Jesse A. Schroeder

Great article discussing The Fray, their religious background, the significance of their music, and their perspective on "Christian" music. Key quotes:

"I feel [God] would have been disappointed with us if we limited ourselves [to Christian music exclusively]," Slade told Christianity Today. He then described a revelation of sorts he had when working at Starbucks before the band's popularity exploded. "If I handed someone a double grande mocha latte and told them, 'Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,' they might throw it back on me. If we grow up in the church, it's easy to think it's our Christian duty to preach to every single person because God is the most important thing. And He is, but I'm a musician first. This is my job. We're not pastors. We're not preachers. We're not even missionaries."

"My problem with Christian music," Slade told Westword, "is a lot of it is too happy. It's too smiley. It's like you know from the get-go that it's not completely honest, because they never say they're sad. ... If you pound people over the head, they get suspicious, they don't trust you, and it's not art—it's propaganda. And we're not about Jesus propaganda."

"It's not art - it's propaganda. And we're not about Jesus propaganda." -

Wow....while I think that statement helps to draw the distinction between "worship music" and "music." Worship is designed for a corporate singing experience. And it has a distinct purpose. And a lot of it is really good, in it's own way.

But should it be played on the radio as music? Perhaps not all of it....I think many Christians are misunderstanding the purpose of music as art when they think worship is the same as other kinds of music. And it may perpetuate the misunderstanding that the Christian life is primarily one to be enjoyed, instead of the "suffering servant" example of Christ.