I was working on the new book, specifically the chapter for Kris Klingensmith (drummer and lyricist for Barnabas) this morning, when I had to stop for a moment, gaze out the window of the commuter train, and compose myself. I wasn’t crying or anything like that. Rather, I had to calm down.
After all these years, I’m still angry.
I’m angry at the way the Christian music industry used and abused these artists. I’m angry at the way it’s pushed them to the side as if they never existed. But above even these, I’m angry at the ministerial opportunities that were lost because so many who held positions of power were either unable or unwilling to wrap their little heads around the truth.
The truth was, and is, your personal opinion has nothing to do with the validity of any given ministry. It’s doesn’t matter whether you like a given style of music. Or understand it. Or for the life of you figure out how God could possibly use it and/or the people presenting it to bring people to Him. It absolutely does not matter. Why?
The Spirit is not subject to your definition of what or who it can work through. It is not bound by your frame of reference. Your tastes are meaningless. Your opinions are dust. The Spirit is not bound by you.
Lives were changed by these artists, changed in ways that reverberate through those touched even today. Souls were saved. There is no denying the hand of God worked, and to this day is working, through the ministry and lives of these people who to a one sacrificed greatly for the sake of what they believed. Yet even with all this, how many more could have been reached had their music been played on the radio. Or had they been allowed to play more concerts by people booking them. These things didn’t happen. Why? Because of those who recoiled in horror at what they saw as too loud, too fast, too much hair, and on and on. Their entrapment in cultural bigotry and fear of what was not their own mirror image kept the music unheard.
And that’s why I’m still angry.
Hopefully in some small way the book will redress these egregious mistakes. You can’t go back; you can’t undo what has been done and do what should have been done but wasn’t. However, our God is a mighty God. He can and will speak to those who should have been spoken to twenty years ago.
If we let Him.
And since the music’s still out there, waiting to be shared…
# 11/8/2007 12:04 PM Mike Marshall wrote:
It’s okay to be angry……..but what is past is past. Nothing to do but pray for the ignorant to be enlightened. Peace, Mike.
# 11/9/2007 4:28 PM Dawn Wisner-Johnson wrote:
Thank you my friend.
And Mike, yes it is okay to be angry. In fact, it is necessary to be angry. We can and should use the past to learn and not let those mistakes and wrongs continue. The sorry part is that most people just want to let the past be the past. If we do that, we are doing a diservice to those who are coming up in the industry. The stories are necessary so that others will know what to avoid and how to go forward and not make those same mistakes. If we do not attempt to expose the wrongs, those wrongs will only continue. Prayer is good, but action is also necessary, in fact, I believe action is required by God once we have knowledge of wrongs being committed.
Jerry, Beth and I have just returned from Nashville – and some of the things I learned there on this trip also made me angry. They made me want to cry as well. I want to cry because the people I love have been affected. But I also feel those emotions because I know that God’s work is being stifled by those who are selfishly taking the gifts and talents that have been given to God’s servants and exploiting them as well as discarding them.
I’m going to pray for the ignorant, but I am also going to take action. One, two or three CAN make a difference. So, brother, we are joining with you in this cause. Thanks for caring enough to spend your time and effort in so many ways.
# 11/11/2007 7:39 AM Stephen Shores wrote:
I’m glad to be living in a time where there are more alternate channels for Christian musicians to get the message out without being choked by the record companies. I hope that I can be one of those musicians who can speak the truth in love boldly and without fear.
1. 11/11/2007 12:32 PM Jerry wrote:
In twenty years you get dibs on writing the book’s sequel featuring interviews with the members of Mutemath and contemporaries.
After all, you’ll be in your prime then. I’ll be way too old for that sort of thing! :-/
2. 11/11/2007 12:40 PM Stephen Shores wrote:
If they’re not still too self-important to listen to an old geezer like me. I’ll be fifty. That’s like older than Rome or something.