Pop Music and the Bible

I am interested in something. Who among us Bible (or theology) instructors, pastors, or lay leaders incorporates pop/rock/rap music into their teaching? I am thinking of the fact that much of pop music seems to reflect commonly held values, assumptions, and worldviews--at least commonly held in the United States. Given this, to what extent do we or can we use lyrics from pop music to illuminate what Biblical writers say in this passage or that? Perhaps there is a song that seems to help make sense of what an entire book--for example 2 Timothy--seems to communicate. Maybe a particular song illuminates a theological point. Even better, perhaps two different songs can be used to approach a Scripture passage or theological proposition from two different perspectives. I have tried this general method a few times and my sense is that there is great potential. Lyrics we find in pop music are often very personal. Yet they seem to transcend space and time, speaking something very real and very true to listeners across generations. They seem to be very capable modern-day parables in the sense that they speak of something known in order to illuminate something less known or abstract. They can give us another picture of a point a Biblical writer might be trying to make, or a helpful way to think about some theological claim. Pop culture songs strike a chord with people in a way few other things do. Can we tap into this to breathe newness into reading and interpreting Scripture, both for those in and out of the classroom?

Let me offer a brief, simple example. In the chorus of her very popular song, "One of Us" Joan Osborne sings,

"What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home."

Many people still resonate with the chorus of this song, though it was written 1995. What if? On the one hand, some theologians might think that this song does not show any real engagement with the incarnation. They might say, "Actually God was one of us--in the person of Jesus." As an adjunct New Testament instructor, my immediate response is that I feel like Joan (or whoever wrote the song) was not quite familiar with the gospel according to Matthew. I am thinking especially of Matthew 8:18-20. The climactic saying in this brief pericope is that "the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Not only was Jesus "God with us" (Matthew 1:23), but he was quite like "just a stranger on the bus", having no place to lay his head (or at least that is one point Matthew wants to get across). Questions can be asked of the students/congregants: how does Matthew 8:18-20 challenge the implicit claim in the song? Is Matthew trying to present Jesus as "just a stranger on the bus" in this scene? In light of the rest of Matthew's narrative, is there something more being said in these three verses? From the perspective of Matthew's narrative, how might you (or a student) respond to this song?

We can also engage with culture. If so many people resonate with this song, what does that tell us about our culture? The song assumes that God was not "one of us." At least in the present. But, why, we might ask in a seminary classroom or other theological learning environment, is this song asking anyway? What might an answer look like? Back to Matthew--how does the gospel according to Matthew help shape such an answer?

This, then, can open up into all kinds of other questions and discussion. In fact, I find that a good amount of fruitful thought results from this sort of engagement between Scripture and culture, not only in the classroom, but in my own head! Are there any other examples or thoughts about this use of pop culture in the classroom or in congregations?

Tags: Culture, Scripture, Teaching

Comment by David Lott on October 8, 2009 at 10:43am: Kyle T. Fever raises some provocative issues in his blog post, and I thank him for his thoughtful post. As an admitted CD addict, I have occasionally used my blog at NewProclamation.com as a place to point preachers and pastors to popular music that I think has preachable messages (or, maybe more often, to music that I think is good listening for one's down time!). The songs are out there, but more often that not, they are not the stuff that makes the charts or gets a lot of radio play.

To be honest, I think that "One of Us" has been a bit overused as a teaching/preaching aid, but maybe that's because I see it so often in the preaching materials I edit. I certainly get why it is so widely used, and you raise good questions about how it can be employed creatively. But I like it when preachers and teachers can point their listeners off the beaten path to some songwriters that may not garner wide attention but can express spiritual thoughts in creative ways.

One of my favorite examples of this is in the music of Rosanne Cash, Johnny's daughter. Some years ago, on her album The Wheel, she wrote a song called "If There's a God on My Side." In it she sings, "If there's a God on my side/Why don't she show me her face?/If there's a God on my side/Could she live in this place?/If there's a God on my side/Is she inside these walls?/If there's a God on my side/Could she not hear my call?"

FIrst, I think Cash raises some questions that most people ask about God when they are faced with adversity. But, second, what I like about this is how she changes the pronouns to the female gender, which is quietly subversive. That is, in this construction the female-imaged God is no more available to the seeker than a male-imaged God, which counters some feminist theology about how the former may be more accessible and nurturing. This song invites us to consider not only how we understand God, but also to explore the role of doubt in our pursuit of faith. It's the very sort of song that can spark profound discussion in the congregation and classroom, but not one that has become part of mainstream culture.

Cash's 2006 album, Black Cadillac, contains a number of other spiritually seeking songs, many of which are less doubt-filled than this one. But even more, it is perhaps the best musical expression of the grief process ever committed to--what? bytes? plastic? vinyl?--however we receive our music these days. It could be a wonderful pastoral aid. Likewise, Buddy and Julie Miller's terrific recent Written in Chalk explores some similar issues. Again, these musicians are not a big part of the cultural zeitgeist, but it's in these lesser knowns that some of the most thought-provoking work is being written

Of course, there are plenty of trite expressions about God and faith in popular music as well, and perhaps even those can be deconstructed to help people question the message that is too often given through such songs. Indeed, I think that perhaps those questionable lyrics do more to shape faith understandings among many people than does the Bible--with appeals to a generic "good Lord up above," or with expressions of a skewed theodicy. Maybe that's where we should be focusing even more of our attention.

Comment by Jeffrey Buhl on October 16, 2009 at 7:50pm: Regarding "One of Us," the song is a dodge. It's greatest importance in the classroom is as an example of someone longing for faith in God, just not THAT God. The key lyrics are not in the chorus but the bridge:" If God had a face what would it look like / And would you want to see / If seeing meant that you would have to believe In things like heaven and in jesus and the saints and all the prophets." Oops. There is a desire here for a completely new revelation. "What if God was one of us," has a conspiratorial, Hey-let's-put-on-a-show! quality to it. This is because believing that God has already been one of us means you have to believe in all that other stuff, and that is precisely what Joan and the song's fans were hoping to avoid.

Comment by Kyle T. Fever on October 19, 2009 at 10:27am: Jeffrey thanks for your post. I guess I am not clear by what you mean when you say "the song is a dodge."

I agree that the bridge provides an additional element to reflect on (I almost posted on the bridge rather than the chorus, but I went with the chorus because it is the most easily identified and known part of the song, and it asks the song's key question). I would still want to apply the passage from Matthew (and others) to this song as a counter-point in the classroom. One could make the point in relation to this song that perhaps the song writer has not really understood the witness of Scripture to Jesus as "God with us" but rather the song is responding to certain portrayal of God--the "Christian" God. I think the bridge expands on the question in the chorus: if God was one of us, would it be this God, identified with Christian "beliefs"? (I suspect she has Catholicism in mind, especially in light of her song about St. Theresa). One could press back to the song, asking whether it is not so much a question of just believing in these things, but more of a question of what to believe about them and how that belief manifests itself in life.

Comment by Kyle T. Fever on October 19, 2009 at 11:04am: I forgot another reason to suspect that the song is one questioning Roman Catholicism: Joan takes a pretty clear shot at the Roman Catholic church in this song where she suggests that the Pope in Rome "maybe" has the only connection to God. It seems that that song is responding to a particular experience of God. This raises the question of how certain traditions or ways of manifesting how one believes in God may or may not make it difficult to see and recognize God.

I am also currently wondering, in relation to this song, how New Testament passages that suggest that Jesus or the Spirit is "with" or "among" the community of faith might relate to the song's driving question? If there is indeed a relation here, then the question "what if God was one of us?" is not just an historical one, but also question that has to do with how God is manifest in the present.

Pop Music and the Bible

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