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Beat addiction with a secret weapon

Don't underestimate the power that God has in helping someone escape an addiction. Brian Welch, former lead guitarist of Korn, talks about how he was at the lowest point in his life when a Christian showed him just one verse from The Bible. 

For this famous millionaire rock star, happiness had been elusive but drugs plentiful. The pull of God started him on a road to recovery. 

It didn't happen overnight but eventually, Brian found something in God that he hadn't found anywhere else. It all started after reading a verse in The Bible that a friend showed him.

Read a preview of his autobiography here.

What Bible verse has helped you in your life?

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Mute Math: A Christian Band or Does It Matter?


I found them. I finally found a new band that I really like: Mute Math. Back in the day, I would hear about new music from MTV (loved the show 120 Minutes) but now, you can forget about MTV as a place for discovering music.

Now I'm finding out new music from Twitter and the Internet, and I noticed one day that Christian musician David Crowder posted something on his Twitter feed about a new CD from a band called Mute Math. And, a friend who's a worship pastor also posted the same thing. 

I didn't grow up listening to Amy Grant or Michael W. Smith. I grew up listening to secular rock and roll. In the 80s, I had my full share of The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode and even Bob Marley.

So I guess my background is less K-Love programming and something a little different than the mainstream. Which is why I liked Mute Math.

After doing some research, it seems some members of Mute Math where in a Christian band called Earthsuit but that band fell apart and Mute Math was formed. When their record label tried to put them in a Christian music format or market, the band objected and sued.

I can see the band's side: if you get pegged as a Christian band, then that limits you to only one national radio network and only selected venues for your shows. (Yes, a few artists can cross over, like Amy Grant, but only a handful can do it.) Says Paul Meany, the lead singer, who used to be the music director at his church:

"We've always conditioned our show universally, and (we're) just trying to speak to human beings; (we're) not really conditioning it down to Christians, and that's what the Christian music industry does. It's for a certain sect of people. I don't have anything against that--I'm one of them--but I don't want to taper it just for that," said Meany.
I can see how it would be constraining to be pigeonholed in one category. Music is music. Meany makes a good point:
But somehow you're conditioned to think no matter what you're going to do, there will be a Christian adjective in front of it. If you're gonna build houses, by God, you're gonna build Christian houses. If you're a musician, there is no other choice: You're gonna make Christian music. That's what you're gonna do. You're gonna sign to a Christian record company. You're gonna print up Christian T-shirts, whatever
There are a lot of other bands, such as Switchfoot, that are not overtly Christian but you can still get the message in the lyrics. U2 might be the most successful band with Christian musicians who aren't necessarily writing standard worship music.

Meany talks further:

“The vision of the band, and everything else, is not getting caught up in religion,” Hill said. “To me, religion is getting stuck on one thing. There’s not much freedom in religion. You’re bound to your rituals and your routines that you walk through every day. It is important to have those, but it’s also important to grow, because if you’re not moving forward, you’re standing still and then moving backward.”

Here's the crux of the matter: Labels don't matter. It doesn't matter whether your songs get played on K-Love or whatever station. What matters is what you have to say.

With that said, there's only one Mute Math song that I don't think is going down the right track. Here's a sample from "Electrify":

I'm in love with this girl
That’s got my head electrified
And I hope that someday she might go too far, go too far
Cause all I can think about is me and her electrified
I hope that someday she might take me home and lose control

Now that's not the message I would want my son to get! I don't think that music has to be preachy all the time but then again, don't lead me the wrong way. Here's what the Bible says:

Philippians 4:8 (New International Version)

 8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

If you are truly a Christian, then I don't see how your love of God and Christ cannot spill out into your music. And a key verse from the Bible is this:

Romans 1:16 (New International Version)

 16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

I'll keep my eyes and ears on Mute Math for awhile but if they go towards more song lyrics like Electrify, then I'm out. Or, if their lifestyle moves towards an un-Godly way, ala Jennifer Knapp, then I don't think I could be a fan.

Your thoughts?



 

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Jars of Clay Song, "Weapons" Explained

http://lala.com/zmoI

Nice song on Jars of Clay's new album, The Long Fall Back to Earth. I had heard this album was more about relationships so I wondered what the reference might be to "weapons" and found this explanation from the guys on JesusFreakHideout:

Behind the Song:
DAN HASELTINE: “I was watching a show on the Sundance channel called Iconoclasts, where comedian Dave Chapelle was asking poet Maya Angelou about growing up in the civil rights movement -- and what it meant to her to have experienced the marginalization of who she was based on her color. Chapelle asked Angelou if it had made her angry. And Angelou said, “Absolutely.” But when it comes to anger, she said, you need to write it, and speak it, and dance it, and sing it, and paint it, and sculpt it. Because if you don’t, she warned, it becomes bitterness -- a cancer that eats away at your heart and soul and passion. So that's where ‘Weapons’ came from. It sounds like an anti-war song -- and maybe it is -- but not in the traditional context.”

CHARLIE LOWELL: “I love starting a record off with ‘There are no enemies in front of you.’ It’s sort of us saying -- to ourselves and to the listener -- “Let down your guard. Bring everything you have to this record and see where it takes you. See what happens.”