Recently I was confronted by one of my religious friends and asked to comment on a column he found regarding Christianity and rock’n’roll. I read the column when it was published originally so I had opinions regarding this specific piece as well as the topic already.

His question, as well as the thesis for the article, was why can’t hipsters and religion live in literal harmony?

I fine tuned my response and shot him off a several hundred word email detailing why I believe Sufjan Stevens and Taylor Sorenson’s beliefs don’t get panned the way … say … Jars of Clay’s do, as well as why I feel many people have difficulty accepting Christian artists within certain circles of elitism.

Excerpts from the email:
“…foremost you must remember these people, whether Christian or otherwise, are musicians primarily. And the most important thing when building a reputation as a musician is that your music can’t suck. I know that sounds Neaderthallicly dimwitted and obvious, but musicians are responsible first for music, lyrics and meaning second. It’s the same reason why Nirvana can get with singing only 16 lines on “Been a Son” – half of which being “she should have been a son” – the music speaks loud enough. Many of the artists that get tossed into the mainstream spotlight and marketed along the Christian track are, well, bad…”

“…there is something to be said for subtlety. Some artists with strong religious beliefs don’t feel the need to label themselves as Christian or their respective sect. But others do. What happens when an act announces its open devotion, whether this is right or wrong, is the performer’s words are from then viewed through a religious prism. He or she may have one song about God and the next about an ambiguous fondness for tuna sandwiches. However, after embracing the genre of Christian Rock, the artist is backed into a corner and all songs now painted with the broad, single stroke of religion. Often times it’s hard for people to get passed that…”

“…people don’t like feeling hypocritical. Music has always been associated with the darker side of human nature – “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” glides off the tongue as easily as “one small step for man.” With that fear of hypocrisy lurking beneath the surface, it can cause tension within Christian music lovers. A “true” Christian is not going to write a song embracing the familiar trappings of the rock’n’roll mantra. Additionally, a thorough music lover is not going to ignore a great song simply because it touches upon those shady subjects. It creates too much inner conflict – be too religious of a songwriter and avoid what can make music great, be too religious of a fan and shun ahead-of-their-time tunes because of subject matter. It is difficult on both Christian listeners and performers…”

“…what I find most important as to why many circles avoid Christian musicians, is that religion is so personal. A performer can write a song about generic topics like love, sex or a variety of emotions and reach a broad audience. No matter gender, race or creed a person can relate to basic human emotions and situations. This is not the case with religion. A Christian performer who sings about God is specifically referencing the Christian idea of God. The same way Muslim or Jewish performers would relate to a various deities. Indistinct lyrics have a way of reaching people on many levels. A song can mean one thing to somebody and mean something entirely different to another. However, a performer who openly confesses a love for Christ makes it difficult to reach an audience of non-believers. That is why the most successful topics – such as love – are universally personal but do not have the limitations of being as specific as religion…”

I thought the conversation ended with my longwinded and cautious response. Want to see an atheist squirm? Ask him to explain to a devout Christian why many people shun religious performers. It’s like asking a member of PETA to remain respectful while talking to somebody who clubs baby seals for a living. The conversation has to remain strategic and on point to steer clear of getting personal.

Yet the next day I received a one-sentence response: “So why do so many musicians write about love?”

To be honest with you, I have no idea.

Writing about love, or being in love, or having been in love, or wanting love, or seeing people in love, or loving love, or Courtney Love, or falling out of love, or something regarding those damn four letters pops up as often as 4/4 timing. This is the only subject it’s okay to pen an entire catalogue about. Imagine if a performer wrote 30 songs about bicycles, being nearsighted or monster movies (Misfits excluded), they would be laughed out of the recording studio. But it’s okay and often encouraged, to piece together entire albums void of anything but lovesick topics.

It’s not that writing about love is bad. Many of my favorite songs deal with the subject matter – I don’t have much of a choice. But what makes this variety of song so frustrating, is that many people do it so poorly. Songs meant to come across as sensual and romantic (see the ever-annoying bobblehead John Mayer and his track “Your Body Is a Wonderland”) sound more like a drunken poet reciting stanzas scribbled on a cocktail napkin in between Jaeger Bombs at a Greek mixer.

Valentine’s Day is the worst time of year for sappy love struck compilations. Great, you’re in love. Nobody cares. Trillions of people have fallen in love. Next you’ll start to celebrate the fact you’ve got the Chicken Pox – it happens to everybody at least once.

Or on the flip side, everyone sounds like a broken Dashboard Confessional album. I never knew time between relationships was so difficult. I thought the transition went from relationship, to mourning, to recovery in a new relationship. I was wrong. The apparent timeline goes from a relationship, to mourning, to album No.1, to mourning, to album No.2, to mourning, to recovery, to relapse album No. 3, to new relationship.

I’ll never understand songwriters’ obsession with love. These are supposed to be some of the most artistically creative minds of each generation. Yet many of them fall back on the same, safe matter of L-O-V-E.

And that should be a much larger concern than it is. Instead of figuring out why we have such a hard time accepting musicians who sometimes write about Christ, we should spend time understanding why we so easily accept those who only write about love.

Daily Herald BEEP, Feb. 14, 2006