S
Silent_Knight
Guest
In social networking I have asked a fellow Catholic to be my friend, this was someone who I had found via another friend and I liked some of his content, so as I always I request to be a friend and usually the majority of the time they accept or they tell me they don’t accept people they don’t know, which is fine if someone feels they need to know you personally I have no issue with that.
However, this Catholic refused to be my friend based on the following points:
He said “I am a bit confused by your page…” he then asked “Are you Catholic?”
(of course, I’m a cradle Catholic!) … I asked why confused??
**He said ** “You have references to the Catholic faith on your page but also seem to have much material in reference to “heavy metal” rock music as well. Am I misunderstanding something?”
(At this point I knew things were getting weird “much material” was really not honest, in the whole “metal” genre, I only like a few bands and none are satanic, hateful, etc, most of the bands on my page are smart, thoughtful, progressive rock and so on)
I asked him “I am Catholic, are you saying because you think I listen to heavy metal you won’t be my friend?”
*He said *** “I was simply asking about it, trying to get to know you a bit before adding you. I recently added someone else whom I assumed to be a good Catholic and found out otherwise. I regard rock music as spiritually unhealthy.”
I asked him if he thought ALL genres of music were spiritually unhealthy?
He said “No, of course not. Why would I?”
I said… "well, you have suggested one form is bad and spiritually unhealthy, why not all bad?"
**He said ** “I think that rock music is what would be called by the ancient Greeks and by Nietzsche a “Dionysian” form of music, one that is meant to agitate the passions in a disordered way such that they tend to overcome the reason. In particular Rock music is angry, violent, and egotistic. I’m not saying that the genre hasn’t produced any music of value but in general I think it’s spiritually harmful, as well as the youth culture that accompanies it.”
I asked what he listens to…
He said “I don’t listen to music much because the contemplation of truth is much more interesting to me, but I tend to like the folk music of Mexico for example (where I live), and especially Gregorian Chant in the mass, as well as Sacred Polyphony.”
This is where I stopped replying.
For him to make a baseless statement and say ALL rock music (or things he doesn’t listen to or know anything about is ridiculous!) and for him to say it’s all “angry, violent and egotistic” is just unrealistic. Yes, if you look for it you can find that sort of thing but all music I listen to have none of those elements. His judgment on me based on my listening choices just baffles me. I’ve heard of “holier than thou” types but this just takes the cake!
Am I so wrong? I can’t glorify God in a different way than he does? If I listen to a Rock band signing about Jesus and he listens to Gregorian Chants (which I appreciate) why am I so bad?
Thoughts?
However, this Catholic refused to be my friend based on the following points:
He said “I am a bit confused by your page…” he then asked “Are you Catholic?”
(of course, I’m a cradle Catholic!) … I asked why confused??
**He said ** “You have references to the Catholic faith on your page but also seem to have much material in reference to “heavy metal” rock music as well. Am I misunderstanding something?”
(At this point I knew things were getting weird “much material” was really not honest, in the whole “metal” genre, I only like a few bands and none are satanic, hateful, etc, most of the bands on my page are smart, thoughtful, progressive rock and so on)
I asked him “I am Catholic, are you saying because you think I listen to heavy metal you won’t be my friend?”
*He said *** “I was simply asking about it, trying to get to know you a bit before adding you. I recently added someone else whom I assumed to be a good Catholic and found out otherwise. I regard rock music as spiritually unhealthy.”
I asked him if he thought ALL genres of music were spiritually unhealthy?
He said “No, of course not. Why would I?”
I said… "well, you have suggested one form is bad and spiritually unhealthy, why not all bad?"
**He said ** “I think that rock music is what would be called by the ancient Greeks and by Nietzsche a “Dionysian” form of music, one that is meant to agitate the passions in a disordered way such that they tend to overcome the reason. In particular Rock music is angry, violent, and egotistic. I’m not saying that the genre hasn’t produced any music of value but in general I think it’s spiritually harmful, as well as the youth culture that accompanies it.”
I asked what he listens to…
He said “I don’t listen to music much because the contemplation of truth is much more interesting to me, but I tend to like the folk music of Mexico for example (where I live), and especially Gregorian Chant in the mass, as well as Sacred Polyphony.”
This is where I stopped replying.
For him to make a baseless statement and say ALL rock music (or things he doesn’t listen to or know anything about is ridiculous!) and for him to say it’s all “angry, violent and egotistic” is just unrealistic. Yes, if you look for it you can find that sort of thing but all music I listen to have none of those elements. His judgment on me based on my listening choices just baffles me. I’ve heard of “holier than thou” types but this just takes the cake!
Am I so wrong? I can’t glorify God in a different way than he does? If I listen to a Rock band signing about Jesus and he listens to Gregorian Chants (which I appreciate) why am I so bad?
Thoughts?
