"Hey, dad...did that guy just say that God was standing on a street corner smoking His last cigarette?" WHAT??? Um, I don't know. We'll have to look up the lyrics when we get home..."It never fails. I'm listening to "Christian" radio and I hear music that doesn't really sound very Christian. So how do I know if it's Christian? Well the name says it all. Christian radio is called "Christian Radio" for a reason. They play "Christian" music. Music that is Christian-themed and have people singing about the "Christ" and "Christian" themes and situations.
A recent song that has hit the air waves of a local Christian radio station that I listen to, blatantly flies in the face of what would be considered "Christian". The group, "The Fray", has always been suspect to me and I have written them off as a non-Christian group that, for some reason, gets air play on Christian radio. Here's the first verse of the song called "You Found Me":
I found God on the corner of First and Amistad
Where the west was all but won
All alone smoking His last cigarette
I said where You been, He said ask anything
Where were You when everything was falling apart
All my days were spent by a telephone
That never rang and all I needed was a call
That never came to the corner of First and Amistad
Have you found anything wrong with the above lyrics? How about God standing on a street corner smoking His last cigarette?!?!?! (Yeah, sing that song during the offeratory at church...LOL!) The song goes on and has overtones of God not being there for him and God being "late" and asking God where He was.
My problem is that I WANT to like "The Fray"! They have a great sound and I love their style. Their music, however, should not be played on Christian radio because I really don't want to have to explain to my daughters about "God smoking His last cigarette on a street corner."
"The Fray" may not be anti-God and clearly had a Christian background, but are they a Christian group? I did a "Google" search on "The Fray" and it is apparent that other people are wondering the same thing..."Is 'The Fray a Christian Band?"I'll let them speak for themselves.
Wysocki, one of the band members, said in an interview: "The band avoided Christian record labels, saying God called them to the secular market instead. "I feel he would be disappointed with us if we limited ourselves."
Wow! So you are "limiting yourself" by signing with a Christian label and feel like God called you into the secular market? Interesting. D.C. Talk sang Christian music and ended up getting air play on secular radio. Great!! God may call you into the secular market to reach the lost, but He won't call you to be an "undercover Christian". You will find no biblical examples of this approach.
Slade, another band member, says he used to "write all Christian lyrics" until he had an epiphany while working a shift at Starbucks: "None of my friends outside the church understood any of my songs; we had a different set of vocabulary," he says. "So I went home and threw away all those songs."
I wonder where he got the lyrics for "all those songs" he threw away? Clearly groups like Third Day and Casting Crowns are Christian groups with overtly Christian lyrics that non-Christians can listen to and easily understand. Is "The Fray" concerned about their non-Christian listeners not relating or are they "selling out" to the industry by making sure not to talk too blatantly about their "Christianity" in their music?
Slade continues, "If we grow up in the church, it's easy to think it's our Christian duty to preach to every single person because God is the most important thing. And he is, but I'm a musician first. This is my job. We're not pastors. We're not preachers. We're not even missionaries."
It IS our responsibility to preach the Gospel as Christians!! Check out Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15. Which is actually first in your life...your music or God? We may not be pastors or preachers, but we all have a responsibility as Christ's Ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) to present a Biblical view of God to a lost and dying world. By the way, you cannot seperate your Christianity from anything else that you do. You ARE a Christian that does x or y. You are a Christian that puts God first...everything else is secondary.
One article stated, "Band members don't publicize their faith, but they don't hide it, either." First, why would you not publicize that you are a Christian band (if you are one) unless you are ashamed or worried that it might hit you in the pocket-book? Second, I haven't been able to find a hint of Christianity in the "public eye".
The band's Wikipedia page makes no mention of the band being Christian and only states that some of their songs have gotten airplay on Christian radio. The band's website, which I'm sure has thousands of visitors each day, is void of any mention of Christianity. Don't they want the lost to be saved? Where's the actual connection between reaching your secular fan base and linking them with Christ? I don't see it.
In the Marine Corps we used to have a saying, "If you were accused of being a Marine, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" It seems like "The Fray" wants to have one foot in the world and one foot in Christianity. It doesn't work that way and their lyrics display the confusion that mentality brings.
I'm not saying that the band members are not Christians, I'm simply saying not to call their music "Christian" because it's clearly not and they clearly don't want it to be. Let's pray that "The Fray" comes out of the "spiritual closet" and sings music that glorifies God and clearly points people to Christ.
Sources:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/interviews/2006/thefray-0706.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fray
http://thefray.net/
