The Song: “Heresy” by Nine Inch Nails

The Event: Christian Youth Gathering in Colorado/I part ways with the church

I was brought up in the church and there was a custom that teens (aged 15-17) in my particular congregation would go out to Colorado during the summer for a weeklong gathering of teens from Congregational churches across the nation.  While I was a fairly religious person, I was by no means completely devout.  I had questions, and swore, and did all other manner of sinful things that proved I wasn’t living “right by the lord” – but at the age of 15, I felt like as long as I wasn’t harming anybody, I was doing OK.  One night, in our little group, a youth minister wanted to talk about how God is represented in music.  He did this by first playing some bland Christian rock song.  I’m sure there are some great Christian rock songs, but this one just hit all of the clichés – lyrics using the words “praise,” “light” and “raise up” a lot.  Not to mention just musically it was incredibly boring.  But people in my group were rocking out to it, clearly familiar with the song and loving it. 

Then, with a smile (and I’ll never forget this moment), he segued into the next song:

“Ok.  So there’s that version of how people talk about God in music.  Then there’s this slightly different version.”

Click to read more ...