Religious lyrics ?

While a strong opponent of religion (see my avatar), I have to say that religious inspiration has given mankind some of the absolute best musical pieces of all time... just listen to the works of JSBach, GFHandel (though more secular), Anton Bruckner, and countless others who took inspiration from their faith.

Epignosis wrote: Evangelism is telling the Good News of God's grace.  That's what the word means. As a Christian who owes his life to Jesus, I can't think of anything more deserving of my time and energy as a musician and songwriter than to write songs reflecting the truths of the Bible. After all, the whole book of Psalms is nothing but songs ultimately praising and honoring God...

Edited by someone_else - May 29 2009 at 13:49

Epignosis wrote: Evangelism is telling the Good News of God's grace.  That's what the word means. As a Christian who owes his life to Jesus, I can't think of anything more deserving of my time and energy as a musician and songwriter than to write songs reflecting the truths of the Bible. After all, the whole book of Psalms is nothing but songs ultimately praising and honoring God...

Evolver wrote:   Remember, it was the great Dr. Gregory House who said: "Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people.  Otherwise there would be no religious people."

I like that character.

While I find the lyrics of Morse's solo albums to be repetitive, dull, and largely uncreative, I also don't have any problem with listening to them.  I'm not a Christian, though I used to think I was (and am probably more of one now that I don't think of myself as one, if that makes any sense, as my outlook is much more humble than it was back then).

My biggest issue then is really the sameness and lack of creativity I hear in so many of Neal's lyrics.  Does Jesus have some problem with people getting creative with the Good News?  Because it often seems that way to me.  Plus, the guys in Glass Hammer are Christians but feel no need to write about it in their lyrics.  Many of their lyrics reflect their beliefs in more subtle ways.  I just find that putting spirituality into lyrics doesn't have to be an exercise in repeating the same things over and over and over again.

I also wonder just who Morse is writing these lyrics for?  I suppose for God, because he isn't going to sway, or even attract the interest of, anyone who isn't already a firm believer like himself.  I enjoy his music (except for much of the most recent album), and find the lyrics tolerable and unoffensive enough that I can appreciate his albums for what they are.  But I really wish he'd get more creative with the lyrics (and actually, I liked ? primarily because he DID use actual scripture mixed in with his own lyrics and I think that album worked the best lyrically of all of them).

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: StyLaZyn wrote: Imagine that...a Church being negative about another Church. Such a wonderful God to guide his flock into different beliefs. Russian roulette for the soul.   It's not God who guides men into this path, because of free will, man decides what to do.   I remember my mentor in  the University, the great theologist  Father Francesco Interdonatto (SJ) told us that the Catholic who didn't respected a Mosque or a Sinagogue was not a Catholic, because Allah, the God of the Jewishs and the God of the Christians is the same one, the same God of Abraham.   Iván

I will leave it as such, regardless of what I consider flawed logic. This thread should remain on topic.

Very comfortable position, hidding those terrible words that would make hitler pale, and attacking other Church, well I understand it's harder to say "The catholic Church was bad but Luther wanted to vanmish the Jewishs from the face of the earth"

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - May 29 2009 at 12:36

Deathrabbit wrote: ^ Your mentor kicks some unbelievable ass Ivan.

StyLaZyn wrote: Placing who on the equivalent of a saint?

kingfriso wrote: Religion hasn´t really served the artists and knowlegde of mankind. I therefore wander why one would love to sing about it. I myself see inspiration to write great songs as a devine gift, but no reason there to refer to age old beliefs called monotheistic religions that just were confenient at the time. We now all have acces to knowlegde and this will hopefully lead to wisdom and ethics. Now, that´s something to sing about! Critisize your society for it´s flaws! And luckely, a lot of artist do just that.