Mark Driscoll, Smashing Pumpkins, and Alternative Music

Random thoughts on alternative music

My favorite style of music is alternative, which is hardly surprising since I am from the Seattle area and I am part of the MTV generation. I once thought that as I got older my musical tastes would mellow out to something more respectable, but so far it is hasn't happened, although I do keep on waiting for the time when the alternative station becomes the oldies station (I am hearing advertisements directed to parents on alternative stations now). I heard a Smashing Pumpkins song on the radio recently and it reminded what a great song it was: Bullet with Butterfly Wings. I love the music of the song as well as how the music matches the pathos of the lyrics. The angst of the song reflects the angst of not being able to get out of the pit and the slime. Mark Driscoll used this video one time in a high school assembly as a way to introduce them to sin and the gospel: see the story below.

While we won't know what type of music the psalms were sung to, I can imagine that there would be many of them which would go well with an angst filled alternative song. My favorite band is Poor Old Lu, a Christian alternative band from Seattle (naturally, given that it is my home town). They structure some of their songs in a similar way, except that instead of being in the pit, they reflect more of a Romans 7, stuck in my sin approach. 

Jesus tie these hands
I used to think
that every thing I touched
turned gold
but it don't
it turns cold

and reason guides this man
like spring, and fall
and wind to sand
I sway, I sway,
I cannot stand

what do I do,
when it seems I relate to Judas
more than You
and I can't ever
I can't ever
see the end...

Mark Driscoll story:   

I was invited by some Christian high school students to preach at their chapel service a few years ago. I arrived, we sang some worship songs, and then, before I preached, I showed the Smashing Pumpkins video "Bullet with Butterfly Wings " onscreen and kicked on the sound system:

Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage/then someone will say what is lost can never be saved...tell me I’m the chosen one/tell me there’s no other one...Jesus was an only son for you... and I still believe that I cannot be saved.

Know what the whole student body did? Sang it. These Christian high school kids sang those words better than they sang the worship songs. Much to the dismay of the administration, the students were riveted. But that wasn’t a gimmick—I wasn’t done.

My chapel sermon was walking the students through that song—interpreting that video as critically and carefully as we do Scripture. It was an incredible discussion. We talked camera angles, thematic elements, the lyrics, world view. And all of a sudden, kids are making quite astute observations: "Yeah, they’re singing in a pit, and everybody’s covered in mud. It seems to be a metaphor for sin—and there’s no way out"; "It’s hopeless, there’s no redemption"; "The song’s reference to Job seems to say we suffer unjustly, mysteriously—we don’t know why."

Now I’m looking at these kids who previously were auditioning for extras in "Beavis & Butt-Head," and now they’re making very logical arguments and statements.

But even though it was clear this exercise helped the students think through the mysteries of the faith, the administration wasn’t happy with my video choice. They said it exposed the students to wrong things—except for the fact that they already knew all the words.

Here’s the point: Let’s bring reality to bear and realize that the culture is upon us. Our kids are already in it. It’s not a matter of needing to rescue the kids from the culture—it’s a matter of rescuing the lens through which they interpret culture. It’s a matter of them living in a community, discerning the truth, and redeeming what aspects of the culture can be redeemed.

Read the whole article .

Login to add comments