Faith conundrum

[Luke]

I would hope that I do not offend anyone, but I am interested in some other opinions. Here is the story.

I have been in bands since the mid 60's. Rock-N-Roll mostly, but country,show bands and Christian rock. I was asked to play in the Christian rock group by one of my best friends, a Southern Baptist. We have played in various groups since 66. As things go the group had a fairly descent sound and we were becoming somewhat popular. I had been out of the music scene for a while and it was good to get back on the boards so to speak.

Now for the conundrum. My friend told me he would no longer be able to make music with me because I expressed interest in starting a "bar" band. He felt that it would not be possible for me to play "secular" music and religious music also. Too make a long story short, I quit the Christian band and played a few gigs with a rock group. Biker bars and the like were fun, but as it turns out age has caught up with me, so I quit the rock band.
What I am having a problem with is while I believe in one God, I think it is possible to make secular music. Regardless of being in a group, my friendship will outlast any hurt feelings.
So I am asking for other opinions on this matter.

My Mother was a member of the RLDS, my Father was the son of a self-ordained Christian minister. Organized religion was never forced on me or my sisters, although my youngest sister was baptised in the First Baptist Church.
Sometimes I think the freewill thing was God's sick sense of humor showing through.

[zenbudda]

here are my 2cp.

i don't think you are doing anything wrong. you don't seem to be anti-christian. you seem to be playing music from your heart and your heart speaks the christian language (so to speak). i think the problem you are hitting is the exact reason why i feel "christian" america is failing. i myself have been more or less "ostracized" for one reason or another. it is funny though, now that i'm making more money, people sure do want me to be part of their church now. yuck, makes me sick.

i find that people generally fear what they don't understand. so maybe that's something you can do is educate people on a one-to-one basis and once you have enough people around you who understand you, then maybe they will help promote who you are and what you want to do?

i'm just a nobody in the grand scheme of things though. so i could be way off base with anything i say. ;-)

[Backstop]

You mentioned "free will."

Your friend thinks you can't play Christian music and secular music.

You think you can.

See how those 3 sentences represent free will?



New thought:

Just exactly how secular is the music you play?

Is it Bash-God type, praise Satan stuff, or just the basic sex, drugs, rock and roll stuff?

I think God wants us to be happy, have fun, prosper, and be safe.

There are lines in there that shouldn’t be crossed.

God pretty much lays all that out, but free will and our brains provide for interpretation.

[vector7]

1 Corinthians 10
We are free to do all things, but there are things which it is not wise to do. We are free to do all things, but not all things are for the common good. Let a man give attention not only to what is good for himself, but equally to his neighbor's good.

[American Patriot]

One word my friends....


FREEDOM.

You all figure it out.

[Toad]

Seems pretty straight forward to me. You selectively choose the secular music you like and have no problems with. We all do this in life anyway. There's a ton of music out there that just puts a smile on your face and sounds good. There's a ton of music out there I have no interest in listening to because it's trash.

I reject the idea that secular music, because it does not specifically push a christian message, is incompatable with Christianity in general. Sometimes a good song that rocks is just a good song that rocks. It has no message other than life is good, enjoy it.

[American Patriot]

I reject the idea that everything MUST be tempered with a "Christian" bent too.

Freedom. Free Will. All the same thing. One way you are free to act, the other way you're free to live. They go together. Just because you're a Christian you should not be censored for playing music.

Now, if you're beating out headbanger death metal... well, you know, you're going to hell next week, right?

/snicker.

[Beetle]

Luke, Luuuuke, use the force Luke.

All I can say is that if it were me, I would follow my heart. I would look inside and see what makes me happy. So, the only thing I can ad that might help you is use the force Luke.



And please allow me to add that all come freely; and Freedom should mean everything to us all.

[Luke]

Thanks to all for opinions. I have never been much into headbanger/negative type rock.

Another part of the faith conundrum comes from my "faith" in science, as if I jump into the air, gravity will bring me down to earth. I suppose that the religious faith part comes in believeing in a deity such as God/Allah/Zeus/Thor/Clapton. I can't see gravity,nor the wind yet I know it exsists. Not so much with the aforementioned deities.

One the one hand I admire my Southern Baptist friends, on the other I am angry at them. The same can be said of my Catholic/Wiccan and few Islamic friends.

Perhaps my parents were wrong by not instilling in me the "power" of organized religion. Dad had witnessed too many examples of inhumanity, Mom perhaps not enough. I never forced my children to go to church, so perhaps I have followed the wrong past and this conundrum is my albatros.

One of the redeeming qualities in this is the fact that it can be discussed openly in this country, so thanks to the Founding Fathers.

[American Patriot]

Luke, all my silly jokes aside... I was brought up as a Southern Baptist. I left organized religion as SOON as I possibly could.

God doesn't care if we are Baptists, Catholics or some other religion as long as we do GOOD for people and stand up for ourselves.

Organized religion is interspersed with HUMAN behavior, human fallibility and bigotry - just as any other social organization be it politics, religion, or some other organized human behavior.

The truth is none of us, not one, is perfect (except maybe Obama, he seems to be perfect according to the left!) and we all need to examine ourselves and discover our "true meaning in life".

No one religion or group or leader is going to be able to tell you about you.

Only you can do that.

Basically, your friends who are telling you they can't play music with you anymore are the ones in the wrong.

Friends are supposed to help one another - not hinder. My advice, were I to give it, would be to get away from them and move on with what YOU want to do.

Others might tell you to "pray on it" and see what the answer is.

I don't know if that works, since it never really has worked for me.... but sometimes anything is better than nothing.