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My Twelve Favorite Praise and Worship Songs (No, Really)
This is the one I’ve been avoiding
Yeah, I know; this one doesn’t seem to fit with my love of Springsteen, the Smiths, and Judas Priest. What can I say, except that sometimes I’m a musical chameleon (wait till you see my favorite rap songs). I also know that the very title of this piece runs counter to some of my earlier comments that most Christian music is little more than bad pop with the word “Jesus” tossed into the chorus. That’s still true, just not for these. These aren’t aimed at Christian radio.
They also are not what you would traditionally consider hymns, and my favorite hymns would take an article of their own. I grew up Catholic on the rhythm-challenged side of the denominational divide, and was astonished by the beauty of the old gospel hymns I first heard in my 30s. Then I ended up in a megachurch in North Dallas, and the praise and worship genre hit me like the Red Sea collapsing on Pharaoh's chariots.
Contemporary worship music tends to have less theological content than the older hymns, though over the past decade there has been a move toward a mashup of sorts that combines an older hymn with a more modern chorus. Some critics complain that the use of electric guitars and drums by so-called praise bands during the service make the congregation spectators…
