I agree. It take a strong person to apologize. Please excuse me for my behavior also.
Changing Heart I think you brought up some good points. I know i didn’t agree with you on the idea of how much influence songs have on people but i think this is still a topic to discuss within different avenues.
I mean do we as catholics do enough to support artist to get out the catholic message. I mean when i have gone to a few of these concerts people preach their faith and almost have alter calls for…Do we get out and evalengalize enough to people or do we hide the fact that were catholic? Do we help break down the stero types of who Catholics are?
Also do we do enough to keep these songs out of our mass because i know for a fact that the a lot of churches uses these songs in their life teen programs. I like them for replacement of pop music in my car and stuff but they are not apporiate for use during mass.
Thank you, too, Beckers. I enjoyed our discussion. You bring up some important questions. As for keeping the songs out of Mass in the life teen programs, I suppose it would depend on which songs it was, as not all CCM by Protestants are necessarily Mass inappropriate, in my opinion.
As to your other question about getting the Catholic message out with contemporary music, I don’t feel that we do as much to promote our contemporary Catholic artists, as Protestants do to promote theirs. Part of the problem is likely that there are fewer contemporary Catholic musicians, and that from an evangelizing perspective they may not all resemble mainstream secular music enough, to the point where Catholic youth would feel comfortable playing it as a witnessing tool for their nonbelieving friends.
We have Katholicus, and it seems like Ceili Rain is Catholic, too, based on the link provided earlier on this thread, but the evidence was NOT conclusive. News At Eleven is another Catholic group that could have some mainstream appeal. Gretchen Harris could, too. Obviously we have Marty Haugen and David Haas who wrote much of our liturgical music, two personal favorites of mine, but the mainstream appeal of either would be questionable, as would that of John Michael Talbot or Michael Card.
So, basically, we need more big name Contemporary Catholic musicians out there whose music STYLE would have mainstream secular appeal, too. I feel that if we have such music, we don’t promote it very well.
Protestants have groups like Jars of Clay, Mercy Me, P.O.D., Stryper, Carrie Underwood(or is she a secular artist who has invaded Christian radio?), Randy Travis, Relient K., Hawk Nelson, Clay Aiken, Stacie Orrico, and allegedly Switchfoot, Lifehouse, and Mutemath(although Mutemath wanted to decline the notion of being a “Christian” group) who all get mainstream airplay. The only Catholic I can think of off-hand who does is Dion Demucci, but not with his Catholic music, but his secular music from the 1950s and 1960s. Rich Mullins was about to become Catholic before he died, too.
I think that more Catholic promotion of groups with a “mass appeal” as opposed to a “Mass appeal,” might really help Catholic youth in their faith, as well as help them witness to others.
Catholics are great aren’t they!