...Is Okay.

I feel like a jerk for what I said yesterday. It really isn't my place to judge. Everybody's different, and everyone's entitled to worship differently. Our church even proclaims that as one of the articles of our faith! "We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." If others choose to worship God through music that I would deem as "irreverent," it's really not my place to say anything about it. Perhaps, if I had spoken to someone who worships like that on a one-to-one basis and said something to the effect of "I think it's great that you draw closer to God through music. Here's some music that I find uplifting and might help you even more than what you're already listening to," then perhaps my counsel would be less offensive and more appropriate. My saying "your music may help you think about Jesus, but it drives His Spirit away" isn't going to help anyone, mostly because no one would want to hear my message if I said it like that.

Besides, we've got a total beam-and-motes scenario going on here. "Who am I to judge another [person's choice of music] when I walk imperfectly?" I should be more concerned about my own flaws and irreverent moments than I am about theirs. And anyway, they're probably better off with it than without it. Anyone who goes from rock and rap to Christian rock and Christian rap is at least heading in the right direction, and it'd be completely counter-productive of me to criticize any part of that. It's better than a lot of other stuff they could be listening to. Sure, there's music that's even better than that, but I have no right to demand that they change their choice of music just because it might be better for their souls. Sure, I might make a suggestion, but it's totally their choice, and it's not even the worst choice they could have made - not by a long shot.

So, I guess this blog post is a retraction of pretty much everything I said yesterday. Not that it wasn't true, but it simply wasn't very nice to say. Christian rock, and even Christian rap, is better than I gave it credit for in my previous blog post. If you feel like listening to it helps you draw closer to God, you go ahead and keep doing that, and just forget I said anything yesterday.