Becky...

..and why her kids hate church

ThinkChristian (blog linked at right) posted this scathing commentary by music critic Lou Carlozo of the Chicago Tribune about the sad, sad state of editorial integrity in the world of Contemporary Christan Music (CCM). A commenter, in turn linked to ChristianMusicToday.com where an ongoing series of posts are dealing with a similar issue: the state of modern Christian radio.

Modern Christian radio, as we read in the second post in the series, markets to "Becky" a 40-something soccer mom with penchants for reading and simplistic volunteerism. The local station, "Spirit 105.3" KCMS even gets a nod in this post. I once listened to modern Christian radio a lot, but then I went to concerts and festivals and learned something devastatingly true, something that destroyed my thoughts of the radio station I enjoyed: there was Christian music that wasn't adult contemporary!

And they were better. And I began to detest Christian radio because it built up this absolutely stupid image of Christians in the world. I once belonged to Spirit's "listener advisory board", an open circle of people that advise Spirit on their musical programming direction. After months of complaining--via votes and ratings on songs--I couldn't understand why I still had to hear "I Can Only Imagine" three times per hour. Wasn't there another sane person out there who comprehended that this song was old after its first ten plays?

Becky wants her soccer-playing Timmy and Ashley to love Christian music, to love God even when they're not at church. But they won't, and Becky doesn't understand why. It's because Timmy and Ashley go to school, see the world, hear other music and understand that the Christian subculture is a facade for people that are just as broken as everyone else. That whole concept of "living abundantly" plays nice on paper, but Christians still go through struggles. But Becky smiles as she listens to the tacky morning show where they have kids say the Pledge of Allegiance over the air, a testament to the falsehood that her life has become: she's stressed out going to three soccer practices a week for each kid, having laundry to do, errands to run and little personal peace and quiet.

Timmy and Ashley begin to detest the Christian subculture, and they begin to realize how much it affects church itself. After all, didn't Pastor Mike say last week God has blessed them, and wants to do incredible things with them, and how joyful the life of a Christian is. Then why is Ashley crying when that cute new kid Joel dumps her? She thought life was supposed to be joyful. What rubbish! And so Timmy and Ashley hate church, because the kids who actually show up to youth group are just like their mother: two-faced, always cheery and heart-wrenchingly lost.

I eventually ended up writing the aforementioned local station this e-mail:

To be perfectly honest, when I think of a radio station for people "like me," I question what people "like me" are. In one sense, I could say this is a form letter and the entire LAB got it, in which case the responses will inevitably vary vastly from my own--I tend to disagree with the LAB on a lot of things, not the least of which is the music choices reflected in airtime for certain songs. I'm 17, and I'm a student, as are most of my friends. I'm under the impression that the vast majority of the LAB is probably 20 years older than me working 9-5 jobs with kids at home, which is fine, but leaves a broad social gap.

I do not know what I'd call a radio station designed to my tastes, but I know what I'd do with it. There is a Christian radio network called The Effect. Here in Washington, they broadcast out of Everett on KEFX 88.1 FM. They're a listener-supported radio network, meaning that the station is commercial-free, because the broadcast costs are covered by listener donations--for which they offer incentives, such as CDs as "thank you" gifts for the donation. I love the concept of listener-supported radio stations not just because of the commercial-free nature, but because it is invariably survived based upon its loyalty. If listeners like it, it will stay; if not, it'll go under. So there's the first thing: the listeners have to contribute, but not just in taste.

Secondly, as I said, I am a student by occupation. Yet, being a student isn't limited to the classroom, and this holds true for the vast majority of my youth group. My best girl friend, who incidentally is also my best friend's romantic girlfriend, used to be a leader for the Auburn chapter of Young Life. I support Young Life's ministry, but the thing is, kids are ready for something more than "Jesus loves you, let's play games" before going home. She quit because she wanted more substance to her spiritual growth. A radio station needs to be spiritually challenging and not just encouraging. Encouragement for something that is not a challenge (and yes, this is an indictment against Spirit) is useless. Students want to learn. Greg Stier gave a talk at Creation Fest West this year about this concept, citing the Mormon practice of morning seminary for high school students where they are taught Mormon theology.

I want a radio station that isn't 90% music, 10% "let's pray together." I love good music, sure, and praying together is an awesome spiritual act, but I'd love talk shows where listeners can call in, DJ's with serious spiritual knowledge, to discuss what is going on in the Church, to learn their faith inside-and-out, and talk shows addressing social issues from a Church perspective--not from a politically driven perspective, but just looking at Scripture, knowing that the Church is about the Gospel, not the law, and looking at our stance on things. Something on the entertainment and theological level of The Wittenburg Door in broadcast form. Something that says as Christians we can accept homosexuals because homosexuality is but a symptom of the fallen world, of sin, and we need to address the deeper, spiritual issue at hand, while at the same time say "gay marriage is not okay because it's not in accordance with Scripture." The faith is a paradox, it's a challenge, and a good radio station should reflect that.

Finally, let's talk about the music. About 10 years ago or so, KOMO AM 1000, the radio sister station to KOMO 4 News on TV, didn't do all news and traffic and talk. They used to play music, too with news and talk. That's what a good radio station should be. Something that's just as stimulating as it is entertaining. So, the music, to be honest, needs to come from a more diverse artist group than Sparrow Recording artists. There are two Christian music charts, right? I can't remember the two, but what if a station actually gave airtime to both. I want bands from Tooth & Nail Records played on a station: Anberlin, Pillar, Seventh Day Slumber, Brave Saint Saturn (by the way, love having Caroline on Spirit), or bands from Fervent Records like Exit East or even rappers like KJ-52, Big Unc, the classic Gospel Gangstaz. And I want Michael W. Smith and Jars of Clay and Sixpence None the Richer. I just don't want them on mutually exclusive segments of programming. They should be inerspersed. Don't limit Anberlin to Saturday nights with Mike and Matt or that Studio B program you have now.

Christian music is so much broader than what people actually realize, and good music even goes beyond record labels. There's a band called Vertical Horizon signed to Hybrid Recordings, used to be signed to RCA, and listening to any number of their songs and you notice such an underlying Christian theme to the songs. If the Church wants to break down the wall between Christians and culture, it needs to look at even what culture has that is good. Why not play good Christian music and acceptable secular music, music that didn't discourage the Christian lifestyle or support something other than it, but music that pointed to a Christian lifestyle?

And speaking of the music, don't cut out the electric guitars. I believe in artist purity. There is something wrong with Audio Adrenaline's Hands and Feet played with violins. There's no audio adrenaline to it. Or Sanctus Real's Everything About You stripped of its screaming energy on the vocal bridge. And on LMP, don't limit it to worship groups from different churches. In 2001, Overlake Christian Church put on a New Year's Eve party. They had local bands there. One of them, I remember very vivivdly, was called Shale. They were an incredible band, but they weren't a worship group. They were like a local Switchfoot (better than Switchfoot in my opinion), and I doubt I'd ever hear them on LMP. Or Cloud2Ground, sure, they're electronica, very free form lyrics, but at the end of every symphony, Mozart wrote two words: Laus Deo. It's Latin for "Praise to the Lord!" The most abstract art is still worshipful, like a Lincoln Brewster guitar solo.

To be honest, a lot of this is why I rarely listen to Spirit anymore. I don't want a baby faith. I want an effectual faith. Stimulating and entertaining, challenging and encouraging, are not mutually exclusive. We need a radio station for my generation that can be both. Our battle in this "culture war" isn't against the people or what's going on with them. It's Spiritual. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12)

With all this in mind, maybe we could steal from Mike Yaconelli's magazine and call this station The Door, like The Wittenburg Door, the place where Martin Luther stepped up and challenged something that he knew was wrong with Catholicism at the time, where someone stood against fallacy for the sake of scripture, and at the same time challenged a generation to take up their own faith instead of the faith of the priest to intercede for them, but also a door--a door between Church and culture, a door to Heaven in the metaphorical sense, and a door to a far deeper knowledge of the Lord.