Working for Costco I had quite a few friends and co-workers that loved heavy metal music, and in fact two were in metal bands themselves. And now I have another friend on this side of the world that also loves American heavy metal music, particularly Metallica. He even got a chance to see them live when they came to Istanbul last year. Christianity and traditional religion has historically had a turbulent relationship with this genre of music. They both understand just enough of a veneer of the other to spit fire back and forth. One sees the other as promoting hate-filled, violence-begetting, devil music. And from the other side, Christianity is seen as part of the pompous, self-righteous, power-hungry, establishment. There seems to be a very strong ideological impasse... or is there?
I've read a few articles recently that outline some compelling reasons that if Christianity widens its gaze a little more to the underlying core of what metal is really about, there would be less of an impasse. In fact, one writer says that perhaps the Metalhead with a Iron Maiden t-shirt you might have passed on the sidewalk last week might be “closer to the kingdom of God” than most people. What does he mean?
“People in the metal culture understand that the world is not a warm fuzzy happy place full of sweetness and light... [they] know there is something deeply wrong with the world. And metal often expresses our outrage. Instead of pretending everything is okay or anesthetizing ourselves with consumerism, self-pity, or poison, Metalheads tend to confront things head on. This is unbelievably important because it is the hardest part of the Christian message for most people to grasp and Metalheads understand it from the get-go. Metalheads know something is really, really wrong...”
And since Christianity teaches there is an innate poison that has infected our world and everyone in it [called sin] there is a strange philosophical harmony between the two that ties them together at a very fundamental level. On other levels some have argued less-persuasively that Christians can learn from heavy metal culture to make their faith more passionate and less highly-structured and serious. All in all however, while there are some compelling ways it seems that the heavy metal world needs to be better understood, particularly by the Christian community. I also wonder if, on the other side, Christianity needs to be more properly understood just as well, particularly by the Metal culture. Below is an attempt to start that conversation:
So the obvious, but actually sometimes not so obvious, things first. Christianity is about following Jesus. Some people follow Jesus well. Some not so well. So a more proper understanding of Christianity is really a more proper understanding of Jesus, not necessarily the people who claim to follow him. While that seems pretty basic, it is interesting to me that the strongest indictments of Christianity have nothing to do with Jesus or his teachings, and almost always are directed at the easiest caricatures of those who claim some sort of connection to him. That said, everyone including the heavy metal culture needs this basic reorientation first, if they want to actually understand Christianity.
The metal culture might find it ironic that Jesus actually had the most verbal venom for the religious hypocrites of his day. In front of the crowds, he would tell stories about how some members of the most pious religious sect actually had a lower standing before God than lifelong traitors and thieves whom God forgave. He called the religious hypocrites blind fools, greedy vipers, self-indulgent, children of hell, lawless and murderous. You get the point. If you don't like some of the religious folks around you, you need to get in line behind Jesus.
The people in the metal world might also find it ironic that Jesus was stirring a movement that defied the world system and many of the powers that governed it. He intentionally made himself an enemy of that system, and would defeat it in the most unlikely of ways. If you're only thinking politics here, you're getting only a small part of the picture. Nevertheless, even politically Jesus was killed as a political rebel. A fake king. A usurper who didn't get the memo that Caesar doesn't like other so-called kings. While historians might see the irony of how Jesus' defiance had political implications for the Romans centuries later, it is much more astonishing that all this was just a minor sub-plot in a much bigger confrontation. I'll say more on this in a second.
Underneath the politics, the religious system around Jesus probably got the sharpest end of his contempt. He intentionally broke many of the religious traditions of the Jews, publicly humiliated the religious leaders, and in his spare time physically razed their headquarters in the temple courtyard. It was a religious system that could not endure such brazen opposition for long, and the establishment knew they had to shut him down. But underneath even that, Jesus was not ultimately interested in simple religious reform. He had made an even bigger enemy. Neither the Jews nor the Romans were actually what he was ultimately fighting against. They were only a means. They were a means to confront and intentionally defy instead the most potent enemies of the human race... enemies who go all the way back to the beginning... death and sin, and the spiritual power that stood behind them. This is the story of the bible. It is why C.S. Lewis says “Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, and he's calling us all to take part in his great campaign of sabotage.” Jesus was a rebel, but his real enemy no one even thought to confront. He was a rebel, but his method of rebellion no one even thought to imagine.
I've read a few articles recently that outline some compelling reasons that if Christianity widens its gaze a little more to the underlying core of what metal is really about, there would be less of an impasse. In fact, one writer says that perhaps the Metalhead with a Iron Maiden t-shirt you might have passed on the sidewalk last week might be “closer to the kingdom of God” than most people. What does he mean?
“People in the metal culture understand that the world is not a warm fuzzy happy place full of sweetness and light... [they] know there is something deeply wrong with the world. And metal often expresses our outrage. Instead of pretending everything is okay or anesthetizing ourselves with consumerism, self-pity, or poison, Metalheads tend to confront things head on. This is unbelievably important because it is the hardest part of the Christian message for most people to grasp and Metalheads understand it from the get-go. Metalheads know something is really, really wrong...”
And since Christianity teaches there is an innate poison that has infected our world and everyone in it [called sin] there is a strange philosophical harmony between the two that ties them together at a very fundamental level. On other levels some have argued less-persuasively that Christians can learn from heavy metal culture to make their faith more passionate and less highly-structured and serious. All in all however, while there are some compelling ways it seems that the heavy metal world needs to be better understood, particularly by the Christian community. I also wonder if, on the other side, Christianity needs to be more properly understood just as well, particularly by the Metal culture. Below is an attempt to start that conversation:
So the obvious, but actually sometimes not so obvious, things first. Christianity is about following Jesus. Some people follow Jesus well. Some not so well. So a more proper understanding of Christianity is really a more proper understanding of Jesus, not necessarily the people who claim to follow him. While that seems pretty basic, it is interesting to me that the strongest indictments of Christianity have nothing to do with Jesus or his teachings, and almost always are directed at the easiest caricatures of those who claim some sort of connection to him. That said, everyone including the heavy metal culture needs this basic reorientation first, if they want to actually understand Christianity.
The metal culture might find it ironic that Jesus actually had the most verbal venom for the religious hypocrites of his day. In front of the crowds, he would tell stories about how some members of the most pious religious sect actually had a lower standing before God than lifelong traitors and thieves whom God forgave. He called the religious hypocrites blind fools, greedy vipers, self-indulgent, children of hell, lawless and murderous. You get the point. If you don't like some of the religious folks around you, you need to get in line behind Jesus.
The people in the metal world might also find it ironic that Jesus was stirring a movement that defied the world system and many of the powers that governed it. He intentionally made himself an enemy of that system, and would defeat it in the most unlikely of ways. If you're only thinking politics here, you're getting only a small part of the picture. Nevertheless, even politically Jesus was killed as a political rebel. A fake king. A usurper who didn't get the memo that Caesar doesn't like other so-called kings. While historians might see the irony of how Jesus' defiance had political implications for the Romans centuries later, it is much more astonishing that all this was just a minor sub-plot in a much bigger confrontation. I'll say more on this in a second.
Underneath the politics, the religious system around Jesus probably got the sharpest end of his contempt. He intentionally broke many of the religious traditions of the Jews, publicly humiliated the religious leaders, and in his spare time physically razed their headquarters in the temple courtyard. It was a religious system that could not endure such brazen opposition for long, and the establishment knew they had to shut him down. But underneath even that, Jesus was not ultimately interested in simple religious reform. He had made an even bigger enemy. Neither the Jews nor the Romans were actually what he was ultimately fighting against. They were only a means. They were a means to confront and intentionally defy instead the most potent enemies of the human race... enemies who go all the way back to the beginning... death and sin, and the spiritual power that stood behind them. This is the story of the bible. It is why C.S. Lewis says “Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, and he's calling us all to take part in his great campaign of sabotage.” Jesus was a rebel, but his real enemy no one even thought to confront. He was a rebel, but his method of rebellion no one even thought to imagine.
As a lover of metal and rock, and someone seeking after Jesus, I really enjoyed this. Metal, like punk before it, was a reaction to the evil of the world. It was, and still is, an attempt by the voiceless to be heard. Many metal-heads reject religion. I'll bet mostof them have never really met the Jesus who flipped tables and challenged the corrupt system.
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