Random little question for ex-religious people.

Since I began my journey away from religion, whenever a religious song (not a hymn or even worship, just religious) pops into my shuffle I've begun to immediately skip it. I can't bring myself to get rid of them because I love the music, but the message just irks me now.

I'm just curious if anyone still listens to their Christian music just for the love of the music. It feels sort of hypocritical for me to listen to it and enjoy it but I mean it is just music.

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Permalink Reply by Philip S. on May 22, 2012 at 12:34pm

The first album I ever owned, back when I stared believing in Christianity, was Jars of Clay's Much Afraid. I will to this day put that album in my car's CD player and sing my heart out.

And I still love Rich Mullins' Songs 1 and 2. And Jars' Eleventh Hour and Caedmon's Call's 40 Acres.

And if Leonard Cohen counts as a religious musician, or at least if Various Positions counts as a religious album, I'm guilty there as well.

I can't hate the words any more than I can hate the melody. It's wonderful, earnest, rich stuff. Not getting the God they're singing about doesn't change that at all, just like not getting the gist of love songs when I was younger didn't bother me.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Say on May 22, 2012 at 1:18pm

The only guy who ever wrote a decent song about God was Billy Preston.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyyetXvX76Q

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Permalink Reply by Reed Byers on May 22, 2012 at 1:42pm

For what it's worth, one of MY favorite songs is "The Little Drummer Boy".

Can't help it. I just love that song.

Obviously, I don't believe the lyrics tell a true story. But then again, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" isn't exactly describing reality, either...

[In my case, it may help that I was NEVER religious -- so I don't have any memories of listening to it and BELIEVING it, to make me feel weird.]

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Permalink Reply by matt.clerke on May 22, 2012 at 6:57pm

I occasionally enjoy MxPx. I do find myself picking up on their jesus messages more often though, which kind of turns me off them a bit.

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Permalink Reply by Carol Clark on May 26, 2012 at 6:06pm

I still like some religious songs like that one "Eat my body, drink my blood...." dont know why exactly but there are lots of christmas songs I like just cause I like the beat, etc... My song for my son is Simple Man by Lynnyrd Skynnyrd and it has a line "and remember my son, there is someone up above".....he knows I am atheist and knows that I am not referring to God or that he should believe in him. Its just that the entire rest of the song is exactly my statement to him as my son.

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Permalink Reply by Carol Clark on May 26, 2012 at 6:09pm

and, we still celebrate Christmas but not as the birth of anything. It is just a good time to get togehter with friends and family and giving or gettng gifts is always fun...doesnt have anything to do with us celebrating it. One thing for sure, I like Easter a lot better now since I dont have to go to church two thousand times before Ash Wednesday and Easter to listen to a priest mumble in Latin after getting dirt smeared

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Permalink Reply by Tenley Cherie on June 12, 2012 at 2:59pm

Initially, yes, it severely bothered me, but mostly because it brought back bad memories. Also I started to really pay attention to the lyrics for the first time ("...from the earth to the grave, to the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high..." I never realized how morbid that sounded) But I had to get used to it, working in a Catholic hospital in the Bible belt, a lot of nurses listen to Christian music at the desk, and it's allowed. With therapy and time, you'll start to not care. It's still annoying, and I never found Christian music to be audiably pleasing, except in rare cases like a catchy Stacie Orrico or Rebecca St. James song, but I haven't listened to either of them since I left Christianity behind.