Me ... and Jesus

There's a song that plays quite often on Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) stations. I've heard it multiple times in recent weeks through the tinny ceiling speakers of Messiah's Student Union. And I think I've heard enough.

The song is called "Me and Jesus", and it's by Stellar Kart -- Christian music's pop-punk response to the enviable success of the secular Simple Plan. I apologize if you feel attached to this song in any way, but perhaps these thoughts are directed most pointedly to you.

"Me and Jesus", for me, encapsulates all that is errant in a well-meaning industry. The CCM industry was built upon a simple premise: write and release music for Christians to enjoy that glorifies God, not man. But I'm afraid the noble aims of this process have become a machine gravely mistaken, and refurbished with a new formula: take the most successful sounds of popular music, rewrite the lyrics, and repackage for Christian consumption.

I should preface by saying that I bear no personal grievance against the individuals that work so hard to oil this machine, for I believe their hearts are in the right place. But the machine runs on profits alone, and thus it has been allowed to produce some truly shameful songs...

"Me and Jesus" bears an undeniable similarity to, well, to about a thousand aching pop-punk choruses. Somewhere between the treacly consolation for those who have "hit rock bottom with nowhere left to turn" and the desperate supplication "don't give up, it's not the end" the song is virtually indistinguishable from a hundred down-and-out ballads of a similar caliber. Musically, it soars with all the originality of any bonified four-chord masterpiece. One can hardly help but weep as the singer whines his way through a litany of heart-wrenching cliches. Don't give up now. It's going to be alright. Open up your heart. After all we've been through. Love like there's no tomorrow.

And along the way, the drama is set. The picture has been painted, and it's emotional richness collides with the depth of the human condition like a housefly into the kitchen window. When it seems all hope is lost but for the paltry support of the dozen-strong cliches, and that poor despondent listener is certainly to succumb to that ... thing... she's going through, Stellar Kart pulls out the big guns:

Someone loves you even when you don't think so
Don't you know you got me and Jesus 
By your side through the fight you will never be alone 
On your own you got me and Jesus

Don't worry. You've got Me. And Jesus.

And suddenly, at the name of Me all pain is ceased, all death vanquished, all hope restored. Me rides in with love that saves the world. Me is here to lift your chin, to dry your eyes, to save you from yourself. Me will ... oh. Yeah. Right, and Jesus is here too.

Even now, the theological atrocity of this whole thing renders me nearly speechless. I would like very much to sit down with the aspiring young rock star who penned these words and inquire as to which took more time -- writing the lyrics for this song or spiking his hair for the music video?

I would hope he'd answer the latter, for if it's the former then we'd have to send this fellow back to Sunday School ASAP. But whether he wrote out of ignorance or idiocy is really not the issue. My bigger question is: how on earth did this song slip through the CCM machine, into the collections of Christian DJs, and onto the repeated 8-song playlist in the Union? To make things worse, the song was written over six years ago, making it something of a ... Christian classic.

Did no one stop along the way and ask, Hey, now wait a second. Since when did the consolation of man surpass, or even equal, the amazing grace of the Saviour? When did the sacrificial love of Christ take a backseat to the embrace of some Christian popstar? Why is Jesus not enough?!?

Perhaps such objections were raised, but quickly overwhelmed by the ecstatic support of CCM executives. Theology, Shmeology! This'll be a hit!

I don't know what else they could have said. For anyone who thinks just for two seconds about these words will notice there is something terribly amiss here. But maybe that's just the sorry state we're in. If so, then, Lord, we need to set our sights on you again. We need you to be more to us than profits. We need to show our love with more than pop-song imitations littered with horrendous theology. We need you to remind us that you, through all of eternity, will always be enough.

God bless us, everyone!
jmb