Hello all. I would like to share my experiences with you and possibly receive some helpful Christian advice.
For many years, I was a very conservative Pentecostal Christian. I rarely went to the movies, watched tv, and certainly read and listened to exclusively Christian material, such as contemporary Christian music. As a teenager, my favourite bands were Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, AC/DC etc, and my all time favourite ( shock , horror ! ), Black Sabbath. Anyway, I got rid of all these albums 15 years ago, but I must confess, it was not out of any real conviction of God, but my parents and my church going on about it all the time. My old church even had a special presentation night once about rock bands, and my dad gleefully told me all the details of these bands, and the lives of the members, and so guilt got the better of me, and as I say, I stopped listening.
I moved, and I settled in a new church, where I was the drummer for the best part of a decade. I was zealous, evangelistic, gave many thousands of dollars over and above my offering for missions, etc, and as I say, very conservative and hardline. I must confess that I don't really believe I was an effective witbness, because I was so rigid and hardline, and I think I just put a lot of people off instead. But hey, I was zealous!
In the last 2 years of my church, everything fell apart. I became extremely disappointed over the way I was treated, I was sharply spoken to by various members for daring to question things, I was ripped off by a so called brother who to this day owes me thousands, (and has told me to my face that I am not a priority, but his family first), I was stabbed in the back, I was not supported, I was lied about and slandered and a pastor refused to do anything about the offending person, ( I will spare all the details ).
After a lot of bitter experiences with all these fellow Christians, something in me snapped!. I just can't explain it. My ultra conservatism just seemed to fall off me. This is because I noticed that all the people that done these things were the conservative ones, and that all this exclusive reading, listening of Christian material made them no better , and in fact, in my opinion, many of them engaged in practices that a person of the world wouldn't even do.
However, as I became aware of the falseness of all these external values, something was changing inside of me, well actually two things. One, I realised the most important thing was love, peace, kindness, forgiveness, Godliness, which I just didn't see being shown to me, and not the pride of listening and reading exclusively Christian material. I became more conscious of what being Christ like really meant, and out of my own bitter experiences, I have endeavoured to emulate these things instead, rather than just be a mere religous conservative.
Good I hear you say. However, as I said before, music to me has always been a passion, and at the same time as these new Christian convictions were stirring, ( I still can't believe this ), after 15 years, I suddenly had a desire to return to my old secular music. I just saw that people being religous and listening to nothing but Christian music did not make them any better, and I just felt deeply in my heart, that my secular music would not make me any worse. So I have returned to all my old music, including my favourite, Black Sabbath.
And now people make me feel like I am some sort of fallen creature, in league with Satan or the world! If I can say one thing, in that when I did listen to exclusively Christian music, I never was actually interested in the lyrics. It is only the actual music itself I like, especially superb guitar, drum solos and playing, which bands like Zeppelin and Sabbath are masters of. But now I am made to feel like a deceived sinner, and all the time I notice so many Christians who wouldn't touch Black Sabbath with a ten foot pole do other things in their lives that even a lot of non belivers wouldn't do, the type of things I am now deeply convicted of.
I have swapped my former ultra conservatism for love, fruit, peace, mercy, etc and have become a little freer myself, but now I face opposition, and the feeling of being isolated and different, simply because as it happens, my most favourite of music and guitar and drum playing happens to be these secular artists.
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For many years, I was a very conservative Pentecostal Christian. I rarely went to the movies, watched tv, and certainly read and listened to exclusively Christian material, such as contemporary Christian music. As a teenager, my favourite bands were Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, AC/DC etc, and my all time favourite ( shock , horror ! ), Black Sabbath. Anyway, I got rid of all these albums 15 years ago, but I must confess, it was not out of any real conviction of God, but my parents and my church going on about it all the time. My old church even had a special presentation night once about rock bands, and my dad gleefully told me all the details of these bands, and the lives of the members, and so guilt got the better of me, and as I say, I stopped listening.
I moved, and I settled in a new church, where I was the drummer for the best part of a decade. I was zealous, evangelistic, gave many thousands of dollars over and above my offering for missions, etc, and as I say, very conservative and hardline. I must confess that I don't really believe I was an effective witbness, because I was so rigid and hardline, and I think I just put a lot of people off instead. But hey, I was zealous!
In the last 2 years of my church, everything fell apart. I became extremely disappointed over the way I was treated, I was sharply spoken to by various members for daring to question things, I was ripped off by a so called brother who to this day owes me thousands, (and has told me to my face that I am not a priority, but his family first), I was stabbed in the back, I was not supported, I was lied about and slandered and a pastor refused to do anything about the offending person, ( I will spare all the details ).
After a lot of bitter experiences with all these fellow Christians, something in me snapped!. I just can't explain it. My ultra conservatism just seemed to fall off me. This is because I noticed that all the people that done these things were the conservative ones, and that all this exclusive reading, listening of Christian material made them no better , and in fact, in my opinion, many of them engaged in practices that a person of the world wouldn't even do.
However, as I became aware of the falseness of all these external values, something was changing inside of me, well actually two things. One, I realised the most important thing was love, peace, kindness, forgiveness, Godliness, which I just didn't see being shown to me, and not the pride of listening and reading exclusively Christian material. I became more conscious of what being Christ like really meant, and out of my own bitter experiences, I have endeavoured to emulate these things instead, rather than just be a mere religous conservative.
Good I hear you say. However, as I said before, music to me has always been a passion, and at the same time as these new Christian convictions were stirring, ( I still can't believe this ), after 15 years, I suddenly had a desire to return to my old secular music. I just saw that people being religous and listening to nothing but Christian music did not make them any better, and I just felt deeply in my heart, that my secular music would not make me any worse. So I have returned to all my old music, including my favourite, Black Sabbath.
And now people make me feel like I am some sort of fallen creature, in league with Satan or the world! If I can say one thing, in that when I did listen to exclusively Christian music, I never was actually interested in the lyrics. It is only the actual music itself I like, especially superb guitar, drum solos and playing, which bands like Zeppelin and Sabbath are masters of. But now I am made to feel like a deceived sinner, and all the time I notice so many Christians who wouldn't touch Black Sabbath with a ten foot pole do other things in their lives that even a lot of non belivers wouldn't do, the type of things I am now deeply convicted of.
I have swapped my former ultra conservatism for love, fruit, peace, mercy, etc and have become a little freer myself, but now I face opposition, and the feeling of being isolated and different, simply because as it happens, my most favourite of music and guitar and drum playing happens to be these secular artists.
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but there aren't Christian insttruments or Christian rythyms or arrangements that are inherently evil! 
