03.29.07 An Insider’s Look At Christian Radio Pt.5: Profane?
My favorite chapter of scripture is Ezekiel 36. I know that’s an odd favorite but here’s why I love it. Ezekiel 36 is the moment at which God spoke Jesus into human history. God spoke His wrath through the prophet Ezekiel, calling the Jewish nation “profane”. The word used in Ezekiel 36 for “profane” in Hebrew means to “make limp,” “cripple” or “make small.”
The Jews, God explains, were placed among pagan nations to image HIM to them. Their actions said something about the kind of God Yaweh was, what He cares about. Dwight Edwards, author of Revolution Within, explained this to me well when he said God stakes His reputation on His people...then and now.
The Jews, however, didn’t love God’s reputation as much as they loved commerce. They did business with the nations around them and entered into covenants with their citizens along the way. When a covenant was made the two parties sometimes exchanged belts, swords, and an oath to protect one another. It was the way business was done, allegiances were made.
Because of their business practices, their oaths, the Jews wound up killing the enemies of their friends. They shed blood, as Ezekiel puts it - blood God had not commanded them to shed. They also adopted the idols of their business partners.
God calls the Jews profane for this. Why? How does shedding blood and raising idols cripple God? Theologians like Edwards believe these sinful actions sent a false image of God out to the pagan nations and even preached an artificial Yaweh to the Jews themselves. Shedding blood said “God doesn’t love people.” Idol worship said “God can’t be trusted.” Both of these messages are merely sentences in the Enemy’s overall message, the same message he preaches to every generation: “God isn’t good.”
MY STORY
I had a great childhood. Two parents who loved each other and me very much. They took us to church, taught us the bible, prayed with us every night before dinner. Truly great.
But from the time I was thirteen until my Senior year of high school I battled depression. I won’t bore you with all the reasons why. It’s enough to say that stress at home and a disease I’ve had all my life, coupled with a few bad habits of mine and the resulting guilt, kept me under a monumental mound of anxiety and sadness.
Eventually I took a knife, stuck myself in the forearm and slid it quickly up toward my elbow in hopes of doing irreparable harm and ending my life. I didn’t succeed. A friend of mine, a pastor’s kid, also very involved in church as I was, came much closer to success. He took some sleeping pills and dozed in a running car with the garage door down, wearing his best Sunday clothes.
I remember he and I driving down Broadway in my hometown just before we tried to take our lives. We were cruising like teenagers do, flipping through the radio stations. Our local Christians station had a show targeted at youth that ran late at night on the weekends. My youth minister had mentioned it. I turned to it wanting to feel better. I remember feeling angry instead. What I heard was music I couldn’t relate to at all, what sounded out of touch with reality, written by happy people who’d never been where I was, who’d never felt hopeless before. No words I could put my heart behind and sing to God. The messages in the broadcast, to me, were clear: God doesn’t care and good Christians don’t have problems.
WHY I DO WHAT I DO
That night made me mad enough to write about it. It was the first poem I ever wrote in fact and so, I guess, that anger I felt at Christian music that night is partially to credit for me becoming the song writer I am today. That poem even won some contest back in Texas. But it did more than that. Not only did that poem begin for me the habit of funneling my emotions through a pencil onto a page, but it also gave my creativity a purpose.
That purpose is why I moved to Nashville - to write music that supports the spiritual health of Christians, that encourages through honest discourse, acknowledges the good and bad in life, that reminds us all that a life spent knowing God and not also making Him known is only half a life, a life without meaning and prone to depression and anxiety. I moved here to write songs that hometown station of mine wouldn’t broadcast when I needed them to all those years ago.
I became a song writer to force more honesty into the faith discussion on radio stations and in bookstores and in churches. I signed a record deal because other artists and labels didn’t have the same desire I had to sing about such things. I was signed for writing Welcome Home, a song other artists rejected for being too dark. My career, when I was winning awards and getting played and even now that neither happen, has always been about saving listeners from the misery I languished in for so long - desperate to hear a sermon, read a book, or tune to a song that touched even a little of the pain I dealt with daily. The goal is to meet people where they are by being honest about where I am and where I’ve been, and from there, walk with them out of the despair and into a life full of purpose and hope.
THE MESSAGE IN THE HAPPY
You see, when God is ignoring your hurts - which is what I felt when listening to sermons, Sunday school lessons and songs as a teen - we begin to suspect that God either doesn’t exist or He’s some sick twist who gleefully ignores our woe. And the Enemy wins. We believe his lie: God isn’t good. That’s where always happy gets us.
Doesn’t this fit Satan’s M.O.? Disguised as light, he brings darkness. He takes our good intentions to encourage people by focussing only on the pleasant and makes us his accomplice in wounding God’s reputation and His undermining His Church’s hope.
Don’t get me wrong. The lie will be told regardless of what kind of music I write, what music you play, what sermons get preached, which books get published. But we can stop propagating and even fend off this lie I think. I hope. It’s what my life is about. The best way to do it, I believe, isn’t to bury our heads in the sand of good cume, play another commercial free barrage of happy tunes, close the hour with surface banter, and repeat 24 times daily. The best weapon I’ve found in the battle against this powerful lie is honesty. Honesty about the greatness, the laughter inducing, the breathtakingly miraculous, the sweetness of life. Honesty about the tears and fears and hurries and worries we all have in common.
That’s human. That’s Christian. That says God is good, He knows you hurt, He hears you, He’s sent this song, this book, these words to tell you you’re not alone. We’ve been there too. And we and our God want to meet you where you are and help you from there. There’s so much good stuff about life and God you might have forgotten about and we want to remind you of all that. Trust us. We’re just like you. If I’d heard that kind of music when I was sixteen I wouldn’t have been cured, not with one listen, but I may have tuned in again, I may have bought that CD, gone to that concert, gotten out of bed, opened up to someone sooner, felt a lot less dysfunctional and strange and unChristian.
Instead I wore gray and listened to Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana - music that acknowledged how I felt. Unfortunately it celebrated my misery and gave me no incentive to leave it behind, painted no picture for me of what life could be instead. I read Nietche and self-help books and threw pity parties - all these attracted other miserable people and that made me feel less alone. How great would it have been, how many years could I have salvaged, had the Church (not just radio) been honest.
MY SALVATION
Honesty did save me in the end. I met a girl who’d grown up in church and yet made all kinds of mistakes. She had been a drunk. She’d been abused. She’d made poor choices. She and her family were the first Christians I met who didn’t make me feel inferior for being flawed. They met me where I was, told me their own stories, challenged me to be more than I was. Her father was my pastor after high school and he preached about growing up in a ghetto, starving, being beaten, told he was stupid daily. He told of his ascent from poverty to earning a doctorate in theology and eventually being the president of an entire denomination. He talked about tragedies in the world and asked us as a church to lend our help to righting the wrongs in our city and our planet. He even let me, knowing me well, marry his daughter.
My wife’s honesty, and her family’s, brought me back to life. I found in them a safe place to be myself, to ask questions, to beg for prayer. A place I wanted to spend the rest of my life. By sharing their wounds mine were healed.
Radio stations can (and do) do that too.
MY CHALLENGE TO HAPPY STATIONS
If you run a happy station I want you to stop deciding before you hear a song that you won’t play it if it isn’t all grins. I just want you to be open to whatever message is on that disc. If it’s hooky enough to entertain your listeners and it’s true then please disregard how happy or not happy it is. Consider on its musical and theological merits, not it’s positivity.
If you don’t believe that your station’s happy policy is profane then please get a second opinion, or a dozen. Please invite local pastors from all denominations (don’t invite Osteen) into your station. Serve them coffee, take them on a tour. And tell them you don’t want to do anything that harms the Church. You want to serve them and their people. Tell them you’d like their help. Explain to them what your policy is, how you aim to be always happy. Ask them if they think that’s something they’d encourage their congregants to listen to every day. Then listen.
One last thing. Radio stations, whether wooing advertisers or donors, like to tout their power. Advertise with us and your message will get to this many thousands of people. Write us a check and you’ll make a difference in this community. If those statements are true - if radio stations have the power to deliver messages that sell us stuff we don’t need and/or change entire communities - doesn’t it matter immensely what radio stations tell us about ourselves and our God? If stations are such powerful messengers, does anything about a radio station matter more then its message?
said:
Wow, Shaun...I’ve been trying to put into words my own feelings on my blog about this issue that I’ve been struggling with for a few weeks, and this entry is all of it wrapped up together...If put into practice, and if the music can be judged solely on its own merits, the ideas here I believe would change the industry...and if you ask me, the number of fans would grow exponentially due to more down to earth, realistic, get-down-in-the-trenches-of-this-life, subject matter...so those who might think that you would see a drop in sales, I would disagree...What an awesome display of the glory of God it would be to open up this genre to a new dawn of relevance...I would only add that it is my humble opinion that I feel this music we call “Chrisitan music “ is most effective when we are striving to be creative and original..Not saying that songs can’t be covered or anything like that...but I don’t feel that artists and bands should be designed to mimic whatever the latest craze in pop music is, to try and sell records...I believe folks see right through that facade...and they don’t like what they see..some of the pioneers of this industry did so well because they were creating interesting, original music...be yourself...God made you who you are and He can use that! Great stuff Shaun - the story of your life really adds to the message...it is my hope and prayer that someday this kind of change would come about…
euphrony said:
A few thoughts:
Plumb (Tiffany Arbuckle-Lee) said that she was ready to call it quits and give up music. As she left a show, which could have been her last, a girl handed her a note thanking her for the honesty of her music in addressing sexual abuse - this was something the girl had experienced, and Plumb’s music helped her find solace.
I have talked with my wife, and we agree, that our children will know our mistakes as they grow up. They’ll know where we have failed and sinned and struggled. We’ll not lay it on them as a burden, overwhelming them with gory details, but will paint the picture that we have faced trials and temptations, have won some and lost some, and have found over and over that there is a reason that God finds certain acts to be sinful. We will do this so that they will know that we are not perfect, that we know their struggles, and to try to impart some of the hard-earned wisdom we have acquired in hopes that they will grow in their faith and in their obedience of Jehovah.
“Unfortunately it celebrated my misery and gave me no incentive to leave it behind, painted no picture for me of what life could be instead.”
I’ve been preparing a post on just this topic. When looking for answers, we must seek God’s answers and not mans empty ramblings. And when others are looking for answers, they best be able to find them in us, God’s people.
Good thoughts, Shaun. I’ve really enjoyed the series: challenging, thoughtful, as even-handed and fair evaluation of the topic as I’ve read. And thanks for your honesty. I was talking to our preacher about this last night, commenting that many more of the marriages in our church (among the younger families) were in danger or on the rocks than most would suspect or anyone admit. If we just honest with each other, we could find strength and unity in our common weakness; instead, we come into the building looking around at the facades of perfection too many affect and decide that what we feel is inherently wrong. That’s when we start looking for a way out, and when one looks one will find what one wants.
shaunfan said:
Shaun, I never saw this coming from you even though I’ve posted on every part of this series. I’ve found your lyrics very introspective and very real and yet because of your “happy” demeanor I didn’t consider your potential sadness.
Thanks so much for sharing and amazingly your timing of this post fits in with me having spent the last 4 days listening to the song “Cut” by Plumb (lyrics here: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/plumb/cut.html). I just got the CD and I keep playing that song over and over on my iPod and since I don’t really listen to Christian radio, I wonder if it’s getting airplay, especially on the “happy” stations.
It’s very introspective and very moving and I read a forum where a number of cutters talked about how much this song has meant to them. I really agree with you and Matthew Nashville, TN said that the face of Christian radio would change and draw more listeners with songs like “Cut”. What do you think?
Shaun Groves said:
WAY FM plays Cut a lot. I doubt it was sent to the Adult Contemporary stations in question. But I don’t know. And if they received I have no idea if they played it.
What other not happy songs have helped you, inspired you, made you think, rescued you?
shaunfan said:
Shaun, I checked the playlist of my local Christian radio station, closer to AC and fairly “happy” and over the past 10 days, they’ve played “Cut” 5 times total, never in primetime. Generally they play it before 6 a.m. and after 10 p.m. which I find interesting.
As for other not happy songs that have inspired me, I really find “My Jesus” by Todd Agnew very moving. The thought of Jesus not being invited in my church is a very moving & sobering depiction. Also, “Should I Tell Them” really speaks to me. Thanks for that Shaun.
john said:
Thanks for this extremely insightful post, Shaun. You said a lot of the things that have been bouncing around in my head for quite a while now.
I find most of what is on Christian AC radio to be ‘shallow’, because it doesn’t go far enough to reach people where they are. I am sure it is not because those songs are not being written and recorded, but it is because there is no room for anything else on the radio landscape.
I know that music can deal with the harder issues, the same things that people face every day, but at the same time they can reflect redemption and victory over those same issues. Those of us who have faced these things first hand and have found the grace to overcome, and have witnessed the same grace in the lives of others, can attest to that and can use music to communicate that.
euphrony said:
“What other not happy songs have helped you, inspired you, made you think, rescued you?”
Sara Groves’ “Maybe There’s a Loving God” and “Like a Skin”. “Loving God” is a very questioning song, a person lost in confusion and, at the same time, awe, all the while the world is trying to diagnose her ilness. “Like a Skin” is mornful, wondering where is the new man God promissed to make us.
Todd Agnew’s “Wait for Your Rain”. This very well describes how I feel I times, so distant and longing to be near my God.
Steve Camp’s “He Covers Me”, among others. This song is a struggle with personal sin and with trials in the world. It is like a list of memory verses, promises, strung together lyrically and encourages me every time I hear it because it feels so much like my life - not pretty, but working on it.
shaunfan said:
“What other not happy songs have helped you, inspired you, made you think, rescued you?”
We named our 2nd daughter Cassandra partly in honor of the sacrifice Cassie Bernall made in dying for her faith at Columbine. 3 songs all written about her that have really been inspiring to me are “Whatever It Takes” (Cassie’s Song) by The Kry, “This Is Your Time” by Michael W. Smith and “My Last Breath” by Danny Oertli. I cry in sadness and admiration when I listen to all 3 songs.
said:
As one who also suffers from depression I know what it’s like to feel so very alone, or that no one else “gets it.” It took me almost 10 years to admit to myself that I was depressed and another year to seek help after that. I was absolutely terrified at what others would think of me, how I’d be viewed, treated, dealt with, etc. I still struggle with many of those things from time to time. God’s grace and the realization of the harm it would do to my kids, is the only thing that kept me from ending it all on more than one occassion. I’ve managed to convince myself more than once that they’d be better off without me too. It’s that satanic deception again to be sure. Anyone who doesn’t suffer from depression, especially other Christians, do not really understand it’s devastation and utter disability it brings about at times. My sister is bi-polar and until I admited my own depression, I used just dismiss her symptoms as something she did for attention or as a control mechanism of some kind. She is one of my “rocks” now though when I’m really down, because she gets it. Unfortunately for our marriage, my husband doesn’t get it and coupled with the ADD that also plagues me, it’s sometime very hard for him to get through the tough times with me. He loves me unconditionally though, and that’s what sees us through; that and God of course.
I’d love to talk to you about some of this next month Shaun while we’re cruisin’ if that’s OK. You’re another one who gets it and I value your insight, wisdom and above all, your honesty. I know you’ll give it to me straight.
Beth
Michael Anthony Curan said:
“What other not happy songs have helped you, inspired you, made you think, rescued you?”
My Last Breath- CREED
Live Like You were Dying- TIM McGRAW
Stranded- PLUMB
Maybe There’s A Loving God- SARA GROVES
Nobody Loves Me- DEREK WEBB
If Nothing Else- OVER THE RHINE
The Ghost of Who We Are- THE GRRENCARDS
You Don’t Love God (If You Don’t Love You’re Neighbor)- RHONDA VINCENT and the RAGE
Don’t Act- RHONDA VINCENT and the RAGE
What If I Stumble- dc TALK
Whiskey Lullaby- BRAD PAISLEY and ALISON KRAUSS
Praying For Sunny days- HYPERSTATIC UNION
Jesus- SHAUN GROVES
Ryan G said:
Wait....what happened to part 5?
keith said:
My favorite not-happy songs include…
Heatjambled by Everybodyduck
One Possession by Dale Bischof
Cali Amy said:
I love “The Silence of God” by Andrew Peterson. It’s probably my favorite not happy song!
Ryan G said:
Recently “Oh My God” by Jars of Clay
Ben Bryan said:
Hmm, favorite not happy songs. Excellent question…
“Not Like Us” by Arthur Alligood
“Roses in a Dead Man’s Hand” by Andrew Osenga
“Wedding Dress” by Derek Webb
“Sad Clown” by Jars of Clay
“Innocence” by The Normals
“Paralyzed” by Sixpence None The Richer
“Lifeboat” by Steve Taylor
“Happy is a Yuppie Word” by Switchfoot
chrismo said:
Roughly every other song Billy Crockett has recorded. “You Gave Us Wings”, “Here’s to the Day”, “The Day I Gave My Heart Away”, “A Father’s Love” for some highlights.
“Weakness Be Our Strength” by Sara Groves (particularly the demo version released with The Other Side of Something)—she’s got a few others.
“Sad Clown” is a good one - I wouldn’t have thought of that one - thx Ben.
euphrony said:
I love “Weakness Be Our Strength” and I agree the demo version is better, more powerful in its simplicity.
For those interested, I started a thread on the topic of “Not Happy” songs on Shaun’s board.
said:
Thank you for writing honest music. I grew up in Tyler myself and listened to that same radio station. I even remember that teen broadcast on the weekends you mentioned. I have loved your music since I first heard it because it seemed like for once, somebody out there might feel the way I do. Lyrics that express indecision, questioning, sadness, loneliness, and all the other emotions we go through other than just being happy is a relief.