Musical Evil by FounderChurch
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mpanion article simply called Music by FounderChurch that goes into more of this. Look, no one is daring to touch a hair on the head of the music monster, so I dare to take it on. Every
Musical Evil by FounderChurc
Knee jerk defenders of music, especially Christians are quick to say, “What about Psalms 95, 100, and, heck, all the psalms? Each one of them WAS a song.”
Yeah, BUT, those were God's songs, not man's, and FC didn't say that there was no "Good" Music, only that good music was not all that common.
And the fact that music, being a spiritual thing, like art and other spiritual things, is especially subject to demonic influence and an easy take-over. Especially, as Satan is not a physical being as best we can tell, but rather more “a spirit and principality of the air,” as the Bible describes him.
The devil hopes to get at humans through spiritual channels, and therefore it is needful to be most watchful of what occurs in those mediums, as we constantly point out, particularly in an article called Music.
Look, no one is daring to touch a hair on the head of the Music Monster, so that is just the sort of thing we like to take on. Everyful of what occurs in those mediums. See my companion article simply called Music by FC tht goes into more of this. Look no one is daring to tak it on. Everything else getes especially the military, but music is placed beyond any criticism other than the chit chate over musical preferences which is all softball stuff. I take on the very concept of music as a potential dangerwhen misused Art is not speech and doesn’t qualify for the protections of the First Amendment.
Music Bears Discussing and Considering Critically
Music is sound, pure and simple, and, strikingly, very unlike speech. It is specifically inarticulate sound, which by definition is borderline noise. Thus it can reasonably be looked on, at least in part, as an antithesis of actual speech or words. It is an intriguing question to ask, is music the enemy of words?
Certainly music bears watching as unlike speech, it is difficult, or next to impossible to censor, either by the individual, or by any authority. Humanity, over time, has spent incredible amounts of resources and effort separating good speech from bad speech, and a vast network of laws codifies much of that structure. But relatively little has comparably been done regarding music.
Examples abound of attempts to regulate speech from, “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater,” to obscenity, libel and so on. We limit speech in many way, but music escapes all this oversight, partly because of the obtuse opaque medium that it utilizes, which is masses of pure sound largely absent words or graphics.
Music has had little critical attention from the non-musical world, particularly in recent times, as it is claimed by the politically correct crowd that it is inappropriate for music to be scrutinized from a non-musical perspective, consequently, there are virtually no laws of any sort regulating its practice today. Because of this sheltered refuge, (largely created by a gross misinterpretation of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, that “art” is speech and hence protected by the the free speech clause. Music is NOT speech. ) music has become this good fertile ground for those promoting of malevolence and ill-will in order to tear down our nation, our culture, our families, our religion and so forth.
This is exemplified by music now becoming the weapon of choice of all sorts of revolutionaries bent on overthrowing what is good and great in America. It has become a revolutionary weapon of terror for the Left. Anyone who wants to undermine and tear a church apart will usually find a comfortable and convenient niche in the “music” ministry of that church.
Because it is virtually unregulated at any level, in any way, it has become rampant in society, backed by the usual suspect defenders, who say, among other things, that music must be criticized only in terms of musicality, and by and within the art form itself and, conspicuously not by any non-musical institutions, or non-musical academic disciplines, never mind families and churches. In other words it is only to judge itself and have an immunity from all other sectors of society.
Art is NOT speech in terms of the Constitution, nor is obscenity, pornography, flag burning or begging, all of which have now been christened by the “Supreme” Court as being “speech” protected by the 1st Amendment.
The Left says, music can only be interpreted, defined and critically looked at within itself, by itself and by its practitioners. This is like murderers sitting on a jury hearing their murder cases.
Reality check: No other human activity is allowed the right to exclusively interpret and evaluate its own self. By any reasonable standard, the rest of society has a right, and duty, to independently criticize and judge music generally, and in particular, with regard to its effects on the rest of society, including the individuals that compose that society, especially the children and youth.
It is not society or the church that must prove music to be harmful, (though that case can be made,) but rather music and its practitioners that are obligated to prove it is safe in each and every given application.
Yes, some music, sometimes, in relation to some people, can and does have some good effects, for there is no poison on earth that properly and carefully regulated and used does not have useful and productive applications.
This is not about whether music can, or should, exist, but rather that society and others that compose society can, and should, have the right of oversight to the same degree as it does over all other human activity.
For example, take the genre of music labelled as, so-called, Christian Rock. This “music” claims to present a positive image of Christianity, yet nothing could be farther from the truth when you critically listen to it. In defense Christian Rock promoters will quickly point to many of the lyrics that are taken directly from the Bible as defense and proof of their good intentions.
But the fact is, these lyrics are just isolated strings of words taken out of context in such a way that they convey little or nothing accurately from, or about, the Bible, and even if they did, it is patent that the “lyrics,” as sung, are unintelligible for the most part to most people, as they are intentionally slurred and obfuscated in their delivery.
What remains is the tonality of the “music” itself, which absent the un-understandable lyrics, sends a chilling messages that calls forth mental images of violence, hate, rebellion and anger, hardly suitable emotions for the sincere conveying of God’s word.
Bottom line: music must be watched and judged even more closely than speech if we are to safe-guard our families, loved ones, friends and neighbors both within, and without, the church.
Humans are addictive creatures by nature, and we know there can be good addictions and bad addictions. Music has, all too often, become a bad addiction, devastating individuals, families and communities. The young are especially vulnerable to the addictive drug of music, just as they are to most bad addictions.
This problem of unbridled music needs careful study. And when you look at the effect of music on the actual lives of people it becomes hard to find cases where lives are improved over the long haul, by any sort of music, much less the more clearly negative sort of stuff that passes for music today. Meanwhile, there is clear evidence of tens and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of persons, especially young persons, whose lives have been substantially damaged and degraded by modern music.
As soon as some young person takes up music we brace ourselves for the inevitable fall of this child into crime, alcohol, disease, drugs and sexual promiscuity. Rebellion against parents and other authority is standard products enabled and encouraged by music in this scenario.
In practice, music should be added to the growing list of modern plagues that increasingly afflict our crumbling societies, along with the growing catalogue of drugs, increasing alcohol use and abuse, epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, the collapsing institution of marriage, political corruption and cynicism, crime in general and sexual crime in particular including crimes against children (of which birth control is the most deadly and prevalent cause of children dying) and the list goes on.
Music, specifically modern music, is not some innocent bystander to all this spiral of tragic chaos, pain and destruction on a vast scale heretofore unimagined, it is an active participant and primary instigator in all this, and therefore must be be forced to shoulder its proper share of the blame for these horrifying results.
NOTE: Music can be a powerful force for REINFORCING Good, but it is not able to CREATE or DESTROY Good all by itself. In that sense music is like all other forms of art, which reinforce, support, or tear down good or bad parts of us, but are not determinative all by themselves.
Nor are health, education, money, or anything else taken by themselves, determinative. The only two determinative factors in our makeup are our relationship with God, and our biological reproductivity represented by the numbers of our children.
Thus God and Country are the only two conclusive determinates in our lives that stand alone, beaten and battered maybe, but essentially alone. In other words, our "life" here on earth and our "life" in the hereafter is “life” itself. All else is supportive or reductive of those two essential basics.
All else are but bit players in a cast that has only two real stars, God and Children. These two are all that really matter. Everything else is optional. Children are fundamentally a synonym for Country. That is why the nation is called the Fatherland and/or the Motherland.
Another Interesting NOTE: The Christian Church forbade any music to be played or even sang in the Church for many centuries. This stricture slowly eroded over hundreds of years, first by allowing only voice chants within a very narrow octave range (Gregorian Chants,) then by allowing a wider range as time went on, and finally grudgingly adding organs, but NOT any other instruments. This finally became piano only and the singing of simple hymns in the Churches of our founding and growth as a nation.
Only very, very recently has wild unfettered music and instruments of every description been allowed in our Churches and the result is catastrophic.
Comment: What about Psalms 95, 100, and, heck, all the psalms. Was not each one of them a song?
Answer: Yes, BUT, those were God's songs, not man's, and FC didn't say that there was not "Good" Music in the world, but only that it was not all that common, and that music being a spiritual thing, like art, and other spiritual things, is especially subject to demonic influence and take-over inasmuch as Satan is not a physical being as best as we can tell, but rather a spirit and principality of the air.
The devil loves to get at humans through spiritual channels, and therefore it is precisely in those areas and mediums that we need to be most watchful of what occurs.
For more information, see our companion article simply called Music by FounderChurch that goes into more of this. Look, no one is daring to touch a hair on the head of the sacred music monster, so FC dares to take it on. Everything else gets heavy scrutiny, especially the military, but music is placed beyond criticism’s reach, other than idle chit chat over musical preferences, which is all softball stuff.
FC takes on the very concept of music as a potential danger when misused. Art in general is not sacrosanct, nor is it speech and thus doesn't qualify for the protections of the First Amendment that it wrongly arrogates unto itself. FC
What about Psalms 95, 100, and, heck, all the psalms? Each one of them WAS a so
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