Validation for my Secular Music post

Sooo...today I was reading over at CCMPatrol (Ht Addison Road) and I came across this:

"For all of the heat that the CCM media take here, we would be amiss not to mention the occasions on which somebody gets something right. And Christianity Today , the publication that consistently gets closest to actual music criticism, is doing something else right.The magazine has recently begun a new feature entitled “Glimpses of God,” which reviews “secular” artists who ask and address spiritual questions in their music."

So I followed the link to the "new feature" and was surprised by what I found.

"In recent years, we've noticed an increased interest in spiritual themes in today's popular music outside the Christian subculture. We refer to these faith-inspired examples as Glimpses of God. Some of them are by Christian artists working in the mainstream music industry. Others are nonbelievers who are clearly soul searching. Regardless, these challenging examples give the listener something to think about—and an open door to discussing matters of faith with non-Christians."

At the bottom of the page there is a list of secular bands/artitsts that CT sees as posessing "glimses of God". I scrolled down and sure enough, Linkin' Park was there. I followed the link and this is what I found:

"I want to heal/I want to feel what I thought was never real/I want to let go of the pain I've held so long/(Erase all the pain 'til it's gone)/I want to heal/I want to feel like I'm close to something real/I want to find something I've wanted all along/Somewhere I belong" — from "Somewhere I Belong"

"Linkin Park's popularity stems not only from their solid, hook-filled sound, but also because of their passion, optimism, and search for spiritual truths. The band has toured with P.O.D. and Project 86, prompting many to wonder if Linkin Park has some tie to Christianity. In an interview with Shoutweb, lead emcee and vocalist Mike Shinoda revealed that he "was raised in a really, really liberal Protestant church. Two of the guys are Jewish. [Sample master] Joe [Hahn] was raised in a little more conservative Christian church and [lead vocalist] Chester Bennington has his own really unique views on religion. In general, we are all over the place."

I was not aware of this article before I wrote my most recent "Secular Music" post. I'm not kidding. I didn't. I swear.

A couple other of my secular favs made the list as well. See the links for what CT had to say about them.

Audioslave

Coldplay (and here)

Depeche Mode

Matisyahu (though I don't consider him "secular", per se)

Train

Weezer

And for those of you in the emerging set, Sufjan Stevens got a mention or two, too.

The reviews are conservative, each with the disclaimer that

"Unless specified clearly, we are not implying whether this artist is or is not a Christian. The views expressed are simply the author's."

The concept is great, but I definitely don't like the "institutional" bent in the reviews ... see what I mean in this quote from the Linkin Park review (empahsis mine):

"Then there are the songs such as "Somewhere I Belong," the album's extremely catchy first single-and in some ways a new generation's version of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Excerpted above, the song in one sense extols self-enlightenment. On the other hand, it's a strong declaration of confession and surrender that easily can be interpreted as a desire to purge our sinful nature: "I will never be anything 'til I break away from me." Similarly, the beautiful "Easier to Run" seems to convey a struggle with the sins of the past: "Sometimes I think of letting go and never looking back/And never moving forward so there'd never be a past." The band resolves to make a change with the generically written and uncharacteristically pop-sounding "Breaking the Habit"—"I don't know how I got this way/I'll never be alright/So I'm breaking the habit tonight."

Please, let's not read too much into these artists lyrics. It seems disrespectful (as is the general habit of conservative christianity in reference to secular people or things) to the artists to put a gratuitous religious spin on everything they say. Avoid wringing pathetic drops of Christian blood out of them so that they can gain measured validity in the conservative world. If a secular song is encouraging or inspiring, review it for it's content and artistic value, refusing to make lame attempts to draw it into the christian matrix.

And let up with the U2 comparisons. Pretty Please?

Much to my chagrin, it is now apparently trendy to see God in secular music.

In fact, far too trendy for my taste. I can't reduce myself to fitting in with something so fluff as Christianity Today.

I guess I'll have to find a new trademark.