I stumbled across Paul Arend's song via a Spotify recommendation, a purely chance meeting
I barely touch Spotify recommendations. I'm not a fan of AI and I do not very much like the idea of bots recommending songs for me
News flash,
Christians aren't cool
This song oozes the kind of deliberate songwriting that I like, an attention grabbing opener that actually got me to sit up and pay attention
I know from experience that people mostly hear what they want to hear.
I heard that opener and imagined this song to be an indictment on conservative Christianity. Fancy getting to the chorus only to find out it was in reality a defense of what I had hoped it would be indicting
If you want to be cool
Well then go make a living
In movies or marketing
Cosmetic surgery
Buy the best clothing
And drive a car that makes you look so celebrity
Try Maserati
But trust me, you up on a platform on Sunday
Won't fill your deep need to be known as somebody
I like an open minded Christianity. I think that words like 'compromise’, and phrases like 'not of this world' have been overused and overstretched long enough for certain people to fit in their personal biases.
This song switches gears in the second verse and explores a soft spot that almost instantly demolishes my entire argument.
News flash,
leading worship's not cool
I'm almost ready to stop listening
And then, he says this
Imagine that, building your namе on the back of the son of God humbled low two thousand years ago
Sounds like it calls for a show
If 'being cool' means widely acceptable and not offending the sensibilities of the vast majority then I don't know
We would be hard-pressed to fit in our idea of 'cool Christianity' with the image of Jesus, naked, hanging on a Roman cross
On the flip side,
I think that God's love moves past the realm of simply 'being cool' to something wilder, more exotic, bordering on the edge of madness.
Christianity isn't cool, maybe
But it's outrageous
That's the word, outrageous
