Art: The Victim of Christianity

I've heard some amazing music in my time; I've also heard some pretty terrible music. I'm sorry to say that the majority of Christian worship music I've heard falls into the latter category. But no one ever says anything about it. Why is that?

Well, one might argue that the point of a formal worship set is to worship God, therefore the quality of the music (and the musicians) is irrelevant. Several times , I've turned to a friend and commented on how poor a worship set was, or even a particular musician. And then they've lashed out at me, telling me that it doesn't matter because it's worship. But if you think about it, doesn't poor quality music distract the audience? Maybe I'm just too picky, but when I hear one of the musicians hit a wrong note, I cringe a bit. When I hear the drummer go offbeat, a little piece of me dies inside. And all that assuming the point of a formal worship set is to praise God. I could be wrong, but I don't see it that way. The point of a formal worship set, where you have musicians leading an audience of some sort in worship, is to bring the audience to a place of worship. The musician(s) can weave a musical cocoon of sorts around the people listening that completely envelopes them as they praise God... then fades to background music as they worship him.

--Warning: the following paragraph is completely my opinion, formed from my experience--

And there is a difference between praise and worship. Praise usually involves thanking God for who he is and what he does, often enthusiastically. Praise songs tend to be upbeat, as people

get excited when praising God. But then one moves into worship, where you're just like "God, you're awesome" and he's like "You too" and you're like "Sweet." Worship is where you simply exist in the presence of God. Worship is where you're down on your face crying for no obvious reason. Worship is where you can really feel God's love.

Anyways, back to my original subject. Although this resonates more so with me in the realm of music, the same thing holds true for all forms of art. Some people would say that any mediocre watercolor of something "Christian" would be a better painting than Botticelli's The Birth Of Venus.

I'd love to hear what you guys (and gals) think!