B.C. Bands

I'm in a conundrum -

Lots of great Christian bands and artists had previous lives and many had "Before Christianity" Bands they were in. As a music lover, I've collected several Christian albums over the years, and as a result of liking certain bands, ended up getting albums by bands they were in before they were Christians. (an example is Mylon Lefevre, I now have all of his works Pre-Christian and Post-Christian). I obviously draw the line with the likes of Dave Mustaine as some B.C. works are too antiChristian to bother with.

Then there's the opposite side of the coin, great Christian bands whose singer is now in a secular band (having not left the faith, but is just doing their own thing - ie The Holidays singer "Mini" has done excellent clean work with a secular band Glimmer Stars).

What's your take on this ? I'd love to hear other thoughts and how you feel about this issue....

Since you and I (as are some others here) are pretty much "Christian only" music types I will give you my personal take on it. This by no means is to indicate that I hold anybody else to this standard at all.

1. Pre Christian music, from currently Christian artists.... I pretty much stay away from this, unless the lyrics are very clean. I can't think of a single album I have that fits this description.

2. Christian albums by musicians that are no longer "Christian" (or claim to not be Christians, etc). Here is one of those cases where I wouldn't have any problem listening to music performed by a "former" Christian. If the music was "good enough" before, it should be "good enough" now. It is the musician who changed, not the music.

3. Secular music from Christians. Rob Rock immediately comes to mind. He has worked on several "secular" projects. And as long as the lyrics do not stray from what I comfortable with I have little to no problem listening to the music.

(as a disclaimer probably close to 20% of the music I own is secular, so technically I guess I couldn't claim to be "Christian only" in the music department now).

Yep... that's about how I feel

I'm a bit stricter. If the lyrics aren't Christian in some way, I don't listen. The exception is if I'm somewhere that music is playing (eg, mall or in a movie) that I can't control. I'll even sing along to some songs I used to listen to. Sure, God can lift me up with a secular song as well, but this just makes it simple.

topshot rhit wrote:

I'm a bit stricter. If the lyrics aren't Christian in some way, I don't listen. The exception is if I'm somewhere that music is playing (eg, mall or in a movie) that I can't control. I'll even sing along to some songs I used to listen to. Sure, God can lift me up with a secular song as well, but this just makes it simple.

That's pretty much the same policy as me. I don't condemn non-Christian music or anything, it just makes it a lot easier to keep my mind clean (from music at least. Television and movies are a bit trickier).

We don't watch TV (we dropped cable years ago) and we rarely go out to movies (especially now that AMC bought out Kerasotes), so we have pretty decent control over that, too.

Off the subject with tv for a sec...
I'll tell ya what, the closest I've ever been in my relationship with our Father was the 2 years I had NO tv at all.

That doesn't mean I couldn't be as close or closer today even with that tv running all the time (my son and wife have their shows they love), but it's sad how much time is wasted in front of moving pictures.

As far as B.C. bands go, I don't go back and get secular stuff even if the singer or artist did come into the Christian fold later on.

If the artist loses their faith and keeps making music, I just don't follow them. It's just not what I want to hear. However, their previous works with the Christian worldview or message still is worthy of my time.