[Warning: this post about cursing contains cursing]
I wanted to like Derek Webb's "What Matters More." I really did. I find myself in agreement with a lot of Derek's premises: Christians are sinning when they ignore the effect of their speech on those they consider sinners (especially those self-identifying as homosexuals); Christians need to be marked by a profound care for the poor; the call of Christ is one that doesn't fit neatly into the culture-war mentality; "Christian" art should not necessarily mean "sanitized" art. And Derek Webb has, occasionally, managed lyrics that blow me away with their intelligence, wit, and (above all) sincere passion.
But listening to "What Matters More," I found myself profoundly underwhelmed.
The offending passage comes from the end of the song:
If I can tell what's in your heart by what comes out of your mouth
Then it sure looks to me like being straight is all it's about
It looks like being hated for all the wrong things
Like chasin' the wind while the pendulum swings
'Cause we can talk and debate until we're blue in the face
About the language and tradition that he's comin' to save
Meanwhile we sit just like we don't give a shit
About 50,000 people who are dyin' today
Tell me, brother, what matters more to you?
Tell me, sister, what matters more to you?
Provocative lyrics are well and good; but Derek's line seems to come out of nowhere. One can be, for instance, a culture warrior with no curiosity about the plight of homosexuals, and give 90% of one's income to those areas of the world where 50,000 people are dying. The line seems (and certainly there are people who have said this) to be there simply for shock value. But more to the point, it draws the wrong sort of battle lines. If you aren't with Webb on this, you're with the terrorists--oops, I mean the Pharisees who don't care about anything but the appearance of piety.
In this villainization of his audience, of course, Webb the folk singer has a long tradition. Tom Lehrer mocked it quite wittily and succinctly: "We're joining the folk song army / Everyone of us cares / We hate poverty, war and injustice / Unlike the rest of you squares." His point is, I think, valid. For all the real issues music can engage with, it has a great potential to merely redefine hip; people who buy Organic Fair Trade simply because that's what the cool people do.
But the tradition Webb claimed isn't that of folk-rock counterculture, but of the equally antagonistic Old Testament prophecy. "Israel is a whore, a pillager, a nation so far from its roots that God cannot stand it," the Old Testament prophets say. Mostly because they no longer worship God, and don't give a shit about the poor and foreigners. And, of course, they have delusions of holiness.
If one accepts a prophetic voice, however, one has to tell the truth. Yes, the term "whore" is a strong word, but it accurately describes Israel's foolish departure from godliness towards whatever shiny new cult their neighbors share.
If Webb wants to write a song about how we "don't give a shit" about poverty, that's fine. More than fine, we need such voices. But he starts sticking a line in the middle of his song on sexual identity. "If you're a conservative, you hate the poor," he seems to say. Kind of like how "if you're a liberal, you love terrorism."
Why, I wonder, couldn't he have put in something that actually made sense? How about giving his Evangelical audience a taste of its own medicine? Show it what its words really sound like? I'm no Derek Webb, but how about this as an improvement:
...Cause we can talk and debate until we're blue in the face
About the language and tradition that he's comin' to save
And all the lost Jesus Christs who are neighbors down the street
Hear just how holy we are, and how we think that they're shit
Tell me, brother, what matters more ...At least he'd be on topic; if you take the words of Christ seriously, his is the only way to life. And if that message is being perverted to a message of hate for sinners, then great should be our judgment.
It seems a clear misstep of artistry, but it irritates me more than that. And perhaps Derek's culture-war-in-reverse language is indicative of something more. On the latest trends in Webb's music, Michael Spencer has perhaps
the best summary:
..And make no mistake about it, on the “law-Gospel” continuum, this is law and prophetic denunciation, delivered with relentless consistency. No one else is saying this stuff and Webb doesn’t miss his punches. His pleasant voice betrays his very unpleasant message. We are a captive church that is now identifying with the values of our cultural captors, and it’s not pretty. Our treatment of the gay community provides a painful example. [...]
Webb is an artist, and I respect his freedom to create and I encourage you to get and listen to Stockholm Syndrome. As a Christian, I want to give Webb all the artistic room possible, and my soul needs to be jolted as much as anyone. But I’d like to pray that Webb has a Lutheran turn in the near future, and finds that speaking of law and Gospel, prophetic intensity and Christ’s love are things that can go together in art and must go together in life.
It would be a turn as well, I think, away from the culture war rhetoric (both left and right) that requires one's enemy to be caricatured and hated, and towards the love, peace and grace of Christ.