The Greasy Equivocations of Bands of Christians Who Don’t Want to Be Called Christian Bands

A couple years ago I ran across the music video for “I’m So Sick” by Flyleaf and immediately downloaded their first, self-titled album. I liked the heavy sound, dark lyrics and heartfelt vocals. Later, I began to enjoy the band less and less as the Christian message in the lyrics became clearer.

When asked whether they are a Christian band, they refuse to commit. Lead vocalist Lacey Sturm said in an interview with Atlantic City Weekly:

“Well, you know what? I don’t know what you mean by a ‘Christian rock band.’ It’s hard to say that because people all have a different definition of what that means. If it means that we’re Christians, then yeah, we’re Christians, but if a plumber’s a Christian, does that make him a ‘Christian plumber?’ I mean we’re not playing for Christians. We’re just playing honestly and that’s going to come out.”

As I Lay Dying vocalist Tim Lambesis says practically the same thing in his band’s FAQ on their website:

“I’m not sure what the difference is between five Christians playing in a band and a Christian band. If you truly believe something, then it should affect every area of your life. All five of us are Christians.”

I always find such comments to be greasy. We are given to believe that the question revolves around subtle but unimportant plays of meaning, but I suspect that these bands attempt to evade classification as Christian bands largely for unflattering reasons they don’t want to admit, perhaps even to themselves: fear of coming across uncool to the broader rock-and-roll community and its love of sacrilege and anarchy, of limiting sales to the sort of devout Christians who pick up Petra CDs at the local Christian bookstore, and of having to reveal their half-covert agenda of spreading what they consider to be the Good News, but which others view as less inspirational given its message of Original Sin and eternal damnation.

I’m not sure which is worse, a band of Christians that doesn’t want to call itself a Christian band, or a Christian band that abandons their cause and simply goes secular, all the while claiming they’re still a band of Christians. They’re both composed of Christians but obfuscate their status and have an irrepressible hankering for worldly rewards, especially mammon.

Of course, some bands can have Christian members and sing about faith but do it with a questing and questioning heart, that is, the heart of fully thinking and feeling human beings. U2’s lyrics frequently draw upon Christian themes, but they are as likely to praise as question what they consider to be the works of a divinity, sometimes in a manner of expression likely to be upsetting to church-goers. Take the verses from “Wake Up Dead Man”:

Jesus, Jesus help me
I'm alone in this world
And a fucked up world it is too
Tell me, tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it's all gonna be

Jesus, I'm waiting here boss
I know you're looking out for us
But maybe your hands aren't free
Your father, He made the world in seven
He's in charge of heaven
Will you put in a word for me

Jesus, were you just around the corner
Did You think to try and warn her
Or are you working on something new
If there's an order in all of this disorder
Is it like a tape recorder
Can we rewind it just once more

But many of the lyrics on Flyleaf’s Memento Mori seem lifted straight out of the types of songs I used to play at church on Sunday morning or at Christian retreats when I was into those things. Take the chorus to “Beautiful Bride”:

Beautiful bride

Body of Christ

One flesh abiding

Strong and unifying

Fighting ends in forgiveness

Unite and fight all division

Beautiful bride

And from “Swept Away”:

Time for surrender

Spread out your open hands

And He will raise you up

Confessing all that's broken

And watch the healing come

Spread out your open hands

Admit you've held them shut

Be swept away by this

To answer the equivocating frontpersons’ question, the difference between a band of Christians and a Christian band is that one displays free-ranging skepticism, the other focused devotion. I would feel much better about bands like Flyleaf and As I Lay Dying if their music came across less like the latter and more like the former--and if they were less deceptive about their motives.