Go Chuck!

I gotta hand it to Charles Colson. He actually says what I only dare to think in church:

When church music directors lead the congregation in singing some praise music, I often listen stoically with teeth clenched. But one Sunday morning, I cracked. We had been led through endless repetitions of a meaningless ditty called, "Draw Me Close to You." The song has zero theological content and could be sung in a nightclub, for that matter. When I thought it was finally and mercifully over, the music leader beamed at us and said in a cheerful voice, "Let's sing that again, shall we?" "No!" I shouted loudly. Heads all around me spun while my wife cringed. (emphasis added)

[Read Musical Mush]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy a good praise chorus as much as the next guy. The ban some Christians seem to place on music younger than, say, 50 years, seems to me quite arbitrary. And in the last decade in particular, there has been an upsurge in truly God-centred hymnody (as I write this, the Newsboys' "He Reigns" plays on iTunes, for example). Note, though, that I said a good praise chorus. There's still a lot of dross, of which the execrable "Draw Me Close to You" is a prime example - one of the handful of songs I refuse to sing on general principle. And it's not even the worst offender: in my opinion, this song takes the cake. Sorry, I'm just not into homoerotic Jesus fantasies.