How Christian Rock Fed the Culture Wars

If you grew up in or adjacent to evangelical culture, the sounds of ‘90s and early 2000s Christian Rock are as familiar to you as the beginning bars of Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby One More Time.” The Newsboys, dcTalk, Jars of Clay, Third Day, Jennifer Knapp, Caedmon’s Call — these groups peaked just twenty years ago, but the sound and vibe feels like an archeological find. Same for the crossover “secular” hits from Creed, Lifehouse, Sixpence None the Richer, and Switchfoot. Where did Christian rock go? Did it just get devoured by Nickelback and Noah Kahan? Was it actually good? And what purpose did it actually serve in what we now understand as the evangelical culture war?

Leah Payne, author of a God Gave Rock & Roll To You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music joins us to root the rise of Christian rock in history — and consider the ways it was wielded to control teens. If you grew up in this culture, there will be a lot of nostalgic groaning; if you didn’t, we’ve worked hard to make it as accessible as possible — and help connect some dots about how evangelical ideologies work their way into the mainstream.

Show Notes:

• Follow Leah on Instagram and find out more about her work here

• Buy God Gave Rock & Roll To You here! (promo code CULTURE gets you 10% off!)

• An amazing little write-up of Creation Fest 1999 from The Seattle Times

• Revisit Anne’s interview with Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

• Creed’s NFL halftime show two months after 9/11

• Some of my Christian Rock Greatest Hits include Jennifer Knapp:

• Jars of Clay (THE WHOLE FIRST ALBUM!)

• Third Day (oh no what is going on in this video)

• “Breakfast” by the Newsboys, cited in the ep as emblematic of the quirky corners of the genre

• Just a TikTok that’s only tangentially related but made Melody laugh

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• What’s the deal with JEANS right now (alternate title = Jeans: Help)

• The State Of The Food Blog in 2024

• Weird TikTok trends you’re seeing on your FYP

• Your strong opinions on things that, in the grand scheme, don’t matter much

• For our continuing series on romance novels: QUEER ROMANCE and ROMANCE BOOKSTORES

• The Contemporary Jennifer Lopez

• Ben Affleck (specifically within the framework of Ambition)

• Artificial Intelligence (in a thought-provoking way, think expansively here)

• The economy, a.k.a. why is everything so damn expensive right now (and we need your co-host ideas for someone cool and fun who can talk about this in an accessible way!)

• Anything you need advice or want musings on

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (and here’s the subscriber-only priority form)

For today’s discussion: If you grew up in/adjacent to this culture: how have you reconsidered your relationship to this music? What song haven’t you thought of in a VERY LONG TIME that came rushing back?And if you didn’t, what did this episode clarify for you re: Christian “culture”?

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