Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Internet Monk has a very good essay about the popularity of I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me in popular culture, not just the Christian ghetto as Discoshaman calls it. What stood out for me:

It was Martin Luther who suggested that no religion was a superior option when compared to wrong religion, at least from the standpoint of the Gospel.  In that respect, the widespread acceptance of “I Can Only Imagine” may be worse than an outright rejection of such a song in the venue of popular culture. The popularity of the song probably doesn’t indicate hunger for the truth, but a desire for a message that will sooth any anxieties about mortality brought up by these troubled times.

If we rejoice that “I Can Only Imagine” is popular, we should also be concerned that its popularity may indicate that popular culture is ready to appropriate the comfort of the Gospel without embracing the heart of the Gospel: Christ crucified. Christians who assume that the non-Christian audience relates to this song in a “Christian/Biblical” context are probably very mistaken. It is much more likely that we are seeing people embrace the Christian hope of heaven, but without any interest in Christ as the Way to heaven. If he welcomes us when we are there, that’s fine. Telling us how to go to heaven, however, isn’t any more popular now than ever.

Such is the influence of CCM that it can now produce an explicitly Christian product that non-believers like enough to listen to, even as they send Christ himself to the garbage dump of irrelevancy.

Go read the whole thing.