"Christian" doesn't make it good.

This is the last post about music for awhile, I promise.

What about music from so-called "Christian" artists? A lot of people assume that if something is labeled Christian, it's acceptable. Plenty of artists seem to think the same thing, pumping the name of Jesus into every song regardless of whether it belongs there.

The fact is, a lot of what passes for Christian is often just as damaging (and, in some cases, more so) as its secular counterparts. Audio Adrenaline (who purvey bad music in addition to bad lyrics) have a song familiar to many called Big House, comparing Heaven (i.e., God's holy and eternal presence) to a place with lots of food and room for football games. This is clearly pernicious art, and should be abandoned by anyone professing the name of Christ.

There are far too many songs like this. Without assuming motive (it's easy to do; a band can pretty much assume an audience for themselves if they append the moniker "Christian" to themselves and their music), we as Christians cannot let this kind of thing stand as Christian art.

To be sure, if there were good music attached to poor lyrics in these songs, they'd still be bad songs in virtue of the lyrics; the fact that the music is so often bad simply adds insult to injury. And I'm not saying there's no good Christian music—far from it. Bands like Gungor and Cush manage to combine insightful, biblical lyrics and very good music that is both accessible and Christ-honoring.

What I am saying is that if a band that claims to be Christian churns out bad music and bad lyrics, we should have the guts to distance ourselves from them. There is nothing honorable in accepting everyone who claims to come in the name of Christ as our brothers and sisters, and there is nothing honorable in letting bad art or bad theology off the hook because it's "Christian."

There's too much good art that is also Christian for us to have to settle for that which is neither good art nor truly Christian. We aren't displaying solidarity by listening to everything "Christian radio" has to offer, just as the early Church wouldn't have been displaying solidarity had they accepted the claims of a heretic like Arius or Nestorius. We aren't doing ourselves or anyone else a bit of good by blindly accepting whatever purports to be Christian; in fact, by doing so we're creating a great deal of harm.