Built on sand

Jenny and I watched Facing the Giants on a couple months ago. I started posting a blog about this and she felt like it was too negative. Perhaps she was right. I still felt like there was something very wrong about this movie and still felt like I had something to say about it. Then my friend Dayton sent me this article from CCM patrol about how Christians can't see or deal with art(or in the article's case movies) unless it's a Thomas Kinkade's piece of crap painting.

I did some more digging around and found this posting about someone who was offended by the website for bagging on really bad Christian music.

Building Each Other Up
POSTED BY Stewart Lundy Wednesday September 26, 2007

A reader alerted us to this post, written by a forum administrator at CMCentral:


In regard to the CCM Patrol thing, no company is perfect. CCM Patrol isn’t perfect either. I totally disagree with CCM Patrol’s attitude toward everything. What benefit is it to say disparaging remarks about Christian bands/ministries/websites? There is no benefit in that. All it does is create division amongst believers and opens huge gaps for Satan to attack community and weaknesses.

There are problems with Contemporary Music Today. I agree. There are problems with the way it’s covered. I agree. But…by focusing on those problems and magnifying them, it doesn’t really promote God’s Kingdom.

Things you should know about me: I don’t appreciate disrespect. I don’t appreciate disunion or any attitudes/behaviors that contribute to disunion.

I’m not saying this to come down on you, Waltrane. Not at all. I’m not saying you’re disrespecting me, either, just to clarify. I just took something that your post had mentioned and expanded on it because it included a reference to CCM Patrol.

Build each other up.

The sentiment is good, perhaps even divine… but while we’re speaking in terms of construction, we can’t avoid speaking in terms of foundations. Without getting too theologically adventurous, I think it is safe to say the Christ is the cornerstone. And most people would agree that building on sand is a bad idea.

And many things are built on sinking sand. Perhaps they’re political ideologies, musical agendas, or the The CCM Patrol itself. But whatever the case, Christ called us to build people up. He did not call us to build up errant ideas or cultural constructs.

If a brother is constructing a building on a quagmire, it is our duty to call him on his mistake.

Instruction’s goal is to destruct falsehoods and construct truths. You can’t do one without the other, and considering the absurd amount of popular “construction,” the The CCM Patrol is justified in its mission to destruct bad reviews and construct accurate reviews. There cannot be a good foundation without removing the bad foundation first.

A bad foundation deserves to be tested, and criticized. However much we may constitutionally sympathize with pluralism, liberalism, and postmodernism, indiscriminate tolerance is not possible for anyone who believes in an object qualitative hierarchy.

In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. (“In necessary things unity; in uncertain things freedom; in everything compassion.”)

I’m sorry, but there is a necessary disunion between quality and refuse. Read our positive reviews. I love good godly music a lot more than I hate bad pseudo-spiritual music. Compassion? Take what we say with a grain of salt. We may be music snobs, but we are music snobs with a noble goal. First and foremost, we at the The CCM Patrol want GOOD music! I would love to give nothing but positive reviews, but…

There is good music and there is bad music. Music created by Christians tends to be baptized by the church and the Christian press for simply being Christian. If the Christian music were capable of self-reflection, the The CCM Patrol would not need to be nearly as critical. In fact, I hope that this can happen someday—when the music Christians produce is introspective and thoughtful it won’t need to be patrolled by an outside force. The music industry needs checks and balances. If they refuse to make them internally, we’ll supply them externally.

This article prompted me to pull out my review of FACING THE GIANTS. I finally feel justified for thinking it's a GIANT piece of crap . . .ERRRR built on a quagmire.