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Monday, July 30, 2007

Why Christian Rock Secretly Rocks

I was driving the other day and this awesome song came on. It was catchy so I was bee-bopping in my Bug, singing along. “I wonder who this is,” I thought to myself. And then I thought, “I wonder why I’ve never heard it before.” And soon after that, “I wonder what station this is.”

Fast forward to the chorus and I got my answer: “Jesus is the reason…”

Christian rock? Yuck. I quickly changed the station.

But then I felt guilty. Why can’t I listen to Christian rock? I, after all, am a Christian. I even go to the “teen mass” at church because they have a rockin’ band. I totally belt out “Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Yes, Lord” on Sunday nights. And I’m down with that song, “I can only imagine” by MercyMe. That’s sort of like Christian Rock except they play it on the easy listening station. Oh, and back in the day, I used to love me some Amy Grant.

For some reason, though, I feel weird listening to Christian rock on my own time. And even if I sneak a listen or accidentally stumble upon a Jesus tune, I don’t know if I would ever go as far as to set one of my pre-sets to J93.3, “The Station that Helps you Live the Life.”

Frank and I were driving through Alabama the other day and I was scanning the radio stations. “That sounds good,” he said, referring to a heavy-ish rockin’ song. He then started having the same revelation that I had a few days prior: “What song is this?” he asked. “I’ve never heard it before…”

“I haven’t either,” I said, “and since it’s kinda good and we’ve never heard it, I think I know what that means…”

“What?” Frank asked.
“Christian Rock!” I told him.

And sure enough, pretty soon we started hearing the cues: “HE lifts me up…Almighty…Grace…Glory…” They’re subtle, these Christan Rockers.

“But you know what?” I told him. “Christian rock is kinda good.”

“It IS good,” he agreed and we didn’t change the station. Still, when they stopped singing and started preaching, we had to switch to country (our only other choice in Alabama).

I’m not saying I’m gonna go download any MercyMe songs but I may bring my Steven Curtis Chapman CD out of hiding. And I may venture over to J93.3 every now and then.

Frank, on the other hand, might be converting pretty soon. When we got back to Alabama yesterday and got in the car, he turned on the radio and said, “Well, what’ll it be? Country or Christian Rock?”

2 comments:

Liz said...

Christian rap isn't so bad either.... okay, maybe like ONE song isn't so bad. There's a song called "Tennessee Boys" by this group called Grits or something like that. And obviously that started back in the dizzay with some Michael W. Smith awesomeness.... "Love Crusade" right? That stuff was HYPED. ha.

Writinggal said...

MWS IS awesome. But you know who's not? Carmen. Totally spookified.

Although this Grits group sounds hype. And tasty.