Beat Music is Satanic

There's a video going around at a number of places in emerging circles - I'm sure you've seen it, but if not, check out this post at Bob Hyatt. (Bob also has another vid up by the same guy, talking about women and their roles in the church. )

This video is an interesting analysis of the emerging church; in truth it's so strongly worded one might think it's deliberately meant to be humorous. The emerging folk seem to be taking it as serious, so I'm going to follow suit. In any case, even if this guy isn't serious, the attitudes he conveys ARE for real.

Sooo...my husband's birthday was last week, and for his birthday I got his car set up with a subwoofer. He has always had a sub in his car, every car he had, until a couple years ago when we sold his car and the sub was the dealbreaker, so we had to let it go. We intended ever since to set up a sub in the car he drives now, but it wasn't going to be cheap because of a number of factors. So we never got around to it, there were just always other priorities in our finances.

But we happened to have some extra money that we had earmarked to do something 'frivolous' with. You know, get the all the carpets cleaned or a put a new clutch in one of the cars. But I made an executive decision and decided to spend it on something really frivolous. You see, my husband commutes 250 miles (in traffic) a week, and I knew it would make it more tolerable for him if he could enjoy his music thoroughly.

Of course, a subwoofer is primarily for the purpose of emphasizing the bass - usually the "beat" of music. My husband is partial to rock and heavy metal, so it gets a good workout.

Anyhow, back to the video. So this guy has some pretty strong feelings about music:

"It's universally known and understood that the whole sexual revolution - in other words, the total sexual degeneracy that went on in this land since the 1960's particularly, was driven by beat music and rhythm music."

"Everyone knows that demonic pagan religion is all whipped up by beat music and rhythm music. I mean every pagan satanic cult on the planet uses beat music and rhythm music to whip up demons...and there's a reason why pop music has that effect on the young and stupid - it drives them forward in more and more whoring and more and more fornicating."

"Beat music and rhythm music is satanic in origin. There's a reason why demonic and satanic religion uses beat and rhythm music - 'cause it's opposite of God's way. God's way is melody and harmony, and not the thrashing and bashing and crashing that we see going on with the young and stupid in Christian circles."

One thing I'm not clear about is whether his view is that all drumbeats are evil, or only certain types of beats. I know that drums are never specifically mentioned in the bible - even though other kinds of percussion instruments are. I read somewhere drums were common in pagan culture during biblical times. By logic, this means if drums were widely available at the time, but never mentioned in the Bible as being used for worship, we are to assume they are not to be used. Right?

I believe God can use anything He wants - anything under creation. Taking that ability away from God is like saying He has to play by our rules. Saying God would never work through drumbeats because they "are not mentioned in the bible" is like saying "God would never work through hymns, either. After all, to the best of my knowledge, they didn't sing 'Onward Christian Soldiers' in the biblical times."

I found this article by David Hopkins in the May 1999 issue of Next-Wave (emphasis added).

"I went to the Ichthus Christian Music Festival in Wilmore, Kentucky where a hard-core rock band played. The noise, the distortion, and the beat pounded into my chest and rattled my stomach. Usually I just nod my head to the beat as my hearing leaves me, but this time, it was different. In that moment, I truly worshiped God. The power of the moment attacked my senses as a shadow of the experience the Apostle John had when he encountered the risen Christ in Revelation 1. John heard Christ’s voice as a loud trumpet (v.1:10) and as the sound of rushing waters (v.1:15). John fell down as though dead (v.1:17). His moment was power above power. And at that concert, I tasted a sample of this power through the medium of music. It was more than the drums, but the beat ushered in a higher spiritual experience."

If a good drum beat can create a 'higher spiritual experience', why are we letting the 'pagans' and 'satanists" have all the fun? In the end, it's this absurd sense of "we're so scared of satan that anything remotely associated with him in any context is therefore automatically satanic throughout all of it's other, non-satanic contexts."

There is a spirit behind everything - and that spirit is either of God, of the flesh, or of satan. Drumbeats may be used in pagan religions to create an altered state of consciousness, but who's to say that fact invalidates our ability to use drumbeats to add power to our worship of God?

The abuse of something doesn't negate it's ability to be used for good. Some people abuse alcohol, but that doesn't mean all churches have abandoned it's use of wine in the worship of God. In some places it's not appropriate, but in some places it's common.

So, I wonder if this guy has a pine tree in his house in December?