A Bad Wreck

I was listening the other day to Dr. Dobson on the radio, when he made a remark about music that I totally agree with. He said (paraphrased), "I don't like music that doesn't include doctrine".

On mornings the same channel plays that newfangled contemporary Christian stuff, so sometimes when I turn the radio on in the morning I'll listen for a few minutes in the same way that someone gawks at a horrible accident as they slowly drive by. Before hearing Dr. Dobson's statement, I used to think the mainmost problem with contemporary music was the style, denoted by the following traits:

- Everyone sings in a whisper, or as hoarsely and "gaspy" as possible. Almost all of the contemporary songs are croaked out like, well... to be honest... like they're trying to be sexy. Wassup with that?

- No one can pronounce words ending in the long e sound. For example, me is pronounced may. Holy is pronounced Ho-lay. Gag.

And don't get me started on how they pronounce "God" as a cross between "God" and "Gad".

- You could probably drive up and down Miami beach in a convertible with contemporary gospel "pumping" and no one would know you were playing gospel.

- And as Dr. Dobson pointed out, the lyrics are almost always void of any meaningful doctrine. Sample lyrics: "You are pure. You are ho-lay. We worship you."

I think (in my ever so humble opinion) the last point is what really defines contemporary gospel. Old classics like Only Believe, Amazing Grace, Sweet Beulah Land, The Lighthouse, etc, are all written around a clear statement of faith. You can tell whoever wrote those songs had an experience, and believed, and they wrote about what they believed.

But this newfangled stuff lacks a message. There's no confession, no call to action or repentance, nothing but nebulous generalities about how God is holy and, well... that's pretty much it.

Like watching a bad wreck - I just can't stomache it.