and walk with Christ or not. Jesus himself warned His own disciples, “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).” How do you reconcile that with 1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”

Reply

Lauren Daigle and the State of Contemporary Christian Music

Posted by Dan C. on

A little over a month ago Christian Daigle , award winning Christian singer (on secular and Christian charts) appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show and sang one of her songs from the album “Look Up Child”. She was bashed for even appearing on the show. My question was whether or not a clear presentation of the gospel was anywhere to be found. My assumption was ‘probably not’, given that her host was crazy about her.

What I did do is download all of the lyrics to all of the songs on the “Look Up Child’ album. And gather some statistics using several key words, which could at least tell me if a clear gospel message was present in any of her songs. Here are the numbers for the 11 songs from the album:

  • The word “sin” appears 1 time – “O’er us sin no more hath dominion” in a line from the song “Turn Your Eyes on Jesus” she did NOT even write. but was written in 1922 by Helen Lemmel  Like many others Ms. Daigle just re-styled it and called it her own.
  • “God” appears 1 time in one song.
  • “Jesus” appears in “Turn your eyes on Jesus” (she didn’t write it)
  • “Savior” 3 times
  • “Lord” 1 time
  • “You/your” as reference to God/Jesus 40+ times
  • “Saved” is used 1 time (You saved me, but no mention of from what

Sadly, the above lyrics reflect the tenor of a LOT of today’s so-called worship music. One article expressed the state of things rather well. It was called “32 Lyrics From Lauren Daigle’s ‘Look Up Child’ That Will Put You Squarely In Your Feels”.

These days ‘worship’ is all about our ‘feels’. Whether it’s the lyrics and presentation (Lauren has a tremendous voice!), the rock style music with loud whining chords and pounding drums (that actually drown out the lyrics, or the concert atmosphere, it’s all about the ’feels’.And when the lyrics can be understood, they seem to lack any clear presentation of a solid gospel message, very little actual theology with much of it really BAD theology (God’s love is ‘reckless’?).

The saddest part of all, is the sheer number of professing ‘Christ followers’ who have absolutely no issues with Ms. Daigle or the myriad of other CCM artists just like her. Must be the ‘feels’.

So much for my little rant. There’s nothing personal directed at any particular CCM artist, it just is what it is.

Heavy sigh…………

Dan C.