CCM: MIXED MESSAGES IN THE MUSIC
PART 1
9-05-04
If you are like me, you love music. Before I was a Christian, I wanted to be a music performer: more accurately a "Rock n' Roll" star. Like other kids my age, I was influenced by all the groups and performers of the time: Kiss, AC/DC, the Beatles, the Who, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the list goes on and on. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior in 1986 and began to rethink some of my music choices. By 1988, I had fully discovered Contemporary Christian Music better known today as simply CCM.
The artists I listened to at that time were Amy Grant, Rich Mullins, Petra, Carman, Michael W. Smith, Sheila Walsh, Kim Boyce and others along that line. Accepting Christ left me with a crucial decision regarding music. I knew the lyrical content of the secular music I was listening to wasn't glorifying God. On the contrary, most of these performers were propagating lifestyles and views that were totally opposed to Jesus and outright blasphemy. The CCM performers, on the other hand, seemed to be more interested in promoting Jesus rather than opposing him.
There have been countless books and articles written about CCM and I am not going to go and review the history of the movement but will get to the point for time's sake (see my in-depth article on the website about POD and their compromise). At best, CCM is a mixed blessing. At worst, CCM is sending us mixed messages and making it easy for professing Christians, especially our youth, to compromise. All this can be found in the music as well as by the lifestyle of many of the CCM performers. In the "old days" of CCM, most performers were professing to have a "music ministry." Now, more and more performers are making excuses for their compromising lifestyles and music and are distancing themselves from ministry.
CCM is a very ecumenical industry with all branches of professing Christianity accepted under one big umbrella, no matter what the doctrines and beliefs are. CCM was started largely in Evangelical Protestant circles but now it is common to see CCM performers such as DC Talk, Michael W. Smith, Newsboys and many others playing at Catholic events like when the Pope came to America in the late 1990s. There are also many Catholic performers under the CCM umbrella now including Kathy Trocolli, John Michael Talbot, Berlap to Cashmere, Don Francisco, the late Rich Mullins and many more. Under the CCM banner, you'll find a virtual smorgasbord of beliefs, doctrines and practices. Many of which have nothing to do with Biblical Christianity.
In part two of this report, I'll discuss how CCM went from being a tool for Christian youth and their unsaved acquaintances to being a multi-million dollar business unequally yoked with secular entertainment and thus creating a most unholy alliance.
Bishop Paul
------------------
CCM: MIXED MESSAGES IN THE MUSIC
PART 2
9-16-04
I had never even heard of CCM until 1985 when I was watching the Grammy Awards as an 18 year old teenager and saw Amy Grant perform "Angels." I remember that performance because, at that time, I was on my spiritual journey and gave my life to Christ about a year later. I remember thinking after seeing Grant's performance that this was a pretty cool idea and I was impressed with the music and the message. Little did I know then, but Amy Grant and the CCM industry at that time were undergoing the changes that led it to form an unholy alliance with secular entertainment.
This was the middle period in CCM. Before DC Talk, before Steven Curtis Chapman, before the Newsboys, before Audio Adrenaline and the like. The big names of this time were Amy Grant, Sandi Patti, Petra, Carman, Stryper, Keith Green and the up and coming Michael W. Smith among others. CCM basically come up out of the "Jesus Movement" among Woodstock era hippies in the late 60s and early 70s. Larry Norman was on the scene in the late 60s. Petra released their 1st album in 1970. Amy Grant had her first album at 16 in 1977. Many of the singers and groups at this time were sincere and really felt that they were providing a music ministry in service of Jesus. Christian record labels were owned by professing Christians and were small and independent companies and distributed their merchandise through Christian bookstores (also mostly independently owned at the time), churches and concerts. But ironically enough, it was Amy Grant's "breakout" performance on the Grammys that catapulted CCM from an evangelical tool for Christian youth and their unsaved acquaintances to a multi billion dollar industry in cahoots with secular entertainment.
After the 1985 Grammys, things really took off for Amy Grant. The following year, after being on the Christian label Myrrh records exclusively since 1977, she was picked up by the secular label A&M records and recorded a single with Chicago lead singer Peter Cetera called "Next Time I Fall In Love." The single did extremely well on the charts and received heavy air play both nationally and internationally. In 1988 She released "Lead Me On" which was released by Myrrh Records to the Christian market and by A&M Records in the secular outlets. I could devote a whole volume to Amy Grant alone as she is the main factor behind the CCM industry doing what it has done, but I'll abbreviate much of what could be written. However, I will bring up certain things needed to understand what has taken place within the industry as she was a catalyst for much of the activity that has taken place since the mid 1980s.
Like Amy Grant, many singers and groups today do the same thing she did nearly 20 years ago. They sign with a so-called Christian label ( I say, so-called, because most of these companies have now merged with secular conglomerates) for marketing to the Christian market, and sign with a secular label for marketing to CD retail outlets and chains like Wal-Mart and other department stores. The Newsboys come to mind. They signed with Star Song in 1988 and, in the early 90s went to Star Song's parent company Sparrow. In 1996 when they released the Take Me To Your Leader CD, they signed with Virgin Records to market their wares to the secular community. A few artists on Virgin Records come to mind like The Rolling Stones, the Spice Girls and Janet Jackson among numerous others.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, most all of the Christian labels have either merged into bigger secular record labels or have been bought by these bigger secular labels. Myrrh Records has been bought by CBS as have Reunion Records (Michael W. Smith's 1st label). Forefront Records (DC Talk, Stacie Orrico) has been obtained by a secular label and has installed one time owner Eddie DeGarmo as the president. DeGarmo used to be one half of the early Christian rock group DeGarmo and Key. He also wrote and produced the blasphemous rock opera "Hero" which depicts Jesus as a black street thug hung between two street signs and totally distorts the Gospel of Christ. He also signed Stacie Orrico to ForeFront marketing her as a "christian" version of Christina Aguilera. Then, turning around, putting her on Virgin Records to be marketed in the secular arena as an MTV queen and diva. All this is accepted, praised and normal behavior within the CCM industry.
In part three of this report, I'll discuss some of the lifestyles of CCM artists and how they differ so very little from their worldly secular counterparts.
Bishop Paul