Welcome dude, but I, uh, have a slight problem with the fact that you say I am not a true Christian because I listen to hard rock.
Because I do. And light rock, too...and seriously, where is the dividing line?
From Barenaked Ladies, Live, Creed, Three Doors Down to anything really kinda hard/rock SOME Pantera, AC/DC, Metallica, REM, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Sublime, Audioslave, RAtM, RHCP, Foo Fighters, SOME Nine Inch Nails (shivers), Black Sabbath, Green Day, Ramones, SOME Rob and White Zombie, Eric Clapton, Nirvana, Godsmack, The Offspring...rock and roll, baby!
And I like it. "Painted up with fear, sucking darkness clear, leaning on your death's construction, taste me you will see, for it's all you need, dedicated to, how I'm killing you!" -Master of Puppets, Metallica
Man, I LOVE this music! It has such an awesome ring and carry and beat to it (and you know how cool it is to drum alongside Lars on the radio?)
It's bad...sure...violent, perhaps even hateful, but it is an awesome tune! I LOVE ROCK!
I'm still a Christian...it's not like I go about murdering people because of my music.
However, you mentioned Cannibal Corpse...gruesome stuff. Their CD covers...gack! I can't stand death metal. Marilyn Manson...only reason his band exists is because they're so shock-anti-culture. That's the only reason. They suck badly in the music world, but they sell because they know image. And image lasts. Rising out of the water, in crucified pose, his lips pulled back and his teeth shining metallic...THAT is an image I probably won't lose of our white-skinned PK deathmetal man-thing.
The music won't destroy...what you do and spit out will. Jesus said as much. It's not what goes in (food) but what comes out (the things of life into the heart and the puke of the heart). I can take the hard rock without turning into a moody, black-decked, slumping, tattooed teenager spouting curses to his mother, flicking God off, and burning Old Mr. Farley From Across the Street's house down, sporting some manly KKK robes and hoods.
I'm a fairly normal kid (well, that tends to mean weird, but hey)...at least I don't listen to rap. And even to the music I DO listen to...I have control. And I have love for Christ and others (because of that love FROM Christ) and I don't act out on their and I don't do drugs, bang mah pimp half-Afric-ahn, half-Ais-ahn btches in the arse, shoot up dem niggahz who be crossin' my street, even start to look at my face, mah colors, y'know? I be respectin', be teachin' it, too, fo! Kick out dem Crips and Bloods that be dissin me crew and btches in mah skin joints, y'know what I be sayin', G-Dawgs?
Granted, a ton of music videos and lyrics rap style support actions like that but I don't...I hate it, despise it, would maim the foundation of all rap (probably The Beastie Boys...sorry Mike D) if I could...but I can't. And that would be only supporting what losers like 50 Cent do. YEAH YOU HEARD ME BIG, BAD GANGBANGIN' DUDE OF DA HOOD! YEAH! COME ON AND SUE ME FOR DEFAMATION! OR ARE YOU GONNA MAKE A SONG ABOUT MY DEATH VIA POP IN THE HEAD? HUH? YEAH!
Rock and roll music can be terrible...sex, drugs and more of the former. It can also be violent, hateful and dark. Godsmack, Rob Zombie, Black Sabbath, Metallica, excellent examples. It can also be plaintive and appealing and reflective, like Clapton, Creed, and Three Doors Down.
I still am not at a loss spiritually because of my taste for rock and roll, bad or good. I just like rock and roll. Sorry if it doesn't coincide with the general opinion of the Christian culture. It affects persons, not people. For you, if music is a big stumbling block in your life, mrpop, I encourage you to rid yourself of it. For me, it's a great stress-reliever, to throb your head to and fro, to bang your arms about on the drumset in accompaniment to the music, or to just enjoy the rubbing feel of the bass straight into your gut via the amps.
And music has a wide range of implications and feelings to the wide range of people that populate this world. And it can have an equally wide feeling of effects, good or bad, for Christians. For me, I just do not listen to that music which I feel CAN harm me, and even switch the stations sometimes on my favorite bands (for instance, Metallica's Ain't My #####, as contrasted to the fact that I will keep the radio on the entire time for Metallica's Master of Puppets...will switch the station for Nine Inch Nails' sick, gross, sloooooow, song about...bad stuff, as in contrast to the fact that I'll stick out their Head Like a Hole).
Do what seems right man...I just think you should know that everyone is different, from here to there.
