Fundamentalism and Rock and Roll

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Holding onto the five fundamentals, as many Christian fundamentalists call them, is according to the doctrinal truths within the movement. They believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, which reveals Christ as the Messiah, His virgin birth, the atonement in His blood, and His bodily resurrection. Additionally, embedded within the movement is the belief that they, “the saved,” are engaged in a cosmic war that is taking place here and now. As Reza Aslan explains a cosmic war or religious war is, “an earthly battle between rival religious groups…a real, physical struggle in this world and an imagined, moral encounter in the world beyond.” This war is a continuous battle that takes place on all earthly fonts, even on the airwaves.
Since the early 1980’s and peaking in the 1990s, many fundamentalist Christians and other conservative religious persons of faith have warned about the evils of rock music. As commented by the Fundamentalist preacher Fletcher Brothers summarizes in his book The Rock Report,
“Sex and drugs equals rock and roll. Rebellion, Satan equals rock and roll. Homosexuality, incest equals rock and roll. Sado-masochism, mutilation equals rock and roll. Suicide, alchol equals rock and roll. Hopelessness, anti-godliness equals rock and roll. Murder, occultism equals rock and roll. The list goes on and on.”

With such strong comments, it is no wonder that Brothers proclaim that, “I make no apology when I say that I believe that rock music….is public enemy number one of our young people today.” It is true that in general rock and popular music has always flaunted its sexual and at times violent imagery. This has been true since the beginning of the music industry. Christian fundamentalists even criticized the great Buddy H...

... middle of paper ...

... larger cosmic forces-to win back the lost souls and to loosen the grip of Satan.

Works Cited

Aslan, R. (2010). Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Fletcher A. Brothers, The Rock Report (Lancaster, PA: Starburst Publishers, 1987), p. 141 see Fletcher A. Brothers, The Rock Report. 13
I Am In Love With You by Jesus Culture
David W. Stowe, No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), p. 1
2 Corinthians 10:3
Terry Watkins, “Christian Rock: Blessing or Blasphemy,” Dial-the-Truth Ministries n.d.(italics original), http://www.av1611.org/crock.html (accessed 11 May 2014) see Terry Watkins, “Christian Rock: Blessing or Blasphemy (bold within original text)

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