Dear SGTTOM,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
It very good to hear that you want to avoid any lyrics that glamorize and promote sin, however that is exactly what rock/pop music does, dear friend, because it emanates from an Augean stable of unimaginable filth and depravity. Indeed, this is why it makes its appeal to the “elemental passions” present within man’s fallen nature and why man so willingly responds to it and enjoys it.
When the Holy Father spoke of the “elemental passions” he was not simply asking people to be cautious as to what music they exposed themselves to, though they certainly should be cautious. Rather by the “elemental passions” he was referencing those carnal, sensual and base parts of our fallen nature which are stimulated by and resonate with the debased sensory material that comprises of the rock and pop package. They are, if you please, naturally attracted to one another like opposite poles of a magnet. This is hardly surprising for rock/pop by its beat and sound has always implicitly rejected restraints and celebrated freedom and sexuality. Needless to say, this has always chimed with the natural rebellion of youth and their eagerness to discard what they perceive as the prissy morality of their parents and elders.
Unfortunately, the unclean waters of rock and pop are just too polluted and impure for the Catholic to even paddle in without becoming morally tainted and, at lenght, utterly corrupted. Please do not be deceived, dear friend, “Bad company ruins good morals” (I Cor. 15: 33), and, by logical extension, that is applicable to bad music, bad films, bad video games and bad and cluturally unhealthy literature etc. We should be under no illusions, rock and pop music poison the mind and demoralize the life, thus to the extent that one values one’s soul there must be a parting of the ways, for the grubbiness of rock and pop only serves to demean the spirit of man and coursen his manners.
Invariably, when one evalutates rock/pop music in such negative terms they elicit a hostile response and one is accused of being ‘overscrupulous’ or of wanting to take the Church in Puritan direction (not that the Puritans could not teach us a thing or two about sanctity and separation from the godless world), sometimes both. Indeed, there are some Catholics that actually claim that to avoid rock and pop music for the purpose of keeping oneself pure is cowardice! However, such remarks are only indicative of the Laodicean lukewarmness that is all too common a feature in much contemporary Catholicism, where there has been a severe loss of spiritual discernment, coupled with a willingness to adopt a hand in hand with the world type of religious profession that recalcitrantly refuses to face up to the arduous demands of our most holy religion. Moreover, it is surely quite self-evident that, given our fallen nature, we all need a healthy scrupulosity or a godly vigilance against anything which may present a threat to our spiritual lives or hamper our pursuit of holiness. That is not cowardice, it is just plain common sense.
God bless.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
<—Almost passed out from boredom due to classical music.
