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Now that we're talking religion again, I have a question for you folks about Christian music. A student this semester argued that music in any place other than church is selfish and hence unGodly - thus against the very large Christian music industry - and also that only certain instruments are OK - especially not drums since they are not mentioned in the Bible. This is not the old "rock music is the music of the devil/all about sex" argument, but rather an argument that says that music should be praise of God and never about the performer, and then draws implications about that for place and type. Comment?
sounds like said student has been personally tutored by my ex-wife. which is to say, being as rudamentally prohibitionist just for the sake of it, not because of any sensical or supported argument. it's a holier-than-thou thing; the least permissive, most abolishonist, most condescending person wins the piety-eating contest. college is a crazy time.
that said, here's a few points (note that i am by no means a biblical scholar, and philisophically i see things differently than a lot of folks). the bible doesn't exclude or prohibit any specific instruments. at various points in the book of psalms (depending on the specific translation) the reader is told to crash the cymbals, make a joyful noise unto the lord, and to do so skillfully. guitars and keyboard instruments are used extensively (even in the 'high mass' settings with organ) however those aren't mentioned in the bible, because they weren't invented yet [rudamentary stringed lutes/zithers were, and are called for by the psalmists for certain psalms]. nowhere does it refer to what your orchestration should or shouldn't be. nowhere does it limit the decibel level of a worship session. nowhere does it say old hymns written between 1530-1920 performed by robed choirsmen are ok but blues-tinged folk songs sung slightly out-of-tune by long-haired fun-loving ex-hipsters are satanic. nowhere does it mention 'church' to mean a building as we think of today (it only referred to a convening of believers. new testament-era christians didn't have dedicated buildings for worship), so everyone did music/worship outside of the 'church'.
it is written that we are to love god with all our heart, soul, and strength. we are to praise him day and night. we are to put him before all things. we are inspired to have everything we do, think, or say give glory to god. this is extremely hard to do in modern, church-on-sunday life, but the language is so direct as to be hard to misinterpret. [devout muslims tend to do better at this, as they're set up to devote much more time to prayer and study then modern american christians are.]
which brings up the old argument of moral/immoral/amoral. things which glorify god are moral. things which profane god are immoral. but there's a lot of things in the neutral territory. is something which neither glorifies nor profanes god considered amoral, or immoral? we know from world history what kind of condemning/intolerant behaviors and attitudes the strict black/white interpretation lends itsself to, but what if we're not supposed be tolerant? is it god's job to exact judgement or ours?
i'm afraid, tom, that this didn't answer a single question, yet probably raised more. sorry. not
