Responses to Steve Brown’s critique of “Music Through The Decades”

Response 1/3

St Augustine once said that “all truth is God’s truth.” This means that we as Christians should be actively looking for truth everywhere. That, I would argue, is why we are here at Covenant College and it is why Mr. Brown in his response to the “Through the Decades” concert in last week’s Bagpipe is wrong. His approach to the culture would prevent us, as Christians, from being “in the world but not of it.”
First, though, let’s assume that Mr. Brown is right, and we should avoid secular rock and roll because many artists do stand against Christianity. However, let’s be consistent: next comes Jazz music, which promoted sex in the 1920s, then romantic poetry of the 19th century, and then the works of Charles Dickens. You see my point. All of the creators of these forms of art were not Christians (and, in some cases, were anti-Christian), but Christians can still profit from studying and enjoying them.
Historically, this has been the practice of the Church, from Paul’s quotations of Greek poetry on the Areopagus, to Augustine’s use of Plato’s philosophy in The City of God, to my Christian mind professor using music from Green Day to illustrate a point. Christians can and should engage and be involved with the culture. It’s not a sin to enjoy the Beatles or Bruce Springsteen. Look at their lyrics and you will find both truth and falsehood; discernment means being able to tell the difference and still enjoy it for what it is.
In response to Mr. Brown, “having no fellowship” with the works of darkness means sifting through it, discarding what is wrong, but promoting what is right. The Beatles were great musicians and songwriters in spite of the fact that they stood against God, and we as Christians should recognize that and be sobered by it. That’s what this college is all about. Whenever we study anything other than the Bible, we are studying something that is in error, but there is also truth there as well. Christ came, not to replace cultures, but to redeem them. Let us show discernment, rather than throwing out the good with the evil.
Finally, I will concur with Kuyper that there is not a single square inch of creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord. This means that we, as Christians, should be interested in claiming all parts of our culture, even rock music, films, and dancing, for God. Just like Christians can celebrate Dickens, Beethoven, or Rossini, so too we can celebrate the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, and Simon and Garfunkel, even while rejecting the falsehoods in their music. They are prime examples of common grace, in spite of their sin.