Firstly I found this hilarious and gave a mental hurrah at the young guy sticking it to the over-zealous religious guy. But I also started feeling a little indignant about the audacity of someone to state that my musical choices are evil just because they do not fit into your ideal of acceptable music. To state that metal music is a sin and then link it to religion is offensive to both metal and religion!
There are some heavy rock bands out there who are Christian and who also play Christian music and I’m sure they would agree the level of heaviness has no impact on the religious message they are espousing.
I could personally dislike gospel music (which isn’t true by the way, Aretha Franklin’s gospel album ‘Amazing Grace’ is a sublime album) and say it is a sin and this would offend countless Christians. My personal musical opinion has no value when gauging the moralistic worth of music.
In America they talk about the separation of church and state and I think maybe this should extend to church and the arts. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to paint beautiful religious iconography on the Sistine chapel, or write powerful, emotive gospel music, or write religious novels or dance interpretive dances of the gospels, then that is fine by me, but religion should have no say over what art is acceptable and whether it should be made at all.
I baulk at some music when they glorify things like wife beating or drug taking, but I also understand that in a free society this music will sit alongside other types of music that I find more enjoyable and personally acceptable. I agree we need to ensure our children are having the right influences in their life, but this is down to the parents (whether they do a good job or not) and not the religious guy on the street waving a placard telling me metal is a sin.
I’m sure as I think about this more my opinions will develop and will clarify. But, at this moment in time, the one thing I am sure of is that my listening to metal music is in no way a sin and I love blasting away my woes with some heavy music. It may be loud and pure aggression, but that is what I need sometimes.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
I love your critique of this. Love the photo too. Great impact of the swear word vis a vis the posters the other kid is holding!!! And the age of the kids! Fantastic and bizarre! What is this about??? It is actually quite insane. But wait...you will see that teaching them young has affected me, too. Religion affected me young.
ReplyDeleteHere goes: what I think...
Nobody knows WHAT God, or, as a friend calls that being which is larger than us, calls "The Great Whobody", thinks. Even the Pope. And I say this in all sincerity as a Roman Catholic.
When we were very young it was explained to us by one of my parents that what the Pope decrees is not the same as what God decrees. God, if you believe in God, gave us the ten commandments, and that ... is that. Even those are up for interpretation if you are anything more than an idiot. As I recall, the last time I looked, heavy metal music was not on the tablets which Moses brought down from the mountaintop, unless it was on that first set he broke. Then he had to go back up and get the second tablets. What good shape he was in! And boy was he angry with the jerks melting down their gold and making false Gods!!!
I think people who hide their vile beliefs and bigotry behind pronouncements about God and what God thinks, don't "get it".
They simply don't.
I would hope that if God exists, he might like anything the creatures which he created in his image (namely us) did to express their joy in creativity, as long as it didn't hurt, maim, kill, or generally transgress the ten commandments: period. I like to think of David Byrne's "Little Creatures".
I am not a big one for dicussing religion at dinner parties. but I would rather discuss religion at dinner parties than politics at dinner parties...
Additionally, the fact that I still remain a Roman Catholic after all the crazy things that Catholicism has perpetrated upon society in the name of God is a testimony more to my love of my own sweet father than to anything else. Here's to my Dad. Who also was a big one for the Golden Rule.
That's what I think--thanks for listening.
--jean
As an aside: Heavy metal is my least favourite music but so what! :) FOR YEARS I WAS EMBARRASSED AT MY LOVE OF COUNTRY WESTERN. Nobody in NY liked C & W in the least until recently.
To both Spider Monkey and Jean - 'Amen'. A great blog and a great comment - both well balanced and eloquently written. An enjoyable read and I agree whole heartedly with both of you. Bigotry of any kind is unacceptable. And in any case, I once remember seeing a comedian say 'I want to go to hell when I die, that's where they are playing all the good music!'.
ReplyDeleteOnce again a great blog.
ReplyDeleteI've got some good christian rock music, and whilst most of it conveys an overtly christian message, the music is hard and heavy. The group Creed are (or at least were) a christian rock band who've made it into the secular arena. Quite a lot of secular groups also put across a strong moral message, which just proves that "Music is music", and to label and decry any one genre is quite misguided.
I also particularly like Petra, Degarmo & Key, Mylon LeFevre and Broken Heart to name just a few christian rock bands.
1 - person declaring God hates or x is evil on a placard really wants to state "I hate or I think this is evil as it is not my bag" but wants spiritual enties to hide behind. As far as I can recall heavy metal is not mentioned in a bibical context -except for Gold, so maybe spanda ballet better watch it.
ReplyDelete2 -sniggering at photo