Lukewarm T-shirt

I have a confession: I have an aversion to contemporary Christian music. I've realized at this point that it's ill-founded, but I have yet to overcome it. Maybe it was just the type of "Christian" music that I was exposed to at an early age, but I've routinely found it to be of an inferior quality to "secular" music.

The reason for the quotation marks? I continue to have difficulty comprehending how music or books or clothing can be classified as Christian or otherwise. I understand a Christian to be a follower of Christ, which I am, as the result of my predestined, free will decision all wrapped up in the love and foreknowledge and sovereignty of God. (Tee hee! I am a 5-point Cal-Minianist!) However, a song or a book or a t-shirt cannot possibly be a follower of Christ or of anyone else. (Seriously, a Christian t-shirt? Does that mean that my clothing which takes no scriptural stand whatsoever is lukewarm and will be spit out of His mouth?) It is disconcerting to witness how this kind of labeling has cheapened the name of "Christian" and rendered it so much less significant than it was when the residents of Antioch first decided to apply it to those crazy, joyful Christ followers roaming through town and bearing the evidence of the grace of God.

And I suppose I even take issue with the meaning that those who use the labels "Christian music" or "Christian book" are attempting to convey. I assume it is considered to be Christian because it references God or the Bible or something specifically associated with Christianity. Shouldn't it need to be, first and foremost, excellent? Isn't God the most artistic, musical, profound and articulate Creative Genius that the world has ever known? Wouldn't anything that is even remotely associated with His Name require excellence above all else? It is irrational to me that some of the most classic and beautiful and enduring works of art of all time are considered "secular" while a shoddy, inferior novel could be considered "Christian" simply because the protagonist in the story happens to be a girl who loves Jesus. And I cannot grasp how a poorly composed piece of music praises God, regardless of what the lyrics might say. What is and is not excellent is, of course, subjective. That's why I prefer that the label be left out of it entirely.

So, it comes back to my ill-founded aversion to "Christian" music. I know, logically, that there are a multitude of gifted musicians and songwriters whose work I would surely enjoy if I gave it a chance. But I suppose I've encountered enough of the lousier samplings to leave me disinclined to turn on a "Christian" radio station and just hope for the best. When I hear an excellent song that moves me and affirms the life within me and makes me want to dance, I find myself spontaneously and unwittingly praising God, regardless of the religious affiliation of the band. All things that are excellent point to the Creator, no matter what their intent; it cannot be otherwise.