Fallacies of philosophical thought.--part 3

Yesterday we discussed the faulty notion that music can philosophically serve as a religion.  Today we will consider the faulty notion that the way to deal with the whole of music (i.e. both sacred and secular) is to ignore half of it.  These Christians seem to believe that if we ignore secular music it will go away.  So they stick their philosophical necks in the sand and like good ostriches they can’t see it or hear it on MTV, in live concert performances , or hear it on recordings.  Now this philosophy is simple isn’t it?  Yes it is – too simple.  It is a fact that while adults have their heads in the sand they really don’t have to deal with it. However ignoring secular music completely is never the correct Praxis.

 However, much to their chagrin, when they come up for food and water, they can’t help but notice their offspring dancing, and musicing to the beat of this music that doesn’t exist.  Why doesn’t this music exist?  It doesn’t exist because they chose to believe that it doesn’t affect  their family.Christian school , Christian college or church . 

 While they were refusing to deal with secular music philosophically, their children have purchased a whole stack of this stuff.  The reason we know that secular music really exists is because their children are deeply involved with it.  Since these parents  and Christian music educators have had their head in the sand, they have no lucid defense for or against secular music. They have never set logical, sane guidelines for the inclusion or exclusion of secular music.  So, they take the easy way out.  Their solution is to get rid of all secular music
            Now we have a bona fide musical generation gap on our hands. The children rebel and at this point, a series of yelling matches will probably take place.  Why?  Because the parents have not developed a lucid music philosophy that covers the whole of music.  (See Chapter 13 of my book, Church Music Matters).