Never before in my life have I seen a
document that takes itself so seriously as yours, yet so consistently and
maliciously misrepresents evidence to make its case. I have
three major problems with your tract. One, your incorrect,
sarcastic and despicable use of Scripture to back up your frail arguments.
Two, your reliance on pseudoscience and weak hypotheses to 'prove'
your opinions on rock music. Three, your baseless and cruel
attacks on fellow Christians in the field of music, specifically your
judgments on particular songs they have recorded. Let us take them
in order.
First - your use of Scripture. In your treatment of Amy Grant's
music, you speak of her including a song by Joni Mitchell, "Big
Yellow Taxi," and you reprint the lyrics, "They paved paradise
and put up a parking lot." Your rebuttal quotes Christ in the
gospel of Luke - "Today thou shalt be with me in paradise," and
you seem to believe that this proves the song to be invalid.
This is absolutely ridiculous! You cannot take a word from a lyric, completely
out of context, find that same word in the Bible, again out of its
context, and lash them together as if they were beams on a sinking life
raft!! Mitchell's song refers to a FIGURATIVE paradise, and she is
basically bemoaning our modern tendency to destroy natural resources.
How on earth can you take this to mean that anyone who dares cover a Joni
Mitchell song is denying the existence of heaven! Your logic
astounds me! But this is just the first of many misuses of
Scripture!
Again, towards the top - in big red letters - the last half of Luke 16:15.
"That which is highly esteemed by men is an abomination in the sight
of God." You use this verse to call what you say is
"effusive praise" of Sandi Patti's skills as a singer an
abomination. That is incompetent exegesis! In
its context, that verse is referring to the Pharisees, who JUSTIFIED
THEMSELVES IN THE EYES OF MEN, but God knew their hearts. Perhaps if
Sandi Patti were filling up magazine articles herself, speaking of her
wonderful vocal range, you might have a case. As it stands now, you
are merely using the Bible as a club to beat other people's heads in, without
giving a thought to the original meaning of the text.
Second - your basis for rejecting rock music, in large part, relies on
pseudoscientific 'studies' and myths. You speak of "Satanic
backmasking," found in Led Zeppelin's music. It is a
SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN FACT that so-called backmasking (which is actually
not the correct term for the phenomenon) produces absolutely no effect in
any case whatsoever. Studies show that when people do not know what
they are supposed to hear when something is played backwards, they hear nothing
at all. Even if the message were there, placed strategically by
the minions of Satan to wreck impressionable minds, it would still be
backwards!!! No one listens to music backwards except crazed
Christians with too much time on their hands!
In addition, you speak of utterly ridiculous studies involving the death
of plants when rock music is blared at them 24 hours a day. If these
effects did occur, they would be due to the structure of the sound waves
themselves, and this would only affect a living thing at intensely high
decibels. If you subject anything to strong energy waves, you should
not be surprised if it keels over and dies. This, of course, is the
entire concept behind the nuclear bomb.
Third - your cruel and baseless attacks against Christian artists.
These take two tacks, as far as I can see. One, you criticize them
for singing ungodly music. Two, you criticize them for not
mentioning the name of Jesus, accepting lavish praise, or being
excessively profane.
Your criticisms of Christian music groups for singing worldly music I find
to be utterly reprehensible. Your strategy appears to be this:
discover the original performer of the song in question, find his or her
worst possible lyric, quote it as if the Christian artist had sung it.
Once again, you prove yourself to be absolutely fallacious in your
arguments, with absolutely no ability to distinguish between a singer
and a song. If DC Talk covers "Help" by the Beatles,
this does not mean that they buy into the Beatles' philosophy in any WAY,
SHAPE, MATTER or FORM. For you to suggest otherwise is the stupidest
thing I have ever heard.
And then! You attack Michael W. Smith for not using the name of
Jesus in his album, "I'll Lead You Home," while later on, you
point to the ancient hymns as true examples of godly music. Well,
sir, perhaps if you had turned the sarcasm down for a minute, you could've
taken a look at some of the songs Mr. Smith has on that record.
"Crown Him With Many Crowns," for instance! What an awful
influence that song is!!! "Awake, my soul, and sing, of Him who
died for me." Who is that talking about? WHO IS THAT
TALKING ABOUT? Jesus Christ!! For you to say
that album does not use the name of Jesus, and thus Smith is not a
"REAL Christian," is to claim that the only way Christ can
receive praise is by a direct use of his given name - as if He
were, like you, incapable of grasping the concept of pronouns.
In the interest of time and space, I will wrap up. You describe
Carman as using "perverted humor," some of "the lowest
blasphemy you have ever seen." Sir, I submit to you that the
blasphemer here is you. You blaspheme the name of God when
you use His name self-righteously to defend your own pathetic and sinful
positions. You blaspheme the name of Christ when you judge
who is and who is not a "REAL" Christian by counting up the
number of times they say His name. And you blaspheme the Holy
Spirit when you place yourself as the supreme arbiter of who is and
who is not moved by His leading.
Your tract is an absolute disgrace
to Christianity.
Steve Maxon
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