My partner and I were teenagers in the 1970s — the heyday of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement. Many of the largest churches in the United States were IFB congregations and numerical church growth across the movement was normal and expected. Exciting times, to say the least. People looking for certainty were drawn to IFB churches and their rules. Having been born into and schooled in the IFB church movement, Polly and I were obedient church members. Our morals, ethics, and worldview were shaped by what we heard from our pastors and Sunday school teachers, and later, at Midwestern Baptist College, our professors. While we, at times, chaffed against the rules, conditioning and indoctrination taught us that obedience to the rules was expected by God, and disobedience brought chastisement, punishment, and, at times, death. As a result, we didn’t experience many of the things — good and bad — that “normal” teens did in the 70s.
Take music. We were taught that “worldly” music was sinful; that listening to it would corrupt our minds and lead us to commit all sorts of sinful behaviors — mostly sexual, in nature. Rock music, in particular, was demonized. IFB churches would have preachers such as Bob Larson and David Benoit hold revival services focused on rock music and its influence on teens. These services were used to scare the hell out of teenagers, warning them that listening to rock music would corrupt them and lead to hellfire and brimstone. As a result, we rarely listened to rock music. Oh, we had AM radios in our cars, but the records (and later cassette tapes, 8-track tapes, and CDs) we owned were, without exception, southern gospel or choral music.
After marriage and having children, our approach to music “liberalized.” We added contemporary Christian music and Christian rock to the mix, but still no secular music. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that we started listening to “safe” secular music. Over time, our tastes and desires changed, but it was not until we deconverted in 2008 that we stopped regularly listening to Christian music. I will still occasionally listen to Christian music, but Polly has no interest in revisiting our music pasts.
Think of all the awesome music we missed out on from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. The good news is that post-Jesus we are free to listen to all sorts of secular music. I tell people that, in many ways, Polly and I are living our youthful years for the first time. Free from the IFB church’s oppressive rules, we are free to indulge in the Devil’s music — without guilt or fear.
In recent years, we have started attending secular concerts. Lots of fun, for the both of us. That said, we tend to be the oldest, or some of the oldest, people in attendance. Last Friday, we attended a concert in Fort Wayne by The Fray. We had an awesome time. Packed house, numbering 2,100 in attendance. We were surrounded by people ages 20-40. One thought I had during the concert was that the concert was a lot like a church or revival service. The excitement and raw emotions were palatable, and song after song spoke to our “hearts.” The difference, of course, was that there were no threats of judgment of Hell, no offering plates, no altar calls — just fellowship with people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs.
The opening act was a new band called Verygently. We laughed through their song, Jesus Girl, as only former IFB church members could do.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Got the preacher up front and I’m chilling in back
And I’m bored as hell
In a collared shirt that I got from the Gap
With the shoes as well
It’s been a few years and I feel real weird here
Free sip of wine ’cause they don’t sell beer here
Talking in tongues, I was just about to run
Then well, well, well
[Chorus]
I saw Jesus girl
A tall glass of holy water
Swear she had a halo on her
Jesus girl
With her cross necklace and braids
Holy shit, I think I’m saved
I still don’t believe in God
But I’ll give everything I’ve got
To Jesus girl
[Verse 2]
Now I’m back every Sunday thinking ’bout one day
Asking her out
Still chilling in the back, but I’m learning how to act
Like I’m into it now
I might get baptized just so she’ll see me
Bible verse tat, John 3:16 me
Sending up a prayer if you’re really up there
I’d love to get down
Chorus]
With Jesus girl
A tall glass of holy water
Swear she had a halo on her
Jesus girl
With her cross necklace and braids
Holy shit, I think I’m saved
I still don’t believe in God
But I’ll give everything I’ve got
To Jesus girl
[Bridge]
Na-na-na, na-na
Na-na-na, na-na
Na-na-na, na-na
Na-na-na, na-na (Jesus girl)
Na-na-na, na-na
Na-na-na
[Outro]
Yeah, my whole life turned around
I was lost until I found
Jesus girl
Compare this song to a Christian song also titled Jesus Girl.
She’s just fifteen, but she acts older, much older,
And she won’t listen to what all the kids told her, when they told her,
She knows what they want, but she knows what she needs, and it’s not the same,
She won’t give in, you see.
She’s a Jesus girl, oh yeah, (oh yeah, oh yeah)
Well, she’s a J-J-Jesus girl, (oh yeah, oh yeah)
And she’s a Jesus girl.
She knows what’s right and what’s wrong, she knows what’s wrong,
She reads her Bible and she’s strong, she’s so strong,
She’s telling all her friends that there’s a better way,
No more broken hearts, no lonely nights or days.
And she’s a Jesus girl, yeah, yeah, (oh yeah, oh yeah)
Well, she’s a J-J-J-Jesus girl, (oh yeah, oh yeah)
Well, she’s a Jesus girl.
She jumps and shouts for Jesus, she loves Jesus,
She keeps her eyes on Jesus, on her Jesus,
And when she jumps and shouts, her eyes are on the Lord,
Well, she’s a Christian, yeah, but she’s never bored.
And she’s a Jesus girl, oh yeah, (oh yeah, oh yeah)
Well, she’s a J-J-Jesus girl, (oh yeah, oh yeah)
She’s a Jesus girl.
Polly and I plan to continue listening to the Devil’s music. How about you? Did your music tastes and experiences change post-Jesus (or post-Evangelical if you are still a believer)? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Reminds me of “Mr. Bailey’s Daughter,” by Bryan Duncan (1990) — right down to the Pentecostal church context. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN7njiqMM3U&list=OLAK5uy_n5R7-N6t2IM5NGvl_GNEtwJgRod9DPnK0
All the same to me if rock and roll IS the Devil’s music. That’s because too many people who preach against rock music don’t act Christlike themselves. One example is a man named Fletcher A Brothers who wrote an anti rock tome called The Rock Report, which told the reader why they must not listen to this group or that group and so on. Yet behind the scenes he was running a camp where troubled teens went from the frying pan and into the fire. I hate to think how many people stopped listening to rock as a result of this book only to find out its writer was no better.
I was born in ’68 and my parents really didn’t care what music I listened to. Unfortunately, I got “saved” at 12 years old at a YMCA summer camp. I came home and threw away all my KISS albums. Ugh!!! I’ve replaced most of them in the last few years. I did go through a Christian rock phase and went to lots of concerts from the time I was about 14 to around 17. I still also went to secular music concerts. After I went to college, I listened to plenty of secular music until I started attending a word of faith church when I was about 23 years old. I found some Christian music that was ok during my drinking the Kool-Aid period, but it just wasn’t the same. I still have some Petra and Rez Band albums around. I’ll listen to them every blue moon or so. It kind of makes me cringe. LOL My son introduced me to Disturbed and Slipknot a few years ago. I listen to Slipknot on my way home from work most days. It helps me relax. LOL
There is a pretty funny video by Jeremy Adler on YouTube. Just search for failed Christian rock band. I’m sure lots of folks can relate. 🙂
An interesting side note. I’ve read and listened to a few things about how people “feel god” during the music part of a church service and how it’s basically all in our brains. My wife (still a devout Christian), son, and I went to see Foo Fighters a couple years ago. At some point, the audience were all singing along with the band and she said something like, I think I feel God like in church. That confused the shit out of her! I just said, wow, that’s interesting, huh? I think she finally just decided not to think about it anymore. I had a similar feeling as well. It’s just the great feeling of a whole lot of humans singing together and rocking out to a band we all enjoy. No god needed.
I was raised Roman Catholic. My parents ~ especially my father ~ loved the “devil’s music”. It was my father, in fact, who bought “Jesus Christ Superstar” for us when it first came out ~ which scandalized the neighbors. He also bought us The Beatles “Rubber Soul” for an Easter Present in 1970 ~ he loved the pun of it.
We listened to everything ~ classical, jazz, bluegrass, rocknroll, show tunes, country. We were all educated musically. My father was a engineer by trade but he was a musician ~ he played the tuba in several bands. My mother had the most beautiful soprano you ever heard.
I grew up to be a dancer & to sing in several bands myself. Not a day goes by without music playing in my house.
When I was a kid my parents used to listen to a lunatic fundy preacher on the radio named William Ward Ayer. He would call rock music “jungle music” (no racism there.) I was forbidden to listen to rock music and was forced to do this in the privacy of my bedroom with a transistor radio on low volume. I lived in constant fear of being discovered, listening to jungle music in my bedroom. Despite this fear. I loved rock music from an early age, and now at an advanced stage, I continue to listen to alternative and metal bands. One of my great pleasures when my son was still living at home, was sharing music with him and going to concerts together.
I’m into speaking in tongues rap, featuring artists like Jay C, Snoop godd, DJ YHWH, and Glorious G.O.D. Just kidding!
Anyone else here old enough to remember Larry Norman’s ‘Why should the devil have all the good music’? As leaders of our teens church youth group, we thought he had the ear of almighty god to be able to sing such profound truths! We lived way out in the sticks of rural England and did something not often done from there. We hired a coach to take 30 teens to a Randy Stonehill concert at one of London’s prestigious concert theatres. Mind you, we were a little embarrassed by his first name, the adjective meant something a bit naughty to us pure x-tians.
I’m familiar with much of Larry Norman’s music, even though he was at his most popular before I was born. I’m very familiar with Randy’s music. A youth group leader introduced him to us back in the mid 1980s. I don’t buy into the religious messaging anymore, but I still enjoy listening to his music. He crafted a lot of songs that were more human interest than religious: “Christmas at Denny’s” and “Rachel Delavoryas” are two that come immediately to mind.
Have to say I was deeply disappointed with his most recent (?) album. There were a couple of decent songs, but a lot of it was just religious pandering that was unlike his older stuff.
There was a lot of conflicting messaging (about a lot of things) during my upbringing. My parents were divorced, and my mom and I lived with her evangelical parents and my great-grandmother until my mom remarried when I was 11. I chose to stay with my grandparents (because I had my own room which had been mine since I was 3) and my grandparents were more financially secure. I’d go stay with my mom and stepdad on weekends. My grandma was pretty strict about media in the house except whatever my great-grandmother or grandfather wanted. She believed God demanded she obey her mother and her husband (especially her husband) so they could watch and listen to anything they wanted. I was the only one who could be restricted on my own but coukd watch/listen to whatever my grandfather and great-grandmother wanted. So TV was basically unrestricted. At my mom and stepdad’s there wasn’t really any restriction but I was already “trained” to not being able to choose my own music so I listened to what they listened to – my stepdad liked country music and my mom would listen to soft pop. But they’d argue in the car about music so we’d end up not listening to anything.
My grandfather and I would watch MTV at my aunt and uncle’s house, so we had some exposure to rock music. (My grandfather was kind of scared of my grandmother because you never knew when she’d fly off the handle about something being blasphemous lol).
Church and the fundamentalist Christian school I attended were VERY much against rock music. Most of the kids at church openly listened to contemporary Chistian music which was banned at the school I attended. The school in particular would have chapel speakers warning about how Satanic rock music was, and they’d talk about “pagan jungle veats” and “the beat of sexual intercourse” (which just piqued our interest more). Teachers at the school would slip in conversations about how rock music and movies were bad.
In college, I felt free to explore secular music. Fortunately, in the summers during high school I worked in a university biochemistry lab where one of the postdoc played the radio (Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc) so I wasn’t totally under a rock. In college I actively started exploring secular music. It was difficult being the sheltered religious kid at a secular university.
Bruce I bet you like Elvis huh?
I’m not an Elvis fan. My daughter, however, is an Elvis-the-Pelvis fan.
Why do you ask?
And if you are actually Revival Fires using a fake name — read my mind. 😂😂
bob larson…
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
a friend of mine and i, back in the ’80s, used to call bob larson’s call-in talk show and say bizarre things to see how bob would respond. we very quickly became a major thorn in his side, and we also learned how to “game” bob’s system, so that our calls would always get through, regardless of what kind of screening took place. we have an audio CD of our interactions with bob, which you can peruse at https://wraithugly.bandcamp.com/ 😉
I really enjoyed the comments this morning about rock and other kinds of music. I took me back to the 70’s, and I never felt harmed by rock or r n’ b, later graduating to alternative and some metal versions. I liked a few from Elvis,” Kentucky Rain” and ” In The Ghetto.” He was more my mother’s speed though. I was never affected by music like the preacher’s warned about. But then again, I had my culture, and wasn’t into drugs, or feeling rebellious – for the sake of rebellion. By the 1980’s, there were lots of songs about war and it’s horrors, like ” Distant Early Warning, The New Tom Sawyer,” by Rush. ” For Whom The Bell Tolls,” Metallica. Many other that were beautiful, powerful. R’N B was happy music. Rap definitely isn’t. Lots of thugs do listen to rap. When I listen to American music, it’s alternative stations. LA only has two now.
Thanks,Mark for mentioning this guy, Fletcher Brothers. I looked him up, and found that appalling teen prison camp he ran in rural NY, near Seneca Lake. The kids are moldy food, so he could spend money on other things he wanted. His son, Jeremy,is a real piece of work too. A group of kids actually combined their efforts to get the state to shut that place down, and stop them from opening up in South Carolina. I listened to the podcast about all this. Freedom Village USA, Brothers called it in NY. I learned a lot, but I wish I hadn’t done that today. All the grim news lately. The Brothers family moved to Florida and possibly Mississippi. Unfortunately, there did start an affiliate school up in Ontario, Canada. Same name,too. I just hope that’s all they share. There’s too much to write here. But it’s online if anyone wants more info.