Should We Keep Silent to Avoid Conflict?

Should We Keep Silent to Avoid Conflict?

Do we have to pander to the tastes of a culture that is not only post- Christian, but also in many cases anti-Christ?  Bob Larson concludes that although the rock culture is deeply anti-Christ we must capitulate to its demands since “taking away rock music removes an emotional security blanket that leaves some teenagers’ lives in a musical vacuum.” (Larson’s Book of Rock, 109)  The Church, Christian school, and Bible college should replace this vacuum caused by the removal of rock music and a myriad of other styles of music  by renewing young people’s minds with music styles that are congruent with the “new song” of the Bible.

            Replacing the anti-Christian negative influences caused by a plethora of styles of music with “new song” is a complicated task but it is necessary if parents and Christian music educators are going to replace these negative influences.  Francis Schaeffer understood the problem when he stated, “It is not possible whether one is the teller with his music or with his voice, whether one plays an instrument or speaks out behind a pulpit, whether one writes a book or paints a picture, to think that no one can give the Christian message and not have the world with its monolithic, post-Christian culture bear down on us is not to understand the fierceness of the battle as in such a day as Jeremiah’s or such a day as our own.” (Schaeffer, Death in the City, pp 60-61)