Musical Taste, Beauty, and Love for God

by Brian Pell

I have a vivid memory from childhood of a well-meaning follower of Jesus nearly driving me away from the faith. At the time, my family could be found in the directory of an independent baptist church in the suburbs of Chicago. The man was a P.E. teacher, and I can’t recall if I was in Sunday school or Bible class. Either way, a small cadre of students received a lecture about how rock ’n’ roll and all other adjacent genres of music were sinful - that was a given - and bad for our physical health.

I remember my gut-level, threefold response. First, there was a tinge of nervousness, because maybe he was right. I loved punk rock, not to mention hip-hop and various other implicated genres, and for better or for worse this was an authority figure.