Sermons
Country Music Christianity
Country Music Christianity
I. Introduction
This will be a little different from my normal sermons. We’re going to turn to 102.1 and talk a little about country music.
I was not a fan of country music growing up. There were a few crossover exceptions, a hit or two by Alabama, Garth Brooks, Reba, and Travis Tritt. And when I rode with Grindaddy in his pickup, the AM radio was usually playing George Jones or Willie, but I didn’t really understand why he liked it.
But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to enjoy country music quite a bit. In part, it was a conscious decision to turn the channel when our kids were young. The pop music was so trashy. I guess it has been for a long time, but we found ourselves more and more aware as we had little ears in the car. Switching to WDRM seemed like an improvement.
Country music, after all, is about good ol’ country people and country living. Dirt roads, tractors, family, and even some gospel mixed in.
But the more I’ve listened, the more I’ve picked up on a more subtle danger from the overall message of country music. You see, rock and roll and rap don’t make any pretenses about being godly. The “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” scene is as obviously worldly as it gets. Well, except maybe for the typical rap and hip hop emphasis on riches and clubs and much worse. Most of those songs are so explicit that only a heavily edited version can be played on the airways. There are exceptions to all these things, but as a general rule, nobody looks to rock or pop stars as examples of what the Christian life looks like.
Country, on the other hand, does pay lip service to the faith of its fan base. Many of the biggest country stars have had hits with familiar religious songs:
Hank Williams: “I saw the light”
Alan Jackson: “What a friend we have in Jesus”
Carrie Underwood: “How great Thou art” and original songs like “Something in the water.”
Keith Urban sings: “I learned everything I need to know from John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16”
Now, I don’t know much about the spiritual lives of these singers. I would guess that many of them grew up in religious homes and have that in their roots, and some may continue to have a strong faith. If we take a more cynical perspective, they may just be recording songs that they know will sell and be popular with their audience. After all, they are performers.
Many of them present a very mixed message, though. One minute Carrie Underwood is singing “Jesus take the wheel,” and the next it’s “I don’t even know his last name, my momma would be so ashamed.”
And then there’s well-known singers like George Jones, who was famous for being an alcoholic, had a hit with “If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)” and also “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.” And Willie Nelson, who is almost synonymous with marijuana, had an early hit with “Whiskey River” but also recorded lots of gospel songs like “Unclouded Day.”
So what we have in the world of country music, is something of an identity crisis. The music celebrates some aspects of worldly living while trying to also hold on to its Christian roots. This internal conflict is expressed very well in Trace Adkins’ song, “Jesus and Jones”:
I’m the last one standing’ every Saturday night
All the rights feel long, wrongs feel right
But every Sunday morning I see the light again
…
I need to find a little middle ground
Between let her rip and settling down
But I go from dry to drowned, lost to found
Stone cold sober to just plain stoned
Trying to live like my heroes did
Is the hardest kind of livin’ there is
Been a tug o’ war since I was a kid between Jesus and Jones.
I Wish I could find a gear between
“White Lightning” and John 3:16
At least the song acknowledges that these two are incompatible. The sad thing about all this is that it is an accurate reflection of many so-called Christians today. The reason these songs are popular, I would suggest, is because a lot of people relate to them. The picture of pickup trucks, dirt roads, drinking and partying on the weekend and then going to church on Sunday probably fits Lincoln County pretty well.
And maybe we see that all around us, and we hear it in these songs, and we are lulled into thinking it’s okay. That this country music version of Christianity is acceptable. But let’s look at what the Bible says about it.
We’ll take three themes from country songs and look at what the Scriptures say about them. I’m sure you know already that we’ll find that Jesus and Jones can’t both have their way.
II. Alcohol
Country music has a drinking problem. Good grief, it seems to me like it’s in every song. One article I read said “booze has been a part of the music’s fabric since the genre got off the ground in the 1920s” and “we could spend days compiling a long list of [country] drinking songs.”
Even Carrie Underwood’s sings about waking up not knowing her last name and says, “blame it on the Cuervo.” And her recent hit, “Smoke Break,” says “I don’t drink, but sometimes I need a stiff drink, Sipping from a high, full glass, Let the world fade away.”
And notice that what is consistently described is drunkenness. The kind where you don’t remember what you did the night before. The kind of drinking Garth sang about “where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases my blues away.”
Alan Jackson, who sang “How Great Thou Art,” also sang about the Chattahoochee: “Down by the river on a Friday night, A pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight.”
The picture that country music paints is of a Christianity that gets drunk on Friday and worships on Sunday. But what does the Bible say?
1 Cor. 6:9-10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Drunkenness is also listed among the works of the flesh:
Gal. 5:21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Both of these passages make it crystal clear that those who do these things, including drunkenness, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Period. You can’t have it both ways.
And Peter paints an even clearer picture of the drinking scene:
1 Pet 4:1-4 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you
This paints a picture that includes drunkenness, but also includes “drinking parties.” That’s translated “banqueting” in the KJV. From what I understand, the original word simple means “a drinking”, and refers to people getting together to drink.
Sometimes people say, “well, I’ll go to this party, or this bonfire, or whatever, and I’ll may have a little, but I’ll be careful.” Peter clearly describes this partying scene and says that is part of the worldly life you leave behind when you become a Christian. If people are getting together for a drinking party, we don’t have any business being there.
Hank Williams, Jr. has a song titled “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound.” That makes the point about drunkenness pretty clear.
III. Immorality
Along with the drinking, there’s plenty of references in country music to sexual immorality. Now, on this point, I have to say that country in general is better than other genres in a couple of ways. For one, the idea of marriage and family is honored in many country songs.
Of course, there’s probably twice as many along the lines of Hank Williams “your cheatin’ heart.” Something about broken hearts and country music seem to go hand in hand. But at least those songs don’t portray the cheater in a positive light.
Garth Brooks sums up country’s view of infidelity: Papa loved Mama, Mama loved men, Mama’s in the graveyard, Papa’s in the pen.
But one thing that country music does not frown on is the idea sexual immorality. In fact, it’s presented in many songs as a normal part of growing up and country life.
For one example, back to Alan Jackson’s Chattahoochee, the second verse says “Well we fogged up the windows in my old Chevy, I was willing but she wasn’t ready.” And a current hit by Thomas Rhett says, “you sure look good in my t-shirt.”
Now at least country music is not explicit, as some other genres tend to be. But the implication is clear. Sexual behavior outside of marriage seems to be the norm.
Of course, we know what the Bible says about this:
1 Thes. 4:2-4 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God
The Christian life is about sanctification, holiness, and honor. The passion of lust pulls us away from holiness and God.
1 Pet. 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
And especially for the young people here, consider that when give into sexual temptation, you are not only sinning against God and against your flesh, but you are involving someone else as well. You being strong can help someone else be strong and behave honorably. On the other hand, you giving in can cause someone else to give in.
Sometimes people feel like they love this other person so much, it must be right. That’s the feeling, the fleshly desire. But how can it be right if it pulls you away from God? And of course, if it is outside of marriage, it only leads to guilt, regret, and a host of other possible consequences.
And to tie this in with the previous point, certain things go hand in hand. The partying, drinking lifestyle of the world almost always involves sexual immorality. Peter lists these together: “sensuality, passions, drunkenness” as the way of the Gentiles. And they often go together in party-type songs.
In Jason Aldean’s “My Kind of Party,” he sings about the tailgate scene that is so popular today. “And then after while we’ll sneak away from the bonfire. Walk by the moonlight and down to the riverside. Gotcha sippin’ on some moonshine. Baby, if you’re in the mood and you can settle for a one night rodeo.”
I feel confident you can find that exact scene around here somewhere every weekend. It’s not the place for Christians.
IV. Language
Have you seen this shirt? “I love Jesus but I cuss a little.” The picture has been shared by Facebook friends. And country music paints the same picture. As the Florida Georgia Line song “This Is How We Roll” puts it: “Yeah, we cuss on them Mondays, And pray on them Sundays.”
But we know better, right?
Jam. 3:8-12 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of mouths that pray on Sunday and cuss on Monday. But “my brothers, these things ought not to be so.” Jesus gives a frightening warning:
Matt. 12:33-37 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
The Country Music Christianity says a little cussing in normal. Jesus says you better decide who you are, because what comes out of your mouth is a reflection of what’s in your heart. And we will answer for our words one day.
And speaking of what’s in our hearts, let me make one last point. One way that things get into our hearts is through the music we listen to. Songs get stuck in our heads. I remember words to songs I heard as a kid. They’re still there. You can decide to stop listening to a bad song, but the lyrics may stay with you.
So we need to be careful what we pipe into our hearts. Maybe someone would choose to turn off the radio altogether. We try to monitor what’s on and turn the station as needed. If Sarah has her way, the radio usually stays off.
V. Conclusion
Whatever we decide as listening entertainment goes, we need to be aware of the ideas and messages that the music is communicating, especially those that are false. Country music tries to straddle the fence by appealing to Christian values and themes while at the same time celebrating the party life of the world.
Unfortunately, many people around us seem to have bought into this country version of Christianity, loving Jesus and cussing a little, getting drunk on Saturday and going to church on Sunday. But the Lord demands better from us. We are called to lives of holiness and godliness.
When it comes to mixing together Christianity and worldliness, Paul says:
2 Cor. 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
2 Cor. 6:17-18 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
INVITATION
