Religious people - Which music is pure?

[Dystopia]

This is a question for religious people whose faith forbids certain genres of music. Which musical genres are allowed? And why? Are there any basic characteristics music must have to be pure to god's eyes? What is the penalty for listening to forbidden music? What matters the most - The content of the music or the artist's personal beliefs? If you answered "the content of the music", would you listen to an artist who doesn't share your faith but produces enjoyable music?

Christians seem to be ok with traditional national/regional/local music and classical music, but are there any composers god doesn't like?


Is rock music ok, or is it a tool of the devil? What about Jazz, electronica and hip hop?

Finally - What would you do if you caught your kid listening music that goes against your religion?

[Little lunch]

The majority of my family are born again, tongue-speaking x-tians.
That means extra crazy.
The general rule for music was that the spoken content had to be for god and not against him.
If the music wasn't for or against god it went to against by default.
The idea was that the devil couldn't create, he could only distort.
So any voiceless music was ok.
My cousins and I would go out of our way to find heavy metal x-tian rock bands to annoy our parents with.
I never thought about it much before but I think music played a big part in helping me to escape that madness.

[Chad32]

Mostly any music after the generation of whoever you're asking, is the devil's music.

[c172]

Is there any religion that specifically forbids Bastille and The Hold Steady? If so, I shall profess a belief in their god.

Thank you.

[Dystopia]

The majority of my family are born again, tongue-speaking x-tians.
That means extra crazy.
The general rule for music was that the spoken content had to be for god and not against him.
If the music wasn't for or against god it went to against by default.
The idea was that the devil couldn't create, he could only distort.
So any voiceless music was ok.
My cousins and I would go out of our way to find heavy metal x-tian rock bands to annoy our parents with.
I never thought about it much before but I think music played a big part in helping me to escape that madness.

Didn't they forbid you to listen to it? Or did they think Christian metal was ok? 



Ex-theists can reply too

[Little lunch]

By the way, the penalty for doing anything wrong in x-tianity is social ostracism.
You get put on the grapevine by friends and family and looked down upon as a backslider.
It's quite effective on young minds.

[Metis]

My boyfreind is a former Catholic, and the general prescription they're apparently given is that they can listen to anything provided it doesn't contain...

A) Heresy: So any songs saying Mary got some action are out. There's a bit of a blurred line here and it isn't always followed, since in English speaking countries many of the hymns they use were actually devised by Anglicans and Methodists so not all the words are peachy. In French/Italian speaking countries they follow it a bit closer.

I believe I've seen "Let it Go" from Frozen and "Imagine" from Lennon both condemned as heretical by the Catholic Herald although thats nothing special, the Evanglical Charisma news and several Baptist papers did it too. Think the Herald whined about Let it go being "an anti-Catholic homosexualist anthem" and Imagine for being plain old blasphemy Matter of personal opinion really.

B) Hymns to false Gods: So no dancing with the Hare Krishnas

C) Immorality: Anything that contains references to sex, so pretty much 90% of the current chart list is out.

D) Any songs banned by name: Madonna's Like a Prayer comes to mind.

That said most of them don't actually adhere to it, I've heard Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" with Juicy J going on about Katy's bedroom being like a fairground coming from the cars of his supposedly devout relatives.

[Nope]

I attended a church in Iowa that taught that any music with a certain beat was frowned upon. The pastor tried to explain why and even loaned me a book about the issue but I still didn't understand his problem with it

[Little lunch]

My strict Scottish Uncle was the most outspoken about heavy metal music.
He claimed that while he was asleep one night the windows blew open and an angel came in the room and basically got mad at him for allowing heavy metal music in his house.
That's the only crazy story he ever told me.
He was normally quite sane.
And angry.

[Salacious B. Crumb]

My strict Scottish Uncle was the most outspoken about heavy metal music.
He claimed that while he was asleep one night the windows blew open and an angel came in the room and basically got mad at him for allowing heavy metal music in his house.
That's the only crazy story he ever told me.
He was normally quite sane.
And angry.

He sounds sane with a side of crazy. JK

I remember looking up christian metalcore bands years ago, because I didn’t want the music to have anything denigrating god or christianity (not that I could understand the lyrics anyway), but now, if the music does just that, it’s a bonus.