Hello Lord, it’s me your child
I have a few things on my mind
Right now I’m faced with big decisions
And I’m wondering if you have a minute, cuz
Right now I don’t hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

I know that you tore the veil
So I could sit with you in person
And hear what you’re saying but
Right now, I just can’t hear you.

I don’t doubt your sovereignty
I doubt my own ability to
Hear what you’re saying
And to do the right thing
And I desperately want to do the right thing
But right now I don’t hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

A few years ago I was waiting for my plane in the San Antonio airport and saw a rock band performing (it was a couple of weeks before Christmas) that was made up of people from a local church. They were pretty decent performers, and I found myself joining in on some of the choruses (invited and not), because the lyrics were essentially paraphrases of the Bible and in no way problematic for a Mormon.

I have since spent hours on road trips listening to contemporary Christian music on satellite radio, and finding nothing that I would feel I needed to caution my grandchildren about doctrinally. Songs need to use images that are vivid and easily understood, and most of those in Christian pop music come out of scripture and not from the Nicene Creed. Indeed, I am not sure how anyone could create a soulful ballad out of the self-contradictions of trinitarian statements and the alienating, God-doesn’t-really-feel-your-pain assertions of the creeds.

For that matter, I would propose that half of the time that Catholic and Protestant ministers talk about the creedal concept of God is to condemn non-creedal Mormons, while most of their parishioners don’t really understand the creedal statements and generally confuse them with classic heresies like modalism (God has multiple personalities) or docetism (Jesus didn’t really suffer in the flesh).

Indeed, expressing an emotional relationship to God requires a lyricist to go to the Bible, and avoid the creeds. At the level of our emotional lives as believers in Christ, Mormons and other Christians are not that different. So the intersection between religiously themed music Mormons like and other Christians like is most of both traditions. It is true for classical pieces like The Messiah, so why not for pop music?

I’m still not 100% sold, but she does have some catchy tunes, and a pretty voice. I’ll have to think about the discussion of lyrics and theology.

Some youtubes of her stuff:

Less like scars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9RDNuUz7Sk
When the Saints: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qEjRLlL9iE&feature=fvw (youtube video someone made, not official, I didn’t see an official one on youtube)