Episode 89: God's Not Dead, And Punk Isn't Either

"Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!"

                                                    -Psalm 150:4 (NLT)

   There's not a lot of people who will loudly play and sing along to punk music while also proclaiming Christ and being strong in their Christian faith. I am one of those people. I will gladly proclaim that God's not dead. I will also shout that punk's not dead. The latter is obviously much less important, but the purpose of this episode is to discuss how one can believe both things; how these ideas can coexist.

    Ever since the dawn of rock and roll, the genre has made old people clutch their pearls and say that that music is of the devil. Elvis' early appearances on television had to be filmed from his waist up, because he was moving his hips too much and people were afraid that those movements were too sexual for children to be watching. 

   Now, let me be clear: I know that a lot of rock music talks about sex, drugs, and violence. I've heard a lot of it. Many of my favorite bands have songs about those things and other vices. And while I understand that there should be discretion, that you should be careful what you entertain yourself with, there is a difference between enjoying music and acting out what it contains. For example, just because Green Day sang "get my television fix/sitting on my crucifix" doesn't mean I'm gonna sit on the cross. I love Green Day, but that doesn't mean I love all their ideas and lyrics. There's a difference between simply enjoying music and letting that music change who you are, what you believe, and how you behave. I don't let music change me. 

    Likewise, punk music is largely about questioning the government and society as well as rebelling against it. While I certainly think there are things wrong with society and the government should be questioned, I'm not going to rock the casbah (kudos to you if you get that reference). 

   Punk music, or basically anything with an electric guitar for that matter, has been with me through so many struggles in my life. In a lot of ways, it's shaped who I am. From checking out the band that made that cool "Some Nights" song and coming to love them to spending over $100 on a ticket to see Paramore, music, including punk music, has been a huge part of my life and still is.

   Some churches like to ban certain instruments from worship. Now, I can't speak for God, and I don't want you to think I want to or that I can. But the Bible verse I quoted above makes it pretty clear, to me, that worship with any musical instrument is good worship. It even says to worship with strings! I don't think God has any particular issue with those strings being on an electric guitar. 

   So in conclusion, I think it's okay to listen to any music (as long as it isn't literally devil-worshipping or just outright explicitly evil), just don't let the contents of said music lead you into sin or to compromise your morals, or change who you are as a good person. God's not dead, and we can jam out with the idea that punk isn't dead either as we celebrate that fact. 

Anyway, see you next week!