Back in 2003, during season 7 of the animated comedy series South Park, an episode aired entitled "Christian Rock Hard" in which Cartman wants his band "Moop" to play Christian Rock, and leaves the band after the other members ridicule the idea, and bets Kyle $10 that his new band could get a platinum-selling album by playing Christian Rock before "Moop" can. Cartman's strategy? He starts a band (called "Faith +1") and rewrites pop love songs, replacing "baby" with "Jesus," and other lyrics with spiritual words.

For instance, in one of Faith +1's songs, Cartman sings," I want to get down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus; I want to feel his salvation all over my face!" In another he sings,"I promise I'll be good to you, keep you warm at night, Jesus. Jesus, why don't we just cut off the lights?". In yet another, he sings,"You died for my sins and you know that I would die for you, right? What's the matter, baby? You're trembling, Jesus baby...I wanna believe it's all right, but I get lonely in the night, and it's up to you to save me, Jesus baby." (Earlier in the episode, Stan told Cartman,"You don't even know anything about Christianity," and Cartman replies,"I know enough to exploit it.")

Now, what makes this conceit so humorous (for those who do find it humorous, and it might come as a surprise to most people how many Christians find it very funny...) is that it seems to be a strategy that is used by many of those who write contemporary worship songs, though, of course, that's highly unlikely (at least in such a blatantly straightforward manner as Cartman advocated it).

The making of contemporary styles of worship music is a necessary and legitimate enterprise (the reasons for this we will, God willing, examine in a future article...), but there is always a temptation (or danger) that, in the interaction with an artistic genre, even if the specific content involved in that genre is re-oriented to a more Biblical direction, the ethos or character (say, the emotional disposition) of a genre can continue to affect expressions of that genre (even if they have been re-oriented in intent and use).

This should not surprise the fan of contemporary sub-genres of rock, since sub-genres like post-punk, screamo, industrial, death metal, etc., are, to some extent, partially defined by their emotional disposition (you don't, for instance, generally hear death metal singers croon gently and softly over their music, as the aggression and anger expressed are germane to the ethos of the sub-genre).

My point in all this is that most of the kinds of modern pop music upon which most modern worship songs are based stylistically (neo-folk, R&B ballads, modern rock, and, in some particularly hip cases, post-rock), the lyrics focus on romantic relationships and the emotions which accompany these relationships. This aspect of the ethos of those sub-genres of music (with the notable exception of most post-rock and some modern rock) fits in with some of the legitimate Biblical expressions of worship and devotion to the Lord Jesus.

 However, those Biblical expressions which do correspond to the lyrical/musical ethos of the contemporary pop music upon which a large portion of modern worship songs are based are not intended to dominate Christian worship expressions (any more than other Biblical worship expressions are intended to). These Biblical emphases are intended to be kept in a balance in our worship (and we will, God willing, explore what these expressions and their intended balance are to be, as well as the Biblical reasons behind such a balance, in future articles).

Nevertheless, the fact is that, both within and without today's Evangelical Church, people are aware that songs which present the emotional, romantic, and, yes, sexo-spiritual (thanks to Frank Hart for that apt and arresting term)/sensual lyrical content of modern pop music have become dominant in a huge part of our congregational worship expressions. This fact is why the writers of South Park (even back in 2003) could satirize the music of the modern Church and depend upon the fact that their audience would understand the satire and find it amusing (and don't kid yourselves, the South Park writers are not even from Christian backgrounds: they're lapsed Mormons...).

Why has modern worship taken this particular turn? Is it all bad? A turn for the better? We'll (Lord willing) explore the answers to these questions in future articles of this series.

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