Anyone raised in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement knows that what kind of music a person listened to was very important. Listening to the wrong music could have catastrophic consequences.  Rock music, country music, pop music all fell under the label of secular music and were verboten.

Christian music also fell under strict scrutiny. Christian rock, Christian contemporary music, and some praise and worship music were considered either gateways to the Satanic secular music or shallow, syrupy music that sold-out Christians would NEVER listen to.

IFB pastors rail against the music of the world. Youth directors teach teenagers why listening to popular music or contemporary Christian music is harmful to their spiritual life.  Church members are reminded of the power music has, especially music that has a beat. And those lyrics. All they talk about is sex, drugs, partying, and living the good life. (and we certainly can’t have any of that)

The beat. This is the one part of music that drives many IFB pastors crazy. I remember giving a pastor friend of mine a CD by the Cathedral Quartet. He gave it back to me because it had too much beat. He said, if music makes you want to tap your foot, it is worldly and appeals to the flesh. I told this same pastor friend that Polly and I liked listening to The Carpenters during our love-making. (the only secular CD we owned) He was shocked by my worldliness. He and his wife played hymns when they made love. Imagine, Victory in Jesus  as you orgasm. (read this article I found to understand this. Ten Scriptural Reasons Why the Rock Bear is EVIL in any Form)

Polly and I grew up, for the most part, without listening to any form of secular music. We came of age in the latest 1960’s and early 1970’s, yet listening to the classic rock music of this era was forbidden. The only time we heard rock music was when we were in our car or with our friends. (one pastor I know took the radios out of all of his children’s cars to keep them from listening to rock music.)

The latter part of the 1990’s were a time of great change in our home. As Polly and I entered our 40’s we began to see that many of the taboos we had were crazy. We were still quite conservative, but the periphery of our conservative life began to slowly fall away.

The first thing we did was buy a TV. (and sold and bought and sold TV’s for a few more years until we decided sin or not, we were having a TV) We went to a drive-n theater to see George of the Jungle and Air Bud, the first movie our children ever went to.   In 2003, my wife, with much encouragement from me, bought her first pair of pants. She was 45 years old. (I think she thought God was going to get her for putting on britches)

I remember the day we bought our first contemporary Christian CD. We bought a  Keith Green CD and then we bought a Steve Camp CD. We actually feared that God was going to strike us dead for listening  to wrong kind of music. But, we overcame our fear of judgment, played the cd’s, and lived to tell about it.

The floodgates opened for us, music-wise. We began listening to whatever we wanted to listen to.  In the last two churches I pastored, we used a blended mix of hymns and praise and worship music. Our oldest three sons took up playing guitar and played in the band at one church.

Fundamentalist family were appalled at how “worldly” we were becoming. I even stopped wearing a uniform (a suit) to church. One family member told me I was causing church embers to look down on God because I dressed so casually. (personally, I think the man who invented the tie is in hell for inventing such an awful clothing accessory)

For the past ten years, Polly and I, to some degree, have been living our teenage years for the first time. We love almost every genre of music. I am not a fan of classical music or rap and Polly HATES southern gospel music. We infrequently listen to contemporary Christian music Our favorite music is classic rock. If we had to pick ONE artist we both love it would be Matt Nathanson. (we both have been two rock concerts in our life, Collective Soul and Matt Nathanson, both in the last five years)

We even bought a lava lamp…40 years late…but hey, better late than never. Now if we can just get some marijuana. 

For those of you raised in the IFB or other conservative religious sects, how have you distanced yourself as an adult from your upbringing? Do you still struggle with thinking some things are “worldly?”

Note: Does this post sound crazy to you? It should, because it is. However, when you are in the IFB bubble this all makes sense. Only when you have escaped it do you say…I believed some bat-shirt crazy stuff.

For further investigation:

Satan’s Music
Rock and Roll, Satanism, and our Children
Religious Rock, The Music of Devils in Church
Rock Music, the Devil’s Advocate

Here’s a video about the evils of Rock Music from the 1980’s (this is part one) ENJOY!!

Video Link

parts 2-6 of video