Comment to the video "Is It A Sin To Listen To Secular Music? | Hard Questions" (link below)

[kimchaexe]

VIDEO:

I'd love to hear anyone who wants to express his/her opinion in a kind way, respecting everyone other's opinion
Here's my thoughts :

I personally agree with one of the first comments that said that if your heart doesn't tell you anything about being wrong about the music you're listening to, you're good. i'm open to hear others' opinions.

I didn't know this stuff if it wasn't for one of my friends who is Muslim and told me that Muslims and Christians have similar "rules". in fact even for Christians listening to certain music is wrong.
Since yesterday i've been do some researches and i got to this video, and i'm glad i've been hearing different people's opinions which were low-key similar.

In my humble opinion, we all cannot know for sure what is wrong and what is not, because it can be relative and changing based on the situation. For example if someone who is highly depressed commit suicide, I'm sure God will not abandon him/her but try to save His child.

At this point I believe that there are there are some stages of our life that we somehow go through at the end.
For example adolescence. This is a really delicate stage of our life when we are mostly rebels especially against our parents and sometimes even society. I'm a 17 year-old and a lot of my contemporaries smoke, use drugs, get drunk and so on. Personally I do not do any of these stuff and I am not so sure that these kids are committing a sin (I AM NOT SURE because i still don't know much about the Bible, so correct me if I am stating something wrong) and I respect their choices even if I high-key do not share them, and they know, but I just think it's their stuff, as long as it doesn't effect me I can enjoy their company without "throwing them away".
But that friend told me that even all of this stuff is a sin because it's "damaging" your body which before yours is God's creation (and I low-key agree with this statement).

The fact is that society if growing so fast and everything is changing, there are a lot of things that were a scandal ages ago and that now are considered legit (like divorce, abort etc.)
Sometimes I agree think that this "Old Book" needs a little refresh to somehow "follow" our time, so I question myself a lot too.
For example, going back to the adolescence thing, we know that most of teens in their blossoming age finding out their bodies touch, who more who less who not at all. In my PERSONAL opinion (after past a year reflecting on this subject) I realize that this is not something too ""sinful"" because it is considered normal; because it's a stage of our lives that will vanish after a certain age.

Now, going back to the main topic of the video, I personally think that if a certain music makes you happy, feel relaxed, distress then it's okay to listen to it. But there are somehow a lot of songs dealing about using drugs, a lot (mostly) american songs dealing about sexuality, songs' choreographs that have sensual moves etc. well, what you wanna do? Don't listen to music? I personally can't do such a thing, because of the previous reasons.
It is not true that if I listen to something that has in the lyrics something doing with drugs i'll become corrupted, not at all in my case (same with the smoking stuff and sexual perversions). I am not even a native English speaker so naturally I won't get completely everything of what lyrics is speaking about (plus I listen to italian songs, which is my country, and Korean songs - same here: I won't understand everything they say, I just enjoy music). So what about just enjoying and feeling music? If that makes you feel good and stops thoughts passing through your head giving you stress?
If we follow every single word of the commands then what about the one stating not to kill? (in italian "You shall not murder" was translated into "Do not kill") Don't we eat meat? Don't we kill mosquitoes or cockroaches? (You see what I mean?)


Another personal thought I would discuss is about dancing.
We all know that hip-hop, latina, classical dance classes are very popular nowadays. A lot of different dance style are studied by millions of people (I've been a dancer as well), so what about dancing in a certain way? Is it considered sinful? Maybe some moves are a bit hard, at the border line but if the aim of the dancer is to show off how much passion and effort he/she has put throughout his/her studies, if every of his/her moves
where sweated days, months because he/she likes this discipline, because he/she likes to dance... then what? Should it be banned? I don't agree with that. I personally think there must be a equilibrium:
if all of the choreography is based on twerking I agree that this is sexual, this is "tempting" and make someone we know what, but if the choreography has a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of twerk, a little bit of pop moves, how can it be considered sinful? How can I be considered sinful if I dance o a song that makes me feel confident, that raise my autostime, that makes me no more feel like a sheep in a bunch of wolves, how?
I think we all need to have autostime and dancing, acting and so on help us a lot (especially when you're a teen). So how can a dance teen be considered sinful under this point of view?
In my opinion this teen is legally showing his/her God's gift: he/she is showing his/her abilities, he/she's showing what God gifted to him/her.
How can this be considered a sin? If he/she makes it look in a bad malicious way, then, okay, maybe it can be considered like that, but what if it is not? it is just made it like a normal thing?
I maybe be wrong but I feel like this should be considered under different point of views and then classified as okay or not, because of everything I wrote up.
I just think that it's okay to make a mistake, the society after-all makes us doing that by foce of circumstances a lot of times. I believe that if we pray God, He will light up our hearts and make us see the right path to follow. If we trust our heart, we will not be caught in the wrong path, if we do something in good faith. And, sometimes, if we fail, it's okay, we are human, we can't be perfect, we're weak, we fall, we go up: we just need to find strength in the Lord and He will save us from falling again ❤

 

[thehehe]

First, welcome on the forum, I hope you'll enjoy it! You come from a very beautiful country, but I guess you already know that

Banishing of our lives everything that doesn't feel "holy", all human temptations and weaknesses is the best way to forget that we are human creatures - fallen creatures. One of the most intriguing point about our human nature is the fact that we can turn our weaknesses or the worst part of ourselves into an artistic work. We can make something beautiful of our worst sins. This is both a gift and a peril - it can be tempting to just give up to the dark in order to have a better understanding of humanity, and forgetting that humanity also lays in the "holy". But giving up on our weaknesses, on violence that can be expressed in songs or whatever is also a mistake to me. No one can choose to ignore the secular world with impunity. I'm convinced we have to look at violence or anything sinful without trembling, judging or putting it away. We have to embrace the world in all its dimensions, and that sure includes music, movies, books or whatever artistic the world has to bring us. Beauty sure can also come from darkness.
Moreover, we don't share the same delimitation of what is sinful or shocking or not - even if the Bible sure gives us clues. A teen masturbating him/herself sure doesn't need to be looked as a sinful creature, but needs a kind and straight look on himself by others. A teen mostly needs kindness and understanding, not rigid limits which will only give him the willing of get around them.

 

[thecolorsblend]

Full disclosure: Right now, I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen's Born In The U.S.A. album. Consider that a preview of my response?

I think it depends on the messaging, if any. In entertainment media, "secular" often means "not avowedly religious". But that hardly translates to anti-Christian.

For example, one of my favorite bands is the Smashing Pumpkins. They're not a Christian band in any sense. And yet, their lead singer and songwriter, Billy Corgan, seems to be a pretty devout Catholic. His lyrics may contain challenging subject matter at times but there's really nothing in their music that runs counter to Christian religion.

Aside from them, one of my favorite genres is post-rock. It's mostly instrumental in nature. And what few lyrics some songs have are usually short phrases repeated over and over.

Classical music very often has no obvious religious component. But, as with post-rock, it is mostly instrumental. There is no real "message".

Try tho I might, I can't find a moral dimension to listening to any of that stuff. I don't see a sinful angle to it.

There are other musicians, however, where I don't think listening is a good idea. Generally, you know it when you hear it.

Getting into the realm of Christian music, I've never been a fan. It always has a hollow, manufactured quality to it. It's boring to listen to, I'm not overly impressed with the theology and the whole thing just feels so synthetic to me. I recognize that millions of people disagree with me on that, which is fine. If the world is against me then I am against the world. So be it.

I'm just saying that most Christian music leaves me absolutely cold. It has no staying power, nor is it meant to have staying power. Because it is a product which is meant to be consumed in mass quantities until some other product comes along and then that will be consumed.

The bland, boring, disposable nature of Christian music has always been its Achilles heel for me. It's simply not a viable substitute for secular music for a lot of otherwise faithful Christians.

 

[thehehe]

I'm just saying that most Christian music leaves me absolutely cold. It has no staying power, nor is it meant to have staying power. Because it is a product which is meant to be consumed in mass quantities until some other product comes along and then that will be consumed.

The bland, boring, disposable nature of Christian music has always been its Achilles heel for me. It's simply not a viable substitute for secular music for a lot of otherwise faithful Christians.

That is so true! Thank you for pointing it out, I agree so much that Christian music is more than often both repetitive and terribly lacking of imagination. Everything kind of sounds the same.

 

[kimchaexe]

thank you for sharing your opinions!

I was thinking another thing. As concerned for the music can be applied to movies, books and so on as well.

For example I high-key prefer action movies to (maybe) a boring love story with neither a little bit of adventure in it. Is this considered a sin? This seems just nonsense to me.
Seeing someone who shoots a person doesn't imply my soul'll get corrupted by that ahahah, maybe someone of the community will see in this a temptation as well, but the Lord gifted us with our intellect. If your intellect works well, you'll understand what is wrong and what not. I think at this point that you'll know to what music listening to makes you feel uncomfortable with your being and what film or book to read makes to want to quit the reading or the view.

Lord gifted us with our intellect, then we all shall use it and reach the right. It can be subjective sometimes and sometimes it may not, but I personally think this is the best way.

 

[Goodhuman]

thank you for sharing your opinions!

I was thinking another thing. As concerned for the music can be applied to movies, books and so on as well.

For example I high-key prefer action movies to (maybe) a boring love story with neither a little bit of adventure in it. Is this considered a sin? This seems just nonsense to me.
Seeing someone who shoots a person doesn't imply my soul'll get corrupted by that ahahah, maybe someone of the community will see in this a temptation as well, but the Lord gifted us with our intellect. If your intellect works well, you'll understand what is wrong and what not. I think at this point that you'll know to what music listening to makes you feel uncomfortable with your being and what film or book to read makes to want to quit the reading or the view.

Lord gifted us with our intellect, then we all shall use it and reach the right. It can be subjective sometimes and sometimes it may not, but I personally think this is the best way.

I listen to any kind of music, except wordly like uncensored or anti-God singing. I watch anything. I don't mix my faith with the things I do. Everything must be separated to it's place.

 

[thecolorsblend]

thank you for sharing your opinions!

I was thinking another thing. As concerned for the music can be applied to movies, books and so on as well.

For example I high-key prefer action movies to (maybe) a boring love story with neither a little bit of adventure in it. Is this considered a sin? This seems just nonsense to me.
Seeing someone who shoots a person doesn't imply my soul'll get corrupted by that ahahah, maybe someone of the community will see in this a temptation as well, but the Lord gifted us with our intellect. If your intellect works well, you'll understand what is wrong and what not. I think at this point that you'll know to what music listening to makes you feel uncomfortable with your being and what film or book to read makes to want to quit the reading or the view.

Lord gifted us with our intellect, then we all shall use it and reach the right. It can be subjective sometimes and sometimes it may not, but I personally think this is the best way.

Here again, it comes down to messaging.

One of my favorite movies is The Bank Job. It's a caper movie that turns into a thriller halfway through. And the thieves ultimately get away with their ill-gotten gains. Honestly, I don't see a problem with enjoying it as a movie (esp since there's really no way to know how much is true and how much was fictionalized). I don't see a spiritually dangerous element to the movie.

But there are some entertainment media depicting mortals using magic in ways that can be duplicated irl. And according to people in a position to know, those are real magic practices/spells. I find that the same people who believe Harry Potter is harmless are the same people who have done precisely zero research into the matter. Meanwhile, people who know what they're talking about and have done their homework (including exorcists, former occultists and at least one Pope) insist that the magic depicted in Harry Potter is very real and very dangerous.

In the reboot of the show Charmed, there are occult symbols and practices. And as best I can tell, those things are all completely real too.

So with film/TV, I do recommend a much higher level of discernment and filtering. The visual component so easily lends itself to inserting subtle and not-so-subtle symbols, practices, etc. And if anything, Christian cinema is even sadder and more pathetic than Christian music. Because at least the people recording and producing Christian music have genuine talent. The same cannot be said for the creators of Christian film. So there are fewer alternatives with film/TV, sadly.