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Pop Goes the Gospel: Five Songs With Biblical Themes That Rock
No, seriously
I have been fairly critical of so-called “Christian fiction” in past articles (though I do highly recommend this series). I have shown a similar disdain for much of the Contemporary Christian music on offer today; while Praise and Worship music continues to produce many gems, the pop-rock songs typically tend more toward what you would hear at a high school talent show with the word “Jesus” thrown in every verse.
From the first time Elvis swiveled his hips, Christianity and rock music have had a tenuous relationship. On the one hand, rock as we know it would not exist if the Black gospel music that preceded it had not been mixed with the blues and electrified. On the other, fundamentalist preachers will still whip their congregations into a frenzy over heavy metal songs; burning Black Sabbath and Pantera records remains a ludicrous act of Christian “protest,” especially since the kids just go out and buy a new copy when mom and dad aren’t looking.
Yet Christianity and rock and roll continued to intersect, often in some ironic ways. Elvis Presley, the poster boy of 1950s “Devil music,” only won Grammy awards for his gospel albums. Bruce Springsteen, perhaps the most visible lapsed Catholic on the planet, seems genetically incapable of recording an album without at…
