Gag
Andy at Think Christian put me on to The CCM Patrol: Where Christian music is allowed to get bad reviews.
In an article entitled Come (Hither) Quickly, Lord Jesus the editors give a long series of revolting examples of sappy and occasionally accidentally erotic love songs to Jesus.
I’ll give you just two:
Oh Lord, you put a tongue in my mouth.
“You Put A Tongue In My Mouth”
by Ian SmalleI need Your loving arms again
I need the warmth of Your embrace
Look into my soul again and set my heart aflame.
“I Need You”
By James ChoiSource: CCM Patrol
That’s so gross I need to go read some Matthew Henry just to recover. Are these supposed to be sentiments directed toward the Omnipotent and Omnipresent, resplendent and glorious King of the Universe? Sounds more like something you’d hear in the High School gymnasium on prom night.
I’m firmly convinced that Pop music is far more influential than Classical. So even though I prefer Concerti Grossi to gross concerts, I try to occasionally expose myself to Pop. But it’s a gruesome exercise. And Christian Pop is especially painful. Most CCM is about as reverent as someone farting in a cathedral. And it’s not just that the lyrics are lame. The music is bad. Change the dial to any secular station and the quality of the music is far superior.
What’s the cure? Well of course we could leave all the songwriting to theologians but then we’d be forced to sing even more turgid dirges like “A Mighty Fortress.”
Related Lingamish post: Are you in love with Jesus?
Bear in mind that “You Put A Tongue In My Mouth” by Ian Smale (not “Smalle”) is intended as a children’s song. It was written as long ago as 1983, so it can hardly be considered contemporary. The lyrics continue “And I want to sing to You”, so if some of its words ripped out of context are considered “accidentally erotic” I think that says more about the twisted minds of the reviewers than anything else.
Personally I don’t praise the Lord with my tongue. But I understand the Biblish this comes from.
Well, it’s not just Biblish to link the tongue with speech and language. Indeed in most languages including older English the same word is used for “tongue” and “language”. Of course Smale means “Lord, you made my mouth capable of speech and singing”, but that isn’t so poetic. Of course I could apply the same level of analysis to your Cyber-Psalms, but I won’t.
I was just being inflammatory since it was Satire-Day. As it is the theodicy post created more buzz. You never can tell…
There is nothing like an inflammatory Lingamish to get me all inflamed about nothing.