Christian 'metal' does not exist - part 3
posted on 06 Apr 2007 under category Meta
In part 1 I showed how christians use the weasel word “christian band” to try to gain legitimacy for christians being able to make ‘christian metal’. In part 2 I described the two main argument paths that christians make when you tell them that ‘christian metal’ is an oxymoron: 1) the aesthetics argument (“it has power chords”) and 2) the ‘christian values’ argument. Briefly, they claim (for example) that, since metal argues against things like murder, theft, and war, and christians argue against things like murder, theft, and war, the two are compatible. I started demolishing this by showing that it’s trivially easy to have non-christian bases for anti-murder/war/theft positions, but the continuation and completion of the demolition turns upon exposing the other weasel words that christian ‘metal’ apologists try to use, ‘christian values’. So, what IS a ‘christian value’?
Since values that prohibit things like theft and murder are ubiquitous, they can’t be claimed to be uniquely christian. Still, one who uses those values MAY have them come from a christian basis rather than a secular or other-religion basis. So, what IS a christian value? Easy - it’s a value that is EXCLUSIVELY christian; that is, by ‘christian’ we mean based on the christian’s holy writings (the bible) or their spiritual tradition. Thus, the only thing unifying and identifying christian values is that they are said to come from god or are backed up by the bible.
I don’t believe that murder is something that should be done. I think that, morally speaking, killing causes suffering and there is no moral justification that I can come up with that would permit the intentional infliction of suffering. Furthermore, from the Moral Razor (nutshell - the principle that any moral value is invalid if it is asymmetric in its application), I can say that NOBODY should be allowed to murder. Thus, I believe murder is wrong, and I don’t need a god to say it. A christian believes that the Decalogue says ‘thou shalt not murder’, and thus it is wrong - because god says so.
Thus, ‘don’t murder people’ isn’t IN ITSELF a christian value. “Don’t murder other people because it spreads suffering” still might be a christian value, though we don’t know for sure because it has to be explained why spreading suffering is to be avoided as well. “Don’t murder because god says so,” though, IS a christian value. And note why. “Because god says so.”
THAT is the ultimate determinant of ‘christian values’ - that they all flow backwards to reinforce that god is the source of morality, knowledge, etc., and that those rules or statements that come from that don’t just serve our needs but also serve to support that all should obey god. It’s just cheap moralistic fearmongering authoritarianism.
And, as we’ve already seen above, authoritarianism and external control of our lives/values is exactly what metal stands AGAINST.
So, to bring it back to the music, it’s like this: just singing against some of the same things that christians work against isn’t enough to make something ‘christian metal’. What follows must be that the motivation or justification for the position comes from christian values - i.e. because god said so.
Now, a concrete example will help. Look at “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. Rarely will you hear a finer example of an anti-war song in metal. The christian would claim that since christianity is ‘against war’, and “War Pigs” is ‘against war’, thus christianity isn’t incompatible with metal.
However, what these would-be apologists ignore is that there are plenty of non-christian justifications for being anti-war. One of those is what Sabbath uses in the song - specifically, that it’s the leaders who use their greater power/authority to send the others to fight on their behalf, and thus such egregious use of authority and power is wrong - it stands against the basic freedom any person has (should have) to determine their own life.
For the christian to be right in this case, the justification for anti-war would have to be connected with god or the bible somehow. Yet, when you scan the lyrics, there is NOT ONE REFERENCE to god or the bible in the anti-war diatribe. Not one. And, given that christian values are only uniquely christian when they are justified by god/the bible, what Sabbath are espousing in “War Pigs” cannot be in any reasonable sense based on ‘christian values’.
I touched on this point throughout my entire essay series on Black Sabbath way back when - any time they manage to touch on a value that happens to coincide with a christian value, you NEVER see Sabbath support their position with recourse to the bible or to god’s authority. And the same goes for Judas Priest, or really any other real metal band.
As I’ve often said (paraphrased from Roger Ebert) - a song is not necessarily about WHAT it is about, but rather is about HOW it is about it. It’s not that this value or that value is supported or argued against, but rather the JUSTIFICATION and meta-value that is behind the particular value stance. And, since the only uniquely christian values are those that are about recourse to god’s authority, and since metal is (among many other things) a rejection of authoritarianism, there is no sane way anyone could say that metal and christianity are compatible.
Thus, by definition, there CAN NOT be any such thing as ‘christian metal’, just like there can’t be a square circle. QED.
(Despite thousands of words and repeated dropping of these links, I never really did cut down on all the arguments this was supposed to head off. Still, typing ‘you’re wrong, click here to see why, then fuck off’ was much quicker than retyping this over and over again.
And given how busy you see I was at that time, that was a good thing, I guess. And I don’t cringe at it too much nowadays, so I guess it wasn’t a total waste.)