At A Pilgrim's Progress: Thinking About PG-13

Over a A Pilgrim's Progress, my dad has written a great post about movie ratings. So many PG-13 movies are completely unacceptable for Christian viewers today. I'd encourage you to take a look at his post. Click here.

Secular Music and Lies from Satan

In this post I want to discuss how secular music affects Christian people today. Before I begin, I want to define "secular" music because one time a girl asked me what secular music was. I define secular music as any music that isn't Christian. However, I have to be careful with this because sometimes even so-called Christian songs are, in my opinion, secular because of their worldview and/or lyrical content. (An example of this would be the song Kiss Me by the group Sixpence None the Richer.)

Secular music greatly affects today's Christian population simply because that for some of them, it is all that they listen to. So many Christians will tell me that they listen exclusively to secular music because it is better musically. (While sometimes true, irrelevant if the song is foul.) I know some people who try to justify listening to music with bad lyrics because they say that the song just sounds so cool, and that they love the beat of the song. For these people, I guess I would have a couple of questions:

1. Would you still like the song so much if the music was the same, but with Christian lyrics, and if it wasn't by an artist like Britney Spears, Katy Perry, or Lady GaGa?

2. Why is it exactly that you like the song so much? Is it truly because it is that great musically, or is it because it is by a morally corrupt artist?

I think that that particular argument for secular music is just a lie from Satan worming its way into a lot of Christian's lives.

In Philippians 4:8-9 we read: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

If we are truly trying to follow the Bible, especially these verses, how can we if we listen to most secular music? Because if we face it, most songs on the radio today are about sex, drugs, drunkenness, and other un-Godly practices, not to mention songs filled with terrible curse words. How can we expect to abide by the verses in Philippians, if we are filling our minds with foul lyrics?

I am not trying to say that I think that all secular music is bad or that it is a sin to listen to some of it. However, since most secular music is corrupt, I think that it is sinful to listen to most of the secular music that is out now.

I believe that there is some Christian freedom in this area, however, we do have Biblical guidelines and rules that we need to abide by. Also, while some people try to argue that secular music is the only thing to listen to, most areas in the USA have Christian stations like HisRadio, Air 1, or K-Love that we can listen to.