A Christian rap band, with help from a GOP political activist, published a history book. Episode 43: “Jesus Freaks Do History” dropped today. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is...
Christian contemporary music
Episode 40: “Redeeming the Vote”
As election day draws near, the Christian Right gets out the vote. Episode 40: “Redeeming the Vote” dropped today. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: If you...
I’m Really Dating Myself With This Post
Earlier today I posted a song by an anti-Trump evangelical trying to convince his fellow evangelicals that Trump is hurting their Gospel witness. The song is written in a classic “praise song” style that will undoubtedly connect with many evangelicals...
CCM Comes to a Presidential Funeral
Anyone who attended a Christian college or was part of an evangelical youth group in the 1980s knows this song. Love it or hate it, Michael W. Smith‘s “Friends” is a Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) classic. Yesterday I learned that...
Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-x_WyBjO6Y&w=560&h=315] Do you want to know what evangelicalism was like before the Christian Right came along and politicized it? Check out Greg Thornbury‘s piece at The Washington Post: “What evangelicals looked like before they entered the political fray.” Thornbury has just...
Song of the Day
Kerry Livgren from his Christian band “AD” days. Enjoy: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzAeyAdtF98&w=560&h=315]...
The “Best” in Christian Music Album Covers
Jesse Carey, an editor at Relevant Magazine, has dug up some classic Christian album covers. Check them out here. I must admit that I once owned a couple of the albums that made this list, although I am not going […]
The Author’s Corner with Shawn Young
Shawn Young is Assistant Professor of Music at York College of Pennsylvania. This interview is based on his new book, Gray Sabbath: Jesus People USA, the Evangelical Left, and the Evolution of Christian Rock (Columbia University Press, 2015). JF: What led...
The Importance of George Beverly Shea
Shea and Graham Billy Graham once told the New York Times that without singer George Beverly Shea “he would have had no ministry.” Shea died April 16, 2013 at the age of 104 and Douglas Harrison remembers him in a […]
Philip Jenkins on Evangelicals and Rock Music
In a really interesting piece at Real Clear Religion, Philip Jenkins traces the origins of Christian rock music to the Byrds and their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. (This was the post-David Crosby version of the Byrds). The album...
Still on the Side of Love
I became an evangelical Christian in the mid-1980s and this was the kind of stuff I used to listen to back then. Classic! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPstiMRlB-k] Believe it or not, I saw this group–GLAD (that’s their name–it is not an acronym)–in […]