CCM and Deconstruction: Why are so many Christian music artists leaving the faith?

[BrAndreyu]

This is a good video from one of the ladies that was formerly in CCM act Zoegirl. Featuring John and Korey Cooper from Skillet and Jeremy and Adie Camp

 

[Fr. Appletree]

Protestantism is anti-aesthetic. And Christian Rock uses a style that's message will always have dissonance with the faith. And the rock lifestyle is spiritually dangerous. It's easy for them to fall away between the risks of the profession and the lack of support they have from their Church's.

Skillet used to be my jam.

 

[dzheremi]

Maybe they want to make good music?

 

[BrAndreyu]

It's easy for them to fall away between the risks of the profession and the lack of support they have from their Church's.

That's essentially what Adie was talking about and what caused her to struggle with a lot of doubt for a while. She's originally from South Africa and over there, they don't have a "christian" music industry so her church friends warned her about getting involved with the "Christian" music industry in America because it "chews people up and spits them out" (just like the secular music industry). Adie said that she would see things going on backstage with other "Christian" bands that were hypocritical and highly immoral, and this is what left her disenchanted about the whole thing and doubting Christianity for a while, as she got involved right at 18.

I don't really blame her, because I've seen stuff in the evangelical world that left me feeling the same way. Usually it was after I would be at an evangelical church for a while, I realized that all that support that these churches claim to have for believers is actually just aesthetic: If you're not employed, suffering from a drug or mental health problem, not married with a family; these churches tend to keep you at arms length and begrudgingly put up with your presence and it shows after a while and that was the thing that would usually cause me to stop reading the bible, going to church, and praying alltogether. I felt a lot like Jeremy Camp after the death of his first wife in that "Why would I want to worship a God like that?" and it took me a while to realize that God is nothing like the people at those specific evangelical churches made him out to be, and that most of those churches are almost always hiding major skeletons in the proverbial closet or are "Whitewashed tombs" in their own way. It doesn't matter which one it is: Southern Baptist, non-denominational, Calvary chapel, Independent Baptist, UMC, Assemblies of God... I've tried them all around these parts and found them all lacking compared to the messages that they are known for preaching on Wednesdays and Sundays. They primarily function by creating emotions in their adherents, but when you have trouble feeling those positive emotions due to mental illness or whatever, what benefit do they really have for you? They remove all aesthetic of sacred space: no stained glass, candles, saints... and they tend to feel more like a weekly Jesus'd-up rock concert than a proper church environment but maybe that's just me.

Skillet used to be my jam.

Skillet was in regular rotation when I was in high school, particularly the albums Alien Youth, Invincible, and Ardent Worship but what was my jam was actually Adie's former band: The Benjamin Gate. Still are, I would love to find a copy of their two albums on vinyl LP format but that's never going to happen because the CDs are already out of print so the only recourse I have is to stream the albums off of Spotify. I always felt weird though because they came from an Evangelical place and I was already starting to question the veracity and substance of Evangelicalism during my experiences with those churches in high school (like the incident with the friend's father trying to recruit me, lack of support from the churches as I was struggling with the world and told to just "be joyful and worship more"... really one size fits all prescriptions for making it through teenage life and it's no wonder that I really fell away at 17)

I had no idea that Adie went through such a period of serious doubt though as a result of her experiences in the Christian Music Industry. Knowing that, it's no wonder that she doesn't really make much music anymore. I probably wouldn't either.

 

[ripple the car]

I think that, basically, you guys are exactly right. Evangelical faith leaves no room for truly negative, crushing, or empty feelings. If you are genuinely struggling, you are basically scolded to “have more faith!” and “rejoice!”. I think a lot of this comes down to evangelical Soteriology, which assumes that we are saved once and for all because of an emotional conversion experience / faith, and then urges believers to reflect this salvation through emotionalism, joy, and really, really positive feelings.

There’s not much room for a dark night of the soul, neither is emotional pain sanctified, or sanctifiable. It’s all about the resurrection, and what Christ’s death has done for us in the past tense. The idea of being conformed to Christ crucified, offering up our suffering, or working out our salvation via our suffering is either under-developed within or incompatible with evangelical Soteriology.

And like Andrew said, where is the beauty? Where are the icons, statues, stained glass, beautiful wood work, paintings, and solemnity? Where is the dignity?

 

[Sophrosyne]

CCM is great....... it is people who are faithless Christians that don't know what it is about that see everyone else claiming to be one and don't want to be like them that jump ship. There are lots of people saying Jesus out there that he never knew.
I spent a childhood in old cathedral type churches with stained glass windows and tall stone pillars and pipe organs and never felt God in there...... but after I abandoned God in my childhood CCM in the 90s help lead me back to God and I still listen to it today although I find at times they drift to being more secular or too hymnalish for my liking.

 

[WolfGate]

Y'all realize deconstruction is a much bigger issue than just in CCM, right? It did get media attention when a couple of artists discussed they were going through it, which is, as I heard it, what inspired this video. And while many think of deconstruction as an evangelical thing (certainly the most active social media presence is that way), it is impacting all faiths, from Catholic to Orthodox to Evangelical to...

The troubling thing is that the concept behind deconstruction is really supposed to be discernment. Take a hard look at what you were taught by others, compare it to what is in the Bible, seek the leading of the Holy Spirit, and throw out the parts of what you were taught that are not truly from God. In that concept it is a part of sanctification.

Unfortunately there has been so much chaff taught by so many churches that too many people are throwing everything out because it all feels and seems intertwined. Legalism, prosperity gospel, Christian nationalism, shifting theology to match society, ranking of sins, fake transparency, politics invading the pulpit, failure to truly support and love the least of society (much less within the congregation), elevating social works above the gospel - the list goes on and on and crosses the entire church denominational spectrum, regardless of style of worship or type of building. Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips yet deny him by their lifestyle and actions lead to deconstruction moving people away from Christ entirely. How to keep them or get them back? I read a study recently where almost every atheist who became a Christian commented on one thing - they met followers of Christ who did not condemn or judge them for where they were or see them as a project to win, but rather were open to dialogue and discussion and understanding - all while living the way Christ taught.

Thanks for posting the video, BrAndreyu. I had seen it recently and thought they had a really good perspective. A few quibbles here and there, but overall seemed solid.

 

[dzheremi]

Y'all realize deconstruction is a much bigger issue than just in CCM, right? It did get media attention when a couple of artists discussed they were going through it, which is, as I heard it, what inspired this video. And while many think of deconstruction as an evangelical thing (certainly the most active social media presence is that way), it is impacting all faiths, from Catholic to Orthodox to Evangelical to...

I don't know that I buy that it's such a big thing outside of the kinds of churches that the people in the video come from. I'd never heard of this before watching the video because I don't pay attention to CCM, since it's not Orthodox (we have our own forms of paraliturgical music of varying levels of theological and aesthetic fidelity, which even some of our own bishops have taken youth to task for indulging in, so we're busy with our own problems in this area and don't need to take on others'), and I have to imagine that if I, an actual westerner, had never heard of this before now, it's probably even less popular with the aunties and uncles and cousins who are straight off the boat, so to speak. We only even get into trouble in the first place when trying to adapt to the West by taking their vocabulary and ideas without understanding what they mean, so I think we're fine without this particular one, just as it isn't healthy to have non-Orthodox attempt to take from our churches to imbue things that are integral to Orthodoxy with their own heterodox understandings, even though that happens too.

The troubling thing is that the concept behind deconstruction is really supposed to be discernment. Take a hard look at what you were taught by others, compare it to what is in the Bible, seek the leading of the Holy Spirit, and throw out the parts of what you were taught that are not truly from God. In that concept it is a part of sanctification.

Case in point: that's not what sanctification is.

Unfortunately there has been so much chaff taught by so many churches that too many people are throwing everything out because it all feels and seems intertwined. Legalism, prosperity gospel, Christian nationalism, shifting theology to match society, ranking of sins, fake transparency, politics invading the pulpit, failure to truly support and love the least of society (much less within the congregation), elevating social works above the gospel - the list goes on and on and crosses the entire church denominational spectrum, regardless of style of worship or type of building.

If what you write is true, then it is yet another reason to reject denominationalism. Not that anyone in an actual communion really needs another, but hey.

I read a study recently where almost every atheist who became a Christian commented on one thing - they met followers of Christ who did not condemn or judge them for where they were or see them as a project to win, but rather were open to dialogue and discussion and understanding - all while living the way Christ taught.

Yep. As one of the hymns teachers at the monastery of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite put it to me, the first rite of the Church is love.