Is it ok to listen to this?

[SpiritualTeacher]

I'm posting this mainly because I'm confused about some song choices I like to listen to. Usually I live my life by the rule "if I don't know it's probably bad", but this is something I just can't seem to live by that on because the music isn't "bad" really.


Don't get me wrong I love hymns, worship praise, gospel, and all kinds of music (usually that's all I listen to), but I also get into bands like Skillet, Switchfoot, and so on. Bands that claim to be Christian yet don't actually seem to have any Christian influence in the bands, and actually refuse to call them Christian. I also like bands however that sound close to these and do not claim to be Christian at all: Linkin Park, Evanescence, so on.


Anyway to get to the point is is wrong to listen to music like this? Usually I say yes to myself because of verses in the Bible like 1 Corinthians 10:31-33. I realize that Paul is actually saying here that we need make sure that everything we do is towards God's glory so that God may reveal Himself through us if He so chooses, but by listening to that kind of music would people still be able to see His glory through me?

 

[jonbanjo]

No really sure what you are asking and know none of the groups but I don't really see music as being Christian or UnChristian but just as music which is really in the hearts and minds of those who listen to and sing and play it.

An example that comes to mind is a traditional tune from Sussex (England), Monks Gate. As it is traditional, would that make it "unChristian"? What happens when Ralph Waughn Williams used this tune as a setting for Bunyan's He Who Would Valiant Be. Does a possibly originally "unChristian" melody become Christian? If heard as melody alone and you were not aware of the hymn, what would you read into it? (etc. etc.???).

 

[NearertoGod]

I have to agree with jonbanjo.
I am an artist. I believe art should not be tied to religion, that it should be free to express emotions and feelings. When we tie down art with worries and morals, it loses its beauty.
Art is an expression, an expression of emotions we cannot show or express in our regular lives. We use these mediums - whether painting, drawing, composing, dancing (of which I all do!) - to express these emotions, colors, feelings, etc.
Some might disagree with me on my [above] statements, but I know.
Music is one of the most beautiful forms of art, and it should be enjoyed to its fullest.
I play the classical piano myself, and enjoy hundreds of composers such as Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Lalo, so on and so forth.