Puddle Flavored Bubblegum

“We are the world

We are the children

We are the ones who make a brighter day

So, let's start giving

There's a choice we're making

We're saving our own lives

It's true we'll make a better day

Just you and me”

Sound familiar? In case you don’t know, these are the lyrics from a song released by Michael Jackson in 1985 called “We Are the World.” Its subject is in the same vein of many popular pop tunes released in recent decades, songs like the Beatles’ “Imagine” and the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is the Love?” These songs are calls for unity, harmony, love, peace, and progress.

They are also steaming piles of cow manure.

No, I’m not referring to their quality as music or poetry. I’m talking about their message. It’s candy-coated garbage. It’s lots of good feelings supported by jack diddly squat in terms of real meaning or substance. It’s a cool, refreshing drink from stinking, festering, inch-deep puddle of mud.

This should not surprise us. In the culture of post-modern relativism, calls to “just get along” without any regard for moral, ethical, or theological structure are to be expected. The problem, however, is that this stuff is leaking into popular Christian music.

I know, I know. The term “Christian music” is itself rife with confusion. I mean, what even is it? Music produced by Christians? Music produced for Christians? What makes one song Christian and another secular?

Exactly. Herein lies the rub. If there is to be such a thing as “Christian pop songs,” should they not be distinguishable from their secular counterparts? Now, you may be asking, “Why should I care? I don’t listen to that stuff.” And that’s fine. But I’m not raising this issue simply because it’s being blasted across the airwaves of our favorite Christian radio stations. I’m raising it because it’s leaking into nearly all of Christian culture, and has been for a while.

What, exactly, is “it”? What is my bone to pick with feel-good Christian pop songs that call for shallow unity, not only within the church, but with the world around us? Simply put, it is irredeemably anti-Christ.

Let me give a few examples to help make my point. Example #1, “Revolutionary” by Josh Wilson:

“Why does kindness seem revolutionary

When did we let hate get so ordinary

Let's turn it around, flip the script

Judge slow, love quick

God help us get revolutionary”

Okay, not bad. James 1:19 exhorts us, “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” The angry, prejudicial, hyper-polarized politics of today’s America have no place in the heart of the Christian. Wilson continues,

“Let's take some time, open our eyes, look and listen

We're gonna find we're more alike than we are different”

Hmmm, okay. Who’s the “we” to whom he is referring? Other Christians? Our neighbors? The world? If he’s referring to the world, he’s just plain wrong. The thrust of the song remains true, that we ought to treat the world with kindness, out of reverence for Christ Who commands us to do so. But if we are experiencing and practicing real Christian faith and life, we have very little in common with them.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” you may reply, “Luke, aren’t you making a big assumption and magnifying something that may not be in the song at all?” Fair enough. Let’s proceed. Example #2, Mandisa’s “Bleed the Same”:

“Are you left?

Are you right?

Pointing fingers, taking sides

When are we gonna realize?

We all bleed the same

We're more beautiful when we come together

We all bleed the same

So tell me why, tell me why

We're divided”

Is there anything theologically wrong with these statements? Technically, no. It is true that we, as human beings, share humanity and the Imago Dei that makes us unique in all of creation. There is indeed only one human race, as the song affirms:

“Tell me, who are we

To judge someone

By the kind of clothes they're wearing

Or the color of their skin?

Are you black? (black)

Are you white? (white)

Aren't we all the same inside? (the same inside)

Father, open our eyes to see!”

Sounds great, right? What Bible-believing Christian would disagree with such obvious truth?

Well, this one would. My objection is not with the questions the song raises, or with the statements it makes, but with the challenge it poses- “Tell me why we’re divided.”

Um, sin? Are we really confused why the world is the way it is? Why we are the way that we are? That which God made good and whole, our own sinful desires have perverted and disintegrated. War, exploitation, and hatred are not perplexing mysteries to the Christian, or at least they shouldn’t be. Does this mean we should just blindly accept the wickedness and injustice of the world? Of course not! But we also shouldn’t expect it to evaporate if we can just educate people enough. And if you are under the impression that’s not what some people actually think, you should get out more.

Example #3, “Together” by For King and Country:

“If you're looking for hope tonight, raise your hand

If you're feeling alone and don't understand

If you're fighting in the fight of your life, then stand

We're going to make it through this hand in hand”

Again, I’m not sure who the “we” is in this case. The song later refers to “brothers” and “sisters,” so it may very well be about fellow believers.

“And if we fall, we will fall together

Together

When we rise, we will rise together

Together”

This seems fine. “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15), “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2), “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). And even if the “we” refers to the world, Galatians 6:10 commands us to “do good to all people.” So far so good . . .

“This is for the second chance

This is for the new romance

Sing it for the loved in vain, overcame

It's not too late”

Uh, what?

Look, I get it, it’s a pop song, not a theological tome. I want to be clear, I’m not condemning any of the three songs I have referenced. We can listen to them, sing along, enjoy them, and even be edified by the truth within them. But it’s important (no, essential!) that we think critically about the messaging and ethos of these songs, rather than popping them into our ears and hearts like we pop checkout aisle candy into our mouths and stomachs.

In case you think I’m making a big to-do about nothing, or a mountain out of a mole hill, let me ask you a very simple question: Could Michael Jackson, John Lennon, or Fergie have written, recorded, and released these songs to their secular audiences? I’ll wait . . .

In my view, absolutely yes! Secular America gobbled up their preachy feel-good morsels about compassion without truth and empathy without morality, so if the artists on the covers of these “Christian” albums were wearing bling or bikinis instead of church clothes and cross necklaces, why wouldn’t they swallow our vapid sing-alongs too?

Does every Christian song have to clearly spell out the gospel? No, because not every verse or chapter of the Bible does. Is there some truth in these songs? Yes, we are most certainly called to unconditionally love one another and the world around us.

But am I wrong to warn against hints of Let’s-All-Just-Get-Along-ism in the songs of artists who purport to be ambassadors of Christ? I don’t think so. I don’t think so because I see the same hints in Facebook posts of fellow believers, and I hear them in casual conversations with those same believers.

Look, I get it. The country is a mess. People hate each other for fourteen hundred and forty days for a decision that they make on one day (more specifically, one day in November every Summer Olympic year). It’s silly to despise your neighbor just because they look or act or think differently than you. It’s frustrating to see, and I also wish people would just knock it off.

But they won’t. And even if they do, they’ll find new avenues of destruction and self-destruction. Racism gives way to sexual perversion gives way to misogyny gives way to misandry and on and on the spiral of human history inevitably goes.

But maybe if- if we just- if we educated- if we came together- if we put aside our differences- if we etc., etc., etc. . . .

What are you really saying? “If people only saw things my way, everything would be better.” Really? Are you sure? You are the fount of hope and wisdom for the world? If they just saw things your way . . .

How about, “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness”? How about, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless”? How about, “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness”? How about, oh I don’t know, what the Bible says about the state of man apart from Christ?

And how about the gospel? How about God’s grace? How about the Holy Spirit? How about the Kingdom of God? HOW ABOUT JESUS?!

Sorry, I got a little carried away for a moment. But it’s difficult not to use the caps lock key, because I want to yell at the top of my lungs at every well meaning Christian who falls into the trap, even for a second, of thinking that their mission is to make the world a better place by sharing God’s love.

We. Are. Not. Walmart. Greeters. We are not here to smile and wave and hand out shiny stickers. We are lighthouses! Rocky outcroppings of sin and death abound, and many a ship lies capsized just below the foamy breakers. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13), and the narrow gate is not empathy, compassion, or education. The narrow gate is a person.

His name is Jesus.