(or Brendt finally manages to weigh in on a topic before it’s totally dead )

Update : This video kinda confirms Derek’s heart.

Update 2 : My follow-up thoughts here.

Derek Webb recently released his latest album, Stockholm Syndrome.  OK, technically, it’s not releasing until September, but you can buy the entire album as a download right now.

A couple days ago a friend of mine pointed me to a Youtube link of one of the songs from the album, “What Matters More“.  The text beside the video described the song as “controversial“.  I thought this was going to be the same kind of non-issue as that which surrounded his song “Wedding Dress” (Christian radio refused to play it because he referred to an unfaithful church as a whore — I guess these people never read Hosea).

So I yawned at the word “controversial” and pressed the play button.

Well, OK, yeah — this song is probably more controversial.

The thrust of the lyrics is a chastisement of Christians who spend an inordinate amount of time battling the “culture wars” to the exclusion (or at least, significant reduction of attention) to other issues. Now the controversial part is that within the lyrics appears this:

Meanwhile we sit
Just like we don’t give a sh*t
About 50,000 people who are dyin’ today

This is most likely a partial nod to Tony Campolo, who has said to large crowds in the past, “Right now there are people dying of starvation and you simply don’t give a sh*t. What’s more, you’re more concerned with the fact that I said ’sh*t’ than you are about the loss of life to literally millions of people.”

There’s also a reference to the words of those targeted by the song as being “d*mn reckless”.

OK, now that you’ve been “warned” about the content, here a link to the video.

As the primary issue that the “culture warriors” battle, Webb identifies sexuality (with an implication of the non-hetero varieties).  And, given the fact that gay marriage is the latest cause celebre among the culture warriors, it is an apt choice. On the other “side”, he seems to reference social justice-type causes (with which he has been involved) such as the prevention of starvation and the cure/alleviation of AIDS.

The generality with which he describes this other “side” is obviously not shared by the specificness of fighting against non-hetero-sexuality.  And in a way, this is unfortunate, because the cultural warriors are going to get hung up by that specificity, know that the criticism is (at least partially) aimed at them, and ignore the message entirely.

But such knee-jerk reactions are not the only incorrect responses out there.  Sometimes it’s an issue of (to quote Maxwell Smart) “missed it by that much”. In his critique of the song, Denny Burk says that the message of the song is more troubling to him than the language:

Webb argues that “what matters most” is the “50,000 people who are dyin’ today” …. Thus the lyrics seem to suggest that the remedy to Pharisaical moralizing about homosexuality is greater attention to relieving human suffering.

Ummm, no, Denny.  Kudos to you for at least saying “seems”.  But you missed it.

First of all, Webb never says “what matters most“.  He asks, “What matters more to you?”  It’s only a 2-letter difference between “most” and “more”, but there’s a world of difference in their meanings. If you gave me the choice of hitting me in the arm or shooting me in the face, being hit would be the more preferable option; but, really, what I’d want most is that you do neither.

Secondly, I don’t get nearly the same message that Burk gets from the lyrics.  Burk suggests that “the best remedy to Pharisaical moralizing is the gospel”, and he would (of course) he correct in that suggestion.  But to assume that Webb would disagree with that idea is nearly laughable to anyone familiar with his earlier work, which was dripping with specific references to Scripture and the writings of Christian leaders.  (In his thoughts on the matter, iMonk recalls Webb’s former darling status among many of my reformed brethren back in that era.)  As Webb has, to my knowledge, never repudiated his earlier work, I have a hard time believing that his beliefs have changed as drastically as Burk seems to imply.

Finally, let’s give Webb a bit of credit — his lyrics have never been simplistic (which is probably at least one reason why he doesn’t get a lot of airplay).  To assume that all Webb is singing about is moralizing over homosexuality versus the relief of human suffering is to deny the complexity of everything else that he has written.

And there’s the crux — maybe I’m not consumed by the culture war or the relief of human suffering.  But there are some either/or’s in my life.  And it’s probably not a stretch to imagine that the same is true for you.

And maybe one “side” of that either/or is the language in this song.

And so Webb asks, “What matters more to you?”