What's Christian Punk Rock Anyway?

by Marlee Alex

So what sets Christian Punk Rock music apart from its so called "Contemporary Christian" cousin? "If you have the ears and the patience to hear them, punk songs are the most raw and real," says one fan. She speaks not only of the lyrics, but of the

loud fast music. With Punk Rock, the medium is most definitely the message.

What are punks most known for? "Reeling you in with their voice," claims another admirer, "and making your spine shudder cause you know every word and every riff

 came from their own experience in the world—and you know it to be true."

"Punk lyrics don't try to make life out to be anything other than what it is," says one fan, a 16-year-old, who grew up with the music of Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. "Punk is not about Oh, I trust you Jesus cause you completed my life, and now everything's wonderful. It's more like I'm not feeling good at all. I don't have the strength to get out of bed. When will I learn to trust, God? Well, probably, someday."

An 18-year-old adds, "Punk words are very simple; just the basics. Not sugar coated. Not all rhymed. Not over analyzed. Just life boiled down."

"I throw the liner notes out," says a young man wearing super baggy pants and a No Use for a Name (the name of his favorite band) sweatshirt. "You usually can't hear the words anyway," he says. "It's the music that counts. Punk Rock is about rhythm. Vibration. It's feeling the music as much as the lyrics."

The Bigger Picture

A Christian Punk band called Slick Shoes (recently featured in a cover story in 7ball magazine ) released its Wake Up Screaming CD last year. "Sometimes I feel like giving up," they sing. "Peace of mind it comes and goes all the time … I can't see your face everyday."

Talking down to themselves and God, pessimism seems to triumph at times in Christian punk lyrics. But in non-Christian punk, despair and hate run like a red thread. The message of Slick Shoes is in the bigger picture. Throughout the entire CD, the message throbs like a subtle heartbeat beneath the music. The truth seeps slowly like blood into a bandage: "Time is the only thing between us … only God can help us work it out."

Just compare lyrics like these with the lyrics from non-Christian punk's Bad Religion or Sick Of It All—if you dare.

In an interview posted on the Web site www.fiveironfrenzy.com , Reese, of Five Iron Frenzy, says, "We try and do everything as best we can for the glory of God. I have a problem with writing songs with a particular formula or agenda beforehand. When we write our songs we are trying to be authentic, and let people know that yes, Jesus is our savior and we love him with all of our hearts. There is not a day in our lives that isn't different because of his Lordship over our lives; but we still struggle like anyone else, especially with things like life and faith."

Traces of God

Bearing names like Dogwood, Sick of Change, No Excuse, and MxPx Punk Rawk, such bands may sport spiked dog collars and straight-up-in-the-air hair. But Tom Beaudoin, author of Virtual Faith (Jossey-Bass) says, "Whereas most people would not consider fashion a spiritual need, to Gen Xers [from which the punk rockers come] it has been as dear as any of our grandparents' religious devotions."

To this generation, Beaudoin claims, religion still matters but ambiguity is central to faith. Pop culture is suffused with religious references for the spiritually dispossessed.

 Tattoos, piercing, hair color, and religious symbols worn as accessories "signify immediate, bodily, and constant attention to the intimacy of experience…the source of religious meaning for one's life," says Beaudoin. (For more on this book, see the author's review of Virtual Faith.)

"Do you think it really makes a difference to God?" a punk rock musician might ask.

Keith, of Five Iron Frenzy told one interviewer: "I think that anyone who goes out and gets ink permanently imbedded in their skin without thinking about the consequences for their actions, is stupid. However, I think it is wrong to tell someone that a tattoo is wrong based on Old Testament laws. According to the book of Hebrews, Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, and we are no longer under the law but rather we are under grace. Basically it says that if we could be fulfilled by the law, Christ died for nothing."

Says Beaudoin. "My task as a Gen X theologian is to plumb, inquire, interrogate, associate, unleash, be playful, and look for traces of theological residue on the surfaces of these images."

Perhaps this task would benefit the rest of us in the church. Perhaps, as Danielle Strannigen points out, church-going Christians might do well to look for those same traces outside the sanctuary. We might mingle with the people who are giving voice to their generation's reality. We do so not so much to draw them into our places of worship, but to respect theirs—right on the streets. Listening, we may learn something that will draw us closer to God.

Marlee Alex is a writer and editor in Sisters, Ore. From her serene cubbyhole between the mountains and the desert, she enjoys research on postmodern thought and the church (well, whenever she isn't fishing, hiking, snowboarding—you get the picture).

Related Reading:

Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X A plea for creative engagement between Generation X and religious institutions, Virtual Faith is written with profound understanding of the spiritual longings of America's youth. Tom Beaudoin shows that Gen Xers operate according to a spirituality that is equally valid though radically different from the one that shaped their parents.

Why Does the Devil Hate Christian Punk Rock? Black clothes. Purple hair. Tattoos. Silver studs. High decibel gyrating music. Indecipherable lyrics. "Mosh" pits. This is punk rock. This is also Christian punk rock. So why does the devil hate it? Listen in as one family—a pastor, his wife, and daughters—talk with enthusiasm about encouraging the bands and the fans of today's "virtual faith" generation.